About this Event
Mark your calendars for May 15th-17th for a weekend of enriching and connecting workshops for beginners through more experienced practitioners. All levels are welcome and accommodated! Come for the whole weekend or just the parts that interest you.
We are using compassionate pricing to meet our needs for generosity and your needs for contribution. This means you are welcome to register to attend for any amount that works in your budget. Here is some context to help you decide on an amount:
- Sustaining: A sustaining donation of $301+ helps us continue our mission beyond this retreat.
- Maintaining: A maintaining donation of $300 helps us cover our overhead costs for this retreat.
- Supported: A supported donation of $35-299 will be gratefully accepted as we welcome all interested parties, regardless of ability to pay.
Please register by Friday May 8th to help our logistics flow smoothly.
WHAT TO EXPECT (Scroll down for full schedule!)
FRIDAY 6:30-8:30 PM at The Resource Center for Nonviolence (downtown Santa Cruz)
Conflict Improv! Sit back and relax as your NVC Trainers roleplay your conflicts, sometimes hilariously, and always with tenderness and understanding. You can register for this event on its own, without attending the weekend workshops. to register for Friday only.
SATURDAY & SUNDAY 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM at Simpkins Swim Center/Live Oak Meeting Rooms (Santa Cruz)
Over both days, we’ll offer:
- A dedicated beginner’s track of workshops with Jean Morrison, Eric Huang, and Caren Camblin to grasp the fundamentals, encounter NVC in a new way, or just get a refresher.
- An experienced practitioner’s track of workshops with Kristin Masters and Caren Camblin, exploring our "stuck patterns," learning new ways to journal for self-empathy, and expanding our capacity to ask for what we want.
- More workshops open to all levels, with the above trainers, plus Rick Longinotti and Mike Tinoco (new to NVC Santa Cruz!) on topics from Kingian Nonviolence, Robert Gonzales's Beauty of Needs, couples work, submission/autonomy, and even nonviolent rage.
NOTE: "experienced pracitioners" does not necessarily mean "advanced," but just that you've taken at some workshops and/or read Marshall's book and have some facility with the basics on NVC.
FULL SCHEDULE OF OFFERINGS ~ SCROLL DOWN FOR TRAINER BIOS
FRIDAY at Resource Center For Nonviolence (612 Ocean St, Santa Cruz, CA 95060)
6:15 – 6:30 pm Greeting and gathering.
6:30 - 8:30 pm Welcome, quieting, remembering. Then sit back and enjoy watching hilarious and tender moments of Conflict Improv with trainers Jean, Kristin, Rick, Caren, and Eric, roleplaying the real life situations you suggest.
SATURDAY at The Live Oak Meetings Rooms at Simpkins Swim Center (979 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz)
8:45 - 9 am Greeting & gathering
9 - 9:30 am Morning council, overview of offerings
9:45 - 11:15 am
Session 1 A (Beginner’s Track) Intro to NVC/Boogie with the Basics with Jean Morrison
Join Jean for her interactive introduction to the heart, head, and soul of NVC. For those starting new and those who want a refresher. Get the ‘Big Picture’ view of NVC and 3 key practices to integrate the basics into all aspects of life.
Session 1 B (Experienced Practitioners) Journaling for Self-Empathy: more techniques! with Caren Camblin
We’ll play with 4 different concrete journaling techniques for self-empathy, clarity, and grounding: the jackal & giraffe dialogue, visually mapping “faux feelings,” a letter from the other to myself, and a gratitude practice founded on sensory/somatic modalities. Bring your journal and pens or pencils.
11:30 am - 12:45 pm
Session 2 A (Beginner’s Track) Q & A on the theory and practice of NVC with Caren Camblin
You’ve taken at least one Intro or Basics course and you’ve got questions! This session will focus on your questions about the theoretical foundations, key distinctions, and general practice of NVC. Caren will gather and group your queries, then we’ll dialogue our way to more clarity.
Session 2 B (Experienced Practitioners) Working Stuck Patterns with Kristin Masters
For the first years of NVC application, it seems many of us use it to deal with relational conversations, one at a time. But there is juicy stuff to be mined when we take a look at the patterns and beliefs we appear to be stuck with. Kristin plans to guide us through an approach to stuck patterns that we find costly in our lives and relationships. No, we won’t fix them all in one session, but we may find the path.
