Certified Trainers at the Center for Nonviolent Communication

Christine is a creative focused on inspiring connection through events. She's practiced NVC for 5 years and is the co-host of the Courageous Conversations podcast which can be found on Spotify! When she's not designing and managing events, she's attending concerts, exploring local coffee shops, creating mobile photo sets and enjoying the sunshine in AZ.

My first encounter with Nonviolent Communication (NVC) was in 1998 during a three-month training for peace activists. Even then, the concept of NVC resonated deeply with me, as I had previously been involved in mediation and met inspiring individuals who supported our peace efforts after the war. However, it wasn’t until 2007, when I met the remarkable team of Nada Ignjatović-Savić and Katharina Sander at Lebensgarten, that I truly experienced the transformative power of NVC. For five days, these two women—each unique in temperament and character—taught us how to introduce NVC into schools. From that point on, mediation and NVC became inseparably intertwined for me, forming the foundation for numerous peacebuilding and community projects in which I volunteered and worked with the Center for Peace in Osijek until 2011, when I co-founded a mediation center with three colleagues.

Currently, I dedicate most of my energy and time to school and peer mediation. Recognizing the crucial role of NVC in mediation, I translated Marshall Rosenberg’s book Nonviolent Communication: The Language of Life into Croatian in 2006. Since then, each participant in our mediation trainings receives a copy of the book as part of their introduction to NVC.

In 2021, I co-founded the Politics of Nonviolence with five other peace activists. This organization focuses on peace education and action, striving to build the capacity for nonviolence and nonviolent action within local communities in Croatia. This year, our efforts include organizing dialogue forums and facilitating discussions on important and sometimes controversial topics relevant to our community.

Being part of a community that applies, promotes, and spreads NVC is essential to me. From my experience, I know that when NVC serves as the foundation, it elevates relationships, peacebuilding, and community-building activities to incredible levels.

I live and work in Osijek, Croatia.

Ha struggled for a long time to find a way to be true to herself while living harmoniously in relationships and contributing to the organizations and communities she belongs to. In 2019, the answer came when she learned about Nonviolent Communication. Since then, Ha has been learning, practicing and sharing NVC with individuals and organizations who want to nurture connections with themselves and others. Ha completed two NVC International Intensive Training. However, the most effective training ground for her has been her home, where she applies NVC with her large extended family and her two daughters..

Begüm has worked in the International Financial Reporting field for 14 years, and is a permaculture designer who hasworked with communities who support community supported agriculture and ecological food. She is a mother of two children, a son and a daughter.

Begüm began her involvement with Nonviolent Communication after she gave birth to her second child, and witnessed behavioral change in the elder child. By that time, she discovered that NVC was her healing field rather than her children’s. With the help of NVC, she empowered to be centered in herself and to connect with others and herself empathically. She has met with her "self-actualization power” in NVC fields.

Tamara Bucic is originally an engineer of mathematics with a passion for movement, yoga, spirituality, nature, and music (singing). Her interests extend to dance, theater, and creativity. Since a young age, she has explored spiritual practices from various traditions and is a certified yoga teacher deeply committed to Nonviolent Communication (NVC). 

Growing up in Croatia during a time of war, she experienced a very hard environment both outside and inside her home, along with a lack of quality communication within her family, which influenced her relationships and self-perception. Recognizing the need for change, she discovered Nonviolent Communication through a book by Marshal Rosenberg, gifted by her yoga teacher. This encounter transformed her approach to communication, and she became an avid advocate of NVC, sharing its principles and techniques with others at every opportunity. 

Tamara's dedication to personal growth and meaningful human connections is evident in all she does, making her a passionate and inspiring advocate for Nonviolent Communication.

Martin Kozah is the Founder and former Executive Director of Peace Empowerment Foundation. He is a Global Goodwill Ambassadors and an Ambassador with THANKS WING and Refugee International Network for Peace (RINP).

Martin is also the Former national organizing Secretary of Civil Society Advance Forum on Sustainable Development Goals in Nigeria and a member of International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA-Nigeria Chapter). He worked as a Hausa interpreter with certified trainer Duke Duchscherer and Sister Franca Onyibor from the Centre for Nonviolent Communication to facilitate NVC Training in Adamawa, Kaduna, Kogi, and Plateau State of Nigeria and to intervene in the Fulani Herdsmen/Farmers Clashes in Adamawa using restorative cycle. He is also part of the team that is working on bringing NVC to Nigeria. He has undertaken several courses in the area of Social Development which include Negotiation and Conflict Management, Conflict Analysis, Interfaith conflict resolution, Understanding the right of women and girls, Workforce collaboration and development, Servant Leadership and Community Organizing for action. He loves volunteering.

You can contact him for any tourist attraction needs and issues in Nigeria.

