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NVC VILLAGE©NVC COMMUNITY BUILDING RETREAT
ITALY MAY 2026
Where:
Tana del Tasso, Italy, Via Ca' Mariani, 266, Vo Euganeo (PD) - 35030
When:
25/05/2026 - 31/05/2026
Trainers: Chris Rajendram, Ada Bienkowska, Anna Garbacz, Jacopo Miceli
Language:
English
Price (tuition, room & board included; transport not included):
1.400 EUR (reduced rate) - 1.600 EUR (standard rate) -
1.900 EUR (supporting rate)
Event description
This retreat is an invitation to slow down, reconnect, return to the body, and explore how we communicate and live together in community.
Over the course of seven days, we will step into a shared experiment of NVC-inspired community life in the Italian countryside. Surrounded by nature, nourished by locally prepared food, and supported by a spacious daily rhythm, we create time and conditions to listen more deeply — to ourselves, to one another, and to what wants to emerge between us.
Our journey moves through several interconnected focus areas:
We begin with Arriving — grounding ourselves, slowing down, and reconnecting with our inner experience through mindfulness and embodied presence.
From there, we explore the Flow of Connection, cultivating empathy, authenticity, feedback, and trust within the group, and experiencing how connection grows when we stay present with one another.
As the week unfolds, we turn toward The Collective — experimenting with living and deciding together, sharing power, and discovering how community can organize itself in ways that serve life.
Inevitably, differences arise. In Breakdown and Repair, we welcome tension, anger, and conflict as part of community life, and explore resilience, honesty, and care as pathways back to connection.
Toward the end of the retreat, the NVC Community Lab offers space for co-creation and collaboration, connecting what we experience here with real-world contexts and projects beyond the retreat.
We close with Closure and Integration, harvesting insights, acknowledging one another, and exploring how to carry this lived experience of NVC back into our everyday lives.
Guided by Chris Rajendram (NVC trainer and assessor), Ada Bienkowska (Certified NVC Trainer), Ania Garbacz (Certified NVC Trainer), and Jacopo Miceli (NVC Certification Candidate Trainer), this retreat is designed as a gentle yet profound learning field — sometimes soft, sometimes challenging, often nourishing, and deeply human.
Whether you are longing for deeper connection, curious about community dynamics, or seeking ways to integrate NVC more fully into daily life, this retreat offers a living laboratory to explore what it means to flow with life as a member of a community.
Retreat Flow
The retreat unfolds within a gentle and flexible daily rhythm, co-shaped by the community. While the trainer team brings a rich range of possible offerings, the final daily schedule is informed by the group’s needs, energy, and interests.
To support orientation and ease, we offer a daily time map, which may include moments such as: open space, breakfast, opening circle, indoor session, lunch, outdoor session, home groups, and evening open space. This structure provides a clear container while leaving room for spontaneity and emergence.
One day during the retreat, we plan a half-day hike, inviting the system to breathe, integrate, and connect through movement and nature.
Throughout the week, you can expect:
Spacious afternoons for rest, integration, and informal connection
Embodiment sessions and optional touch practices, always grounded in consent, choice, and self-pacing
Quiet corners and easy opt-out pathways to support autonomy
Evenings shaped by the group, with invitations to storytelling, singing, dancing, play, shared presence, or silence
This flow is designed to balance structure and freedom, offering enough guidance to feel held, and enough space to listen to what the community needs in each moment.
About the trainer team:
Ada Bienkowska (Poland/Germany)
Ada is a Certified Trainer for Nonviolent Communication who continues to fall in love with the practice every day. She brings honesty, curiosity, and gentleness into her facilitation.
She has trained and supported NVC spaces across Europe and beyond, including ecovillages, universities, Caritas. She has organized the IIT Sayda (Germany), the Polish and German NVC Online Festivals and served as a Support Trainer at IITs in Hungary and Sri Lanka.
Her work creates simple, human spaces where participants can connect with themselves and others, and discover how even challenging emotions can become gateways to connection. She dreams of co-creating an intentional co-living space for the NVC community and finds joy in movement, dance, nature, and shared practice.