12:45 - 1:45 pm Lunch & Integration
2:00 - 3:30 pm
Session 3 A (Beginner’s Track) Building Resilience in Community with Eric Huang
In this session we will take a “hard to hear” message or judgment and transform it with both reflection and the entire group. We will practice using NVC vocabulary around judgments, feelings, needs, savoring needs, and, maybe, requests of self or others. There will be some instruction, mostly practice, and both small group practice and big group harvesting. Especially good for beginners and good for all.
Session 3 B (All Levels) Reading the World with Mike Tinoco
Drawing from the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, culture circles invite collective meaning-making. By weaving in NVC, we can ground our observations and analyses in our own experience while opening our minds and hearts to how others read the world.
3:30 - 5:00 pm
Session 4 A (All Levels) Voicing Multiple Truths from the Heart with Mike Tinoco
In this session, we’ll look at an underrepresented moment in history, followed by writing a “Poem of Two Voices.” Doing so can help us move beyond either-or thinking, dissolve the illusion of separateness, and connect with the hearts of people involved in a conflict.
Session 4 B (Experienced Practitioners) Expanding Capacity to Ask for What You Want with Kristin Masters
This session revolves around the power of knowing what we want back after we express. There are many reasons that might influence our connecting request. This isn’t a simple choice, but it is a powerfully relational juncture in NVC-based conversations. Be prepared to dig around a bit and walk away with new learnings and strategies.
SUNDAY at The Live Oak Meetings Rooms at Simpkins Swim Center (979 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz)
9:00 - 9:15 am Greeting and gathering
9:15 - 10:30 am
Session 5 A (All Levels) “Four Ears” Exercise with Jean Morrison
“Four Ears” is an exercise to develop conscious communication, support your healthy nervous system (brain and heart), and to enjoy authentic connections with—well—everyone!
Session 5 B (All Levels) Couples Relationship Repair Using Conflict Improv with Rick Longinotti
We’ll use the format of Conflict Improv role plays to uncover hidden judgements, generate self-empathy, and practice challenging conversations.
10:45 am - 12 pm
Session 6 A (All Levels) 9 Skills for Navigating Hard Conversations with Eric Huang
These 9 skills bring together NVC basics into a practical, doable framework. The session includes opportunities to role play. Eric’s goal is to support showing beginners how to use NVC effectively in real conversations, while experienced practitioners will see familiar elements come together with clear steps.
Session 6 B (All Levels) Using Conflict Improv (issues other than couples) Rick Longinotti
We’ll use the format of Conflict Improv role plays to uncover hidden judgements, generate self-empathy, and practice challenging conversations.
12 - 1 pm Lunch & Integration
1:15 - 2:45 pm
Session 7 A (All Levels) Living From Beauty of Needs with Kristin Masters
Instead of relating to our living through “unmet needs,” this work from longtime and well-respected NVC teacher Robert Gonzales has us relate to the beauty and felt sense of the way needs live in us. It roots us deeply in what these words mean to us. After a decade of working with Robert, Kristin says “This changes everything!”
Session 7 B (All Levels) Nonviolent Rage with Caren Camblin
What do we do with “righteous anger”? How do we acknowledge harm without causing more harm? This session focuses on using NVC to bring discernment and clarity to what enrages us—as a means of self-connection, a portal to shared reality, and a prior step to nonviolent engagement or activism. Bring your journal and pens or pencils.
3 - 4:15 pm
Session 8 A (All Levels) Playing for Life with Kristin Masters
With whatever we are facing in life, the engagement of play allows us to be surprised and find creativity in strategies. Even when the hard stuff, a willingness to play can give us a different access to mourning. Kristin will invite our playful selves, share what our legitimate blocks are and incite a dose of joy for fuel to meet our lives!
Session 8 B (All Levels) Vortex of Submission ~ how small choices lead to big resentment with Eric Huang
How do our own choices breed resentment? How can we interrupt the flow and exit the “vortex of submission”? We’ll experiment with using our existing NVC skillset for greater autonomy and connection.
4:30 - 5 pm Closing & harvesting
ABOUT THE TRAINERS
Caren Camblin, she/her
Caren has been learning and practicing with NVC Santa Cruz since 2005 and has been a member of the Core Team of trainers since 2020. At UCSC she teaches “NVC and Social Justice,” a revolutionary, immersive course developed by Christine King, in which students live, learn, and practice together in a themed residence hall. She credits NVC with radically informing all of her relationships—in the classroom, with friends and family, and crucially, with herself.
