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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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...
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Empathizing with Loved Ones
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie explains that empathizing with our closest loved ones can be difficult because they matter so deeply to us, past experiences might create emotional barriers, and we might fear losing ourselves in the process.
To grow our empathy skills, we mu... -
Developing Your Tracking Skills (Part 2)
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary continues her discussion of tracking skills, focusing on tracking requests, agreements with the group and tracking time. Mary also examines how