Welcome to the NVC Practice Group for seasoned practitioners—the folks who’ve sipped, gulped, or straight-up chugged the NVC Kool-Aid and are hungry for more. 

Together, we’ll dive deep into the messy, magical, and sometimes maddening world of real-life NVC. Whether it’s workplace power struggles, sticky feedback conversations, or navigating those moments when “compassion” feels like a four-letter word, we’ve got you covered. 

Each session will have a topic or focus. For example "Power Dynamics in Focus: From subtle hierarchies to outright conflict, we’ll explore how to use NVC to balance the scales and foster equity." There’s room here for laughter, learning, and irreverence (because let’s face it, sometimes giraffe ears are hard to keep on). 

What to expect: 

• Workshopping Real-Life Scenarios: Bring your trickiest conversations—whether it’s navigating office dynamics or asking your housemate to finally do the dishes—and we’ll workshop them together. 
• Practice That Feels Real: No scripts here. We’re leaning into the imperfect and authentic, experimenting with how NVC can flow naturally in the wild.
• Phoenix and Mika (your facilitators) are both BIPOC Certified trainers who bring quirky, authenticity to a collaborative space: Expect a mix of deep reflection, skillbuilding exercises, and a lot of heart. 

Phoenix Soleil

Phoenix Soleil is an Haitian -American educator, and certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a transformative practice that helps people connect with their emotions and values for more healing and effective interactions. She also teaches and practices Insight Meditation, integrating mindfulness and emotional intelligence into her work.
Phoenix has led workshops and trainings on NVC, communication, racial justice, and meditation for organizations such as Google, UC Berkeley, the Insight Meditation Society, and the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. She also facilitates mediations and restorative circles, helping individuals and groups navigate conflict and build trust.

As a partner at LIFT Economy, a worker-owned cooperative, Phoenix supports organizations in fostering collaborative and equitable cultures. Her experiences living in intentional communities have given her a deep understanding of the challenges and joys of shared decision-making and collective living.
In addition to her work as an educator and facilitator, Phoenix is an artist. She is deeply involved in improvisational theater, freestyle rap, dance, and writing, and is currently working on an Afrofuturistic sci-fi novel.

Learn more about Phoenix at phoenixsoleil.com.

Mika Maniwa

Mika Maniwa is a certified NVC trainer of Japanese descent based in Vancouver, BC. She has been teaching NVC and leading practice groups for over 15 years. She enjoys working with multicultural groups and is keenly interested in what is needed to build trust across power differences. She has been exploring what NVC can bring to issues of social location and racialized trauma to strengthen relationships within organizations as a certified NVC trainer of Japanese descent based in Vancouver, BC. She has been teaching NVC and leading practice groups for over 15 years. She enjoys working with multicultural groups and is keenly interested in what is needed to build trust across power differences. She has been exploring what NVC can bring to issues of social location and racialized trauma to strengthen relationships within organizations.

Mika: “I love creating spaces where the wisdom of the group can emerge. I'm interested in how our nervous systems react to one another when there is perceived threat and mistrust; and what is needed to build bridges.”

Learn more about Mika on https://www.mikamaniwa.com/