She is deeply interested in the underlying philosophical foundations of NVC and how the application of NVC can be used to interrogate and unseat systems of domination and oppression. As an academic, she loves hashing out your questions—please bring them!
Caren is a Senior Lecturer at UCSC, a registered yoga teacher, and owns a body positive, LGBTQIA+ inclusive Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school called NIJI DOJO. More at www.nijidojo.com or contact her at [email protected].
Eric Huang he/him
I discovered nonviolent communication seven years ago at a nine day international intensive training. I was at a low point in life and unhappy in every part of it.
It changed my life.
Every relationship improved immediately, especially the closest ones my partner, my kids, and my work environment. I enjoyed my volunteering as a soccer coach and coach instructor.
Eventually (now), after seven years of practice I really enjoy spending time with my parents. I'm so grateful that I got to this time now while they're still alive.
I spent more than 25 years in tech in marketing. Before that I spent two years in environmental engineering after studying the topic for seven years.
I've coached thousands of kids and hundreds of parents in a volunteer soccer league to become “better” players, coaches, referees, and volunteers. I spent the last seven years fully immersed in nonviolent communication, trying to learn and grow and do hard things. And occasionally eating lots of snacks which is easier. I hope you'll join me for one of my sessions. I'm grateful that I get to teach alongside people I respect and admire. Let me know how I can support you?
Rick Longinotti he/him
Marriage and Family Therapist; Co-founder of NVC Santa Cruz; author of That Loving Feeling: A Couples Guide to Transform Hurt & Criticism into Kindness & Gratitude; spouse; parent of adult children; activist for peace & environmental sustainability.
Kristin Masters she/they
Kristin was first exposed to NVC by Jean in 1995 in a workshop at San Quentin. Since then, she has drawn from NVC principles and frameworks as essential in a Venn diagram (with JEDI and Work That Reconnects) as she facilitated, mediated and coached folks toward trust, collaboration and purpose. She was certified in 2010. She added the trauma informed Resonant Language/Healing work of Sarah Peyton in 2014.
She specializes in Grief & Gratitude work She is now an AiT (assessor in training) and has trained internationally. She welcomes inquiries about individual and organizational work.
Kristin Masters - Center for Nonviolent Communication https://share.google/m7sJvgr2f29pvv6XN
831-246-0730
Jean Morrison she/her
Jean jumped head-first and heart-deep into NVC at an Intro to NVC in SF offered by founder, Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. That experience catapulted her to a 40 year career in learning, integrating, and sharing NVC in various parts of the world within a wide variety of settings and circumstances (ask her!). Her approach is mindful, playful, and fruitful for living this “language of life.” With her MA in Psych, and immersive studies in the Typology of the Enneagram, The Work of Byron Katie, and influences from Buddhist thought and ‘lifelong learning’…and in being a mom…Jean finds NVC to be the living form of being present to whatever circumstance is naturally occurring within and around her.
She is a founding member of NVC Santa Cruz and GROKtheWORLD.com (NVC games, books, and materials), author of Communication FUNdamentals, and Feelings on Parade. She works mostly now with individuals, couples, and small groups. [email protected]; 831-685-2326
Mike Tinoco he/him
Mike Tinoco is an educator and nonviolence practitioner who advocates for creating classrooms and schools that center interdependence, peace, and liberation from violence.
Mike is formally trained in the philosophy and methodology of Kingian Nonviolence, which follows in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. As a certified Kingian Nonviolence trainer, he has learned directly from elders who lived through the civil rights movement, applying lessons of their powerful examples of resistance to his classroom and beyond. Dr. King's vision of the Beloved Community is at the heart of Mike's teaching philosophy and practice.
He recently released his first book, Heart at the Center: An Educator's Guide to Sustaining Love, Hope, and Community Through Nonviolence Pedagogy (Routledge 2025), which explores a holistic approach to nonviolence in teaching and learning spaces. You can learn more about his work at www.miketinoco.com. Mike is also a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and his praxis is deeply grounded in NVC principles. Weaving tenets of NVC and Kingian Nonviolence together, Mike strives to create learning spaces that center empathy, attend to needs, and disrupt harmful systems and life-alienating patterns of behavior.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Simpkins Family Swim Center, 979 17th Avenue, Santa Cruz, United States
USD 0.00