ORGANIZER

Sandra is a clinical psychologist and has been facilitating groups for over 20 years with her life and work partner, Yuri Haasz, seeking, in diverse contexts and groups, to promote conflict transformation and systemic change towards a more empathetic and life-centered society.

Sandra is co-founder of Sinergia Comunicativa and has experience sharing NVC in Brazil and internationally. Over the years she has been conducting and organizing several events and retreats, seeking to strengthen the practice of NVC in Brazil and strengthen the connection with the international NVC community. She was the organizer of IIT Brazil 2019 and IIT Brazil 2023.

During the pandemic she conducted support programs for health professionals based on NVC, reaching hundreds of people, and she coordinates a project to spread empathy at the Hospital das Clínicas in São Paulo.

She was a columnist for UOL and for the magazines Bons Fluidos and Viva Saúde.

Nessa Dertnig discovered NVC for the first time while on a permaculture course in 2011, and since then has studied with a variety of trainers in the United States and Europe. The practice of NVC has helped her create more connected and fulfilling relationships with many people in her life, and feel more balanced, aware, curious, and open. She is currently deepening her practice as a candidate for trainer certification.

Nessa lives and works on a small organic farm in southern Austria with her husband and two teenage children. She also teaches in a local secondary school and is eager to learn more about how to bring NVC into a public school setting and share NVC with students, parents, and teachers.

Ruth Olari Proscovia is a dedicated development practitioner from Uganda with a passion for social transformation through the principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

Ruth was introduced to NVC in 2019 during her peacebuilding work in the communities of the Teso sub-region in eastern Uganda, particularly in the prevention and response to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAW). Through NVC, she learned how to build and maintain relationships, partnerships, and collaborations that promote mutual respect for the feelings and needs of all, with the awareness that every human being has needs that matter.

Ruth's commitment to NVC has led her to participate in extensive NVC training programs facilitated by trainers from the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), including a 9-day International Intensive Training on NVC in Tanzania (2022), a 10-day Residential NVC training in Uganda in November 2023, and a 10-day Residential NVC training in Kenya in December 2023. These experiences have equipped her with invaluable skills for facilitating training and discussions that significantly enhance the quality of life and promote harmony in society.

Ruth has accumulated over five years of experience engaging communities and leaders in meaningful conversations aimed at addressing the deep-rooted challenges faced by underserved populations. She has done this through training, collaborations, partnerships, Alternative Dispute Resolution (mediation), appropriate referrals, counseling, and providing empathy to survivors of gender-based violence. She coordinates dialogues among community leaders—male and female cultural, religious, political, and government leaders, as well as policymakers—to influence policies, by-laws, and ordinances that support equality between men and women for peaceful coexistence in the Teso sub-region of eastern Uganda.

Ruth is currently leading a women and girls' social change initiative (the Women and Girls Empowerment Program), which seeks to empower survivors of obstetric fistula in the Northern, Eastern, and Central regions of Uganda by providing them with skills, capacity, and knowledge in civic education and advocacy. She applies NVC principles to offer psychosocial support and empathy to survivors of obstetric fistula and GBV, facilitating dialogues with policymakers, health workers, civil society organizations, government leaders, and survivors to advocate for improved maternal health outcomes in Uganda.

Through her work, Ruth passionately advocates for community engagement, partnerships, collaborations, alliances, and movements among like-minded individuals, organizations, policymakers, politicians, and government leaders to promote policy frameworks that support proper planning and decision-making for national development. Her efforts aim to uplift and empower marginalized communities, fostering a culture of understanding and empathy.

If you are seeking support with the logistics for the 2025 Kenya IIT or wish to connect with Ruth for assistance, particularly with registration, bookings, and general information, feel free to reach out to her via the form at the bottom of this page.

Over the past five years, Trang's journey as a practitioner and advocate of Compassionate Communication in Vietnam has allowed her to nurture many meaningful friendships and apply NVC’s principles to her work in education and community engagement. More than just a communication technique, for her, NVC is a transformative practice that enables individuals to cultivate self-awareness, connect authentically with others, leading to effective collaboration and sustain wellbeing for all.

Jane has been practicing NVC for the past 15 years. She immersed herself in the teachings during several week-end sessions and a two-year program taught by Gina Cenciose. She organized several NVC intros for the Transition Town group she coordinated in her neighbourhood in Montreal. Jane is a retired environmental expert who consulted to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for over 20 years. She is passionate about living NVC, especially with her two youngest grandchildren. She also has a consistent practice in non-dual meditation. Her organizations skills were honed while coordinating grass-roots community groups. She looks forward to helping Tosha in the role of co-Coordinator to make the 2025 Canada IIT run smoothly on the material and spiritual planes! Jane speaks English and French fluently.

Fazal has been working in the international development sector for over ten years. He has a strong passion for Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and has promoted its principles to build peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka through his peacebuilding efforts. He was a member of the organizing team for the 2017 International Intensive Training (IIT) in Sri Lanka and has also participated in several international NVC training programs.