Anna Garbacz (Poland)
Practicing NVC for so many years I have been experiencing awakening into my more and more true self. I learn to recognise and follow my inner life energy in choosing what I want to do in life and with whom. This project is one of my choices. The core questions I have for this retreat are: Having the knowledge and the skills of Nonviolent Communication, how do I want to live my life? How do I choose what I want to invest my energy into? How do I choose communities? How do I co-create relationships? I invite you to play, experiment and THRIVE with us!!!
I have been practicing NVC since 2009 and in 2021 I became a certified CNVC trainer. I have a PhD in psychology. I am a mediator, group trainer and I facilitate individual sessions. I am a mother of 4 boys. I love movement, especially in nature, mountains, lakes, see, woods.
CHRISTLIN RAJENDRAM (Sri Lanka)
Jesuit, originally from Sri Lanka. Friend of Marshall Rosenberg, Certified NVC Trainer for many years. He lived in the USA, where he got a Ph.D. in Communication. He served on the CNVC board for several years. After returning from the USA, he ran a children's home (Home of Peace) in Sri Lanka for children of victims of the civil war. He shared NVC in many places around the world, including after the civil war in Nepal, in India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Tromoso, Norway, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine. Supports candidates for certification as a CNVC assessor.
JACOPO MICELI (Italy/France)
Jacopo brings a unique perspective, having transitioned from an established career in the film industry in the UK and USA to a life centered on mindfulness, community, and social impact. Since June 2023, he has been living and practicing at Plum Village, the mindfulness center and monastery founded by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in France, where he also supports the farm and year-round retreats.
He integrates mindfulness, embodiment practices, and Nonviolent Communication (NVC) into his facilitation work and is currently a CNVC candidate trainer under the supervision of Ian Peatey. He also finds joy and nourishment in gardening, dancing, and tea.
Practical information
Venue:
Tana del Tasso, Italy, Via Ca' Mariani, 266, Vo Euganeo (PD) - 35030
https://www.tanadeltasso.it/
There are different room and bed arrangements available, and most rooms will be shared with a shared bathroom.
Rooms are distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis; we’ll get back to you with details after your booking. There are single and double rooms available, five of the double rooms have double beds, please consider with whom you would like to share such a room, in case it will be yours. We would like to find the most optimal solution for you and we will be in touch regarding the double-bed-situation. If you have questions in advance about room distribution, please write to [email protected].
The venue is just 21 km from Padua, a city steeped in history and art. Before or after the retreat, you can wander its charming streets, visit the famous Scrovegni Chapel with Giotto’s frescoes, explore the historic Piazza dei Signori, and enjoy its beautiful gardens, cafes, and museums.
Meals:
All meals will be vegetarian, freshly prepared with love by a local cook who grows many of the vegetables herself, so you can expect fresh, seasonal, locally sourced recipes.
Working language:
The retreat will be held in English.
For whom:
For NVC enthusiasts with some experience (at least 6 days with Certified Trainers) who long to deepen their practice in a lived, relational field. Whether you have completed an IIT or trained with Certified Trainers - you are welcome.
A certificate of attendance will be provided; for those in the CNVC certification process, the NVC sessions led by Certified Trainers (3 out of the 4 trainers) will count toward certification requirements.
Rates:
Please check with yourself how much money you would enjoy paying, given your financial situation as well as our work:
The money you pay is money we use for paying the venue for the rooms, for board, for transportation and remuneration of the trainer team, for organizing, bookkeeping, administering this project.
If you want to choose with ease, please pick the standard rate.
Early bird price until 20th February 2026. Rates you may choose from:
1.400 EUR (reduced early bird rate - availability is limited and we encourage you to choose this option only if the standard rate is beyond your means)
1.600 EUR (standard early bird rate)
1.900 EUR (supporting early bird rate - your generous contribution will support those who can’t afford the full price themselves)
Rates after 20th February 2026:
1.500 EUR (reduced rate)
1.750 EUR (standard rate)
2.120 EUR (supporting rate)
We are deeply committed to making this event as inclusive as possible. If finances are your only barrier to participation, please reach out to [email protected] we are happy to explore ways to support your participation.
Pre-registration:
[email protected]
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Padwa, Via Pietro Selvatico, 87, 35132 Padova PD, Italia, Padova, Italy
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
