Mary Mackenzie
Mary Mackenzie, M.A., is an author, trained mediator, and CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. She holds a master's degree in human relations from Northern Arizona University and is the CEO of the NVC Academy, the only online school for learning Nonviolent Communication.
Mary teaches Nonviolent Communication and other spiritually-based programs to individuals, couples, families, organizations, and spiritual communities through a wide variety of workshops and retreats. Her book Peaceful Living: Daily Meditations for Living with Love, Healing and Compassion (translated to German, Korean, simplified Chinese and Dutch) offers inspiring practical methods for creating peace in our everyday lives.
She is also the co-author of the children’s picture book Giraffe and Jackal Are Friends (Again!), written with Lisa Robinson and illustrated by Nicole Michels. Based on the renowned Nonviolent Communication teachings of Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, this engaging story helps children develop emotional awareness and communication skills through playful characters and beautifully crafted illustrations.
As a pioneer of online NVC training, Mary runs her company in harmony with what she teaches. She and NVC Academy co-founder, Mark Schultz, paved the way to NVC online training in 2006 and have been instrumental in alleviating the financial and geographical barriers to learning NVC skills.
One of her passions is facilitating critical dialogues between people, and she has spent more than 20 years learning a wide variety of effective processes she can draw on in a moment's notice. Known for her clear communication style, she is especially skilled in helping individuals within groups put aside their preferences and find ways to collaborate with each other that are in alignment with their values. Her ability to cut through the confusion in a group has helped many teams quickly move forward in their desired progress.
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Embrace Positivity: Transform Life through Joyful Choices and Conscious Action
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Marshall Rosenberg used to talk about every situation with the same level of joy a child might feel. This may seem impossible at first! But when you focus on all the ways something is hard, you miss out on the full experience and remove your sense of choice....
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Dealing with Triggers
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: What do I do when I'm leading an NVC group and get emotionally triggered? Mary Mackenzie offers tips to respond with care and connection from her extensive experience leading NVC groups.
Keywords:
- Group Facilitation Tips
- listening
- facilitati... -
Why NVC Matters To Me
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer
What drew you to Nonviolent Communication? In this touching reflection, Mary Mackenzie shares the moment that first lit her up with hope. In her very first class, she was asked to reflect on what she truly wanted in life—and realized there was a growing gap ...
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What is Empathy?
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie explores empathy as a form of presence—truly understanding someone else's world without imposing our own perspective. Using Nonviolent Communication (NVC), she shows a simple yet profound process for expressing that we have genuinely heard ano...
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Two Self-Empathy Exercises
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Self-Empathy: Healing from the Inside Out. This session is from the NVC Academy's 2017 Telethon. Listen in as Mary offers two experiential self-empathy exercises: I Love It When, and What Do I Want / Why Do I Want It. Deepen your ability to connect with self...
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Two Essential Tips for Facilitating Vibrant NVC Groups
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen to Mary Mackenzie as she focuses on her opening premise for group participation, which lays the foundation for developing vibrant groups and then defines the facilitator's role, which is often not known or incorrectly defined.
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The Three Stages of Transition
Kathleen Macferran and Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Learn about the three stages of transition, and how staying connected to needs can help you remain oriented and grounded even through the most challenging transitions.
Keywords:
- Resonant Empathy
- healthy relationships
- A... -
The Power of Making Requests
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie explores the fourth component of Nonviolent Communication—making requests—and why it feels like "graduate level" NVC. Asking for what we truly want is vulnerable, yet it's also a profound gift of honesty and connection in our relationships. Wi...
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The Facilitator's Role
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen in as Mary deftly blows the role of facilitator wide open in this excerpt from her very popular 2021 course, Facilitate NVC Groups with Joy and Confidence. She also covers a variety of useful tips such as what to do if you feel lost or confused, how t...
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Street Giraffe Tips
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: "Would you tell me what you heard me say?" Does the thought of asking this of someone stop you cold?
Mary Mackenzie offers a simpler method to support your need for being heard that also helps you to connect more with your non-NVC friends and family. She ... -
Seven Easy Steps for Keeping Group Energy High
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: NVC groups can sometimes get caught in a rut and lose energy and momentum. Mary shares her extensive experience with seven steps for keeping your group engaged and energized.
Keywords:
- Group Facilitation Tips
- groups
- listening
- facilitatio... -
Self-Empathy Basics
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Watch this video and feel as if you are actually present at the workshop! Mary Mackenzie demonstrates two exercises that will help you learn fast "on the run" self-empathy techniques. These practical techniques guide you toward noticing your physical sensati...
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Principles of Nonviolent Communication: Identifying Needs
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Let this inspiring video guide you through exercises as if you are actually present at the workshop with Mary Mackenzie! The video opens with Mary leading you through an exercise that generates a physical experience of the NVC consciousness. You will then ex...
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On Self-Empathy: An Exploration of Connecting to our Needs
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer and Mark Schultz: What is self-empathy? Mary Mackenzie leads you on an exploration of self-empathy through an exercise that will show you how you can easily connect more deeply with your needs.
Keywords:
- exercises/practices
- giraffe and jackal
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1 itemArticles: Honest Expression
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Mary Mackenzie: From Resistance to Devotion with Marshall Rosenberg
In this heartfelt reflection, Mary Mackenzie shares her unexpected journey from skepticism about Nonviolent Communication to a profound personal transformation through her connection with Marshall Rosenberg. What began as resistance to structure and fear of deep authenticity evolved into a life-c...
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Navigating Individual Requests That Divert From Your Group's Purpose
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary illustrates how we can get diverted from our group's purpose by the needs of a single indvidual in the group, especially requests for prolonged empathy. Listen to Mary reframe these scenarios and offer three helpful tips for handling these situations.
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Making Your Empathy Guesses More Natural
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Join Mary Mackenzie as she offers a simple approach incorporating NVC into everyday conversations. Her observation is that sometimes speaking NVC empath guesses of feelings and needs can feel un-natural or robotic. A possible solution is to slightly shift th...
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How to Create Your Own Teaching Activities: An 8 Step Model
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen as Mary Mackenzie shares an eight step path to create your own NVC learning activities, based on your own NVC learning experience. In this session, Mary uses the value of requests and observations as teaching examples.
8 Easy Steps for Developing Tea... -
How Privilege / Lack of Privilege Affects Women, Fishbowl Discussion
Dian Killian PhD and Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Join Dian Killian and Mary Mackenzie for a provocative fishbowl discussion about how privilege and lack of privilege affect women.
What is a Fishbowl Process? The Fishbowl Process involves a small group of people — seated in circle — ... -
Four D's of Disconnection: Diagnosis, Denial, Demand, Deserve
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie shares how Marshall Rosenberg's Four D's of Disconnection live in her. Join Mary and learn how you can reframe the 4 D's to enhance connection.
1. Diagnosis (judgment, analysis, criticism, comparison); 2. Denial of Responsibility; 3. Demand... -
Facilitating Deeper Understanding
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie shares practical facilitation techniques to guide participants toward deeper understanding without correction. Through thoughtful pauses and reflective questions, she demonstrates how to help individuals connect with feelings and needs in a me...
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Empathy Buddy Practice Helps Develop Empathy Skills
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Are you looking to deepen your connection to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) and build powerful empathy skills? In this short video, Mary Mackenzie shares how finding an empathy buddy transformed her life and practice. From learning to give and receive empath...
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Empathy as Presence: Transforming Relationships with NVC
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie reminds us that empathy is not about fixing—it's about presence and truly seeing the world through another's eyes. With the tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), we can show others that we deeply hear and understand not just their words, bu...
