I want to work with people and organisations who care about the future of our planet, whatever community, walk of life and socio-economic background they come from. We need one another to be able to make sustainable change and tricky decisions in a way that cares for the whole. 

Social change @ personal, interpersonal, and systemic levels

I draw energy from collaborating with individuals, teams and groups who want to make a difference where they are and can also hold a global awareness. I’m motivated by paradigm-shifting strategy and by resourcing or sustaining those on the frontline. We need both to care for one another and to avoid burning out.

Integrating nonviolence into the fabric of everyday life is part of my personal and political practice. To this end I volunteer with and learn alongside NGL, a community of practice holding, with stubborn faith, to the vision of nonviolent global liberation as a way to close the gap (now threatening all life on planet earth) between our current multi-sector crises and fully interdependent living.

"I want to take action out of the desire to contribute to the life rather than out of fear, guilt, shame or obligation."  

~ Marshall Rosenberg 

Integrating counter-cultural practice

I first came across NVC in 1999, when wondering about alternative approaches to engaging with verbal and structural abuse in a work setting. I instinctively knew that taking legal action, in this scenario, would be more likely to make matters worse, for me and for colleagues with less access to resources. With no expectations, I took part in a Foundation Training with Bridget Belgrave, and by lunchtime could see that NVC would not only be valuable in my personal circumstance but had much wider implications for social change. I was lucky to work with Marshall while he was still travelling to Europe, and did my first IIT in Hungary, with him and Eva Rambala.

I’ve collaborated with facilitators in NVC-UK for over twenty years now and worked widely, building NVC community and expertise in Oxfordshire, Yorkshire, the North-East (Newcastle & Stanhope) and the North-West (Manchester, Salford, Tameside & Hebden Bridge). I’ve had opportunities to contribute to social justice initiatives in Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America, and enjoyed collaborating with Totet Banaynal, to enable the first NVC trainings in Cambodia with frontline workers in Battambang (see photo below).

Although I’m now flying less in response to the climate emergency, I’m creative in finding ways to support systemic change work and combining travel for strategic priorities. At home, I enjoy a cross-cultural marriage, am able to work across the UK and Northern Ireland and have established a much-loved base for trainings and retreats in a peaceful setting in East Oxford.

Within NVC-UK I’ve supported the community to contribute to de-escalation work during national climate protests; co-created online introductory training in nonviolence and de-escalation for XR activists; and coordinated offerings to an Empathy Matching initiative for Ukrainians and the Ukraine NVC network.

Areas of special interest:

• In-house team development and conflict transformation.
• Resourcing for those working for nonviolent social change in areas of health care (in particular better mental health), climate justice, equity, education, conflict engagement and reconciliation.
• Life-enriching support for educators, caregivers (including those fostering, adopting or providing supported lodgings) and care-leavers. 

“In Tameside Metropolitan Borough, NVC training has been delivered throughout the Services for Children and Young People senior management team and further promoted by the Behaviour and Education Support Team. It is our experience that NVC improves self-care within what can be a high-pressure and sometimes debilitating environment. Learning the process increases connection and understanding between teams and enables difficult but necessary discussions to take place with directness, honesty and respect.”

~ Behaviour and Education Support Team Coordinator

• Bespoke one-to-one work
• Communication and systems work with activists and restorative values-led organisations. Priorities: the climate emergency, intercultural living, decision-making, liberation work for interpersonal & systemic change.
  The arts, particularly theatre and collaborating with writers (practitioner 1994-2006).

Intercultural learning

Concurrent with her training activities in NVC, Laura has worked in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya and Brazil. She has 25 years’ experience in the Arts and NGO sectors, as a facilitator, writer and teacher in many different settings. She continues to build awareness of the climate emergency, global VAWG issues and religious persecution in Pakistan.

To talk about how nonviolence and NVC could help you be heard for what matters to you, or to ask further questions about my work or Shared Space please contact me using the form below or by visiting my website. I look forward to connecting.