CNVC Certified Trainers

Jerry Koch-Gonzalez

Jerry Koch-Gonzalez

Jerry is the founder of the Communicating with Compassion project and co-founder of its parent organization, the Institute for Peaceable Communities. Jerry first learned the skills of Nonviolent Communication from Marshall Rosenberg in the late 1970s, rediscovered their importance in 2003, and has been learning more ever since to apply it to his own life, work, and to become a certified NVC trainer. Jerry Koch-Gonzalez has been organizing, educating and consulting for social justice for more than 25 years. Jerry’s areas of expertise include organizational development, diversity in organizations, communication skills, and conflict resolution. Jerry has a particular interest in the methods of Appreciative Inquiry and Nonviolent Communication. Jerry holds a M. Ed. in organizational development from the University of Massachusetts. He served on the board of United for a Fair Economy for many years, and currently serves on the boards of Class Action, and the Institute for Peaceable Communities.

Jerry is Cuban of European heritage and lower middle class background, identifies as bisexual, and lives with his family in a cooperative housing community (co housing) in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Stephanie Bachmann Mattei

Stephanie Bachmann Mattei, the mother of 3 children (biological and adopted), was born and raised in Italy, where she earned her Bachelor in Languages and a PhD in Philosophy. Stephanie moved to the USA in 1993 after marrying her husband.

Stephanie’s core intertwined themes in life are: spirituality, parenting and healing.

Stephanie is passionate to share her understanding of NVC as a process to empower oneself and others to celebrate the humanity in one’s own being, and to encounter the humanity in the other person. In the words of Dr. Bruce Perry, “Being born human does not ensure being humane.” NVC offers maps to support the journey from human to humane by providing clear tools for healing and reconciliation of warring parts within our psyche, of emerging into our wholeness, to consistently re-connect with our authenticity, and to practice the gift of mindful and compassionate presence for ourselves and others.

Parenting is Stephanie’s niche. Parenting, being a major way of transmitting our unconscious wounds as well as our conditioning to social and cultural blueprints, becomes a powerful and far-reaching tool for social transformation. As Gandhi proclaimed: “If we want to change the world we shall start with the children.” On the practical level, this led to Stephanie’s serving for over 10 years as a volunteer leader with La Leche League International, graduating from the “Parent Peer Leadership Program” in 2006 and staying involved in this BayNVC program as an Assistant first and then as a co-Trainer since 2009. Additionally, Stephanie has served both at the “NVC and Diversity Retreat” and the “New York Intensive Residential Training” as the Children’s Program founder and trainer for three consecutive years.

Aware of the specific challenges and joys of raising an adopted child, Stephanie further became a BCI (Beyond Consequences Institute) Certified Parenting Educator facilitating NVC-based telecourses and coaching adoptive families through the Consciously Parenting Project.

Finally, in Stephanie’s experience, parenting inevitably ends up being a call to integrate our unprocessed experiences and to bring healing to ourselves. To that respect, Stephanie loves tying NVC with mindfulness-based neuroscience to support self-understanding, healing and wholeness.

Certified Trainer by The Puget Sound Network for Compassionate Communication

Pan Vera

Pan Vera

Pan is an expert facilitator with the ability to help you get to the core of your communication issues. Establishing a tone of respect and care, he opens his workshops and private sessions to the unique, healing dynamics that arise spontaneously in the presence of heartfelt exchanges.

Expanding your capacity for mutual, heartfelt exchanges based on the principles of Nonviolent Communication^SM, Pan is an expert facilitator, with four years of experience teaching NVC, with the ability to help you resolve communication issues at their core. During workshops and private sessions, he provides tools designed to transform judgment and blame into a more compassionate framework of observations, needs, feelings, and requests that allows you to avoid conflict.

Training and Experience: PSNCC Certified NVC Trainer, Candidate for Certification in Nonviolent Communications Training with the Center for Nonviolent Communication; Advanced Training in Neurolinguistic Programming and Active Listening.  20+ years in Information Systems with companies including British Petroleum, Citibank, Simmons, Associated Grocers, specializing in group ware and 15+ years in Sales Consulting in insurance, real estate, and financial planning and investments, including three years with Merrill Lynch. Learn more at www.compassionatecommunications.us

New England NVC Mentored Trainers

Gina Simm

Gina Simm

Gina is a first grade teacher who has been integrating the principles of NVC in her classroom for several years. She has developed a social-emotional curriculum for young children involving everything from children’s books to regret cards to problem-solving meetings.

Gina is a parent of a son (30) and two step daughters (29 & 31). Through the tremendous influence of nonviolent communication, Gina has learned that we can have compassion for both ourselves and our children at the same time, keeping everyone’s integrity in place. Gina is mentored by Bay NVC’s Miki Kashtan, whereby she attends yearly retreats in the East Coast Leveraging Your Influence program. “Even though I am able to influence my first graders in very powerful ways, there is more influence to be found in the role of parenting, says Gina. That is why I teach this class. As parents, we are deeply invested in our children’s well-being, not just lifetime of precious moments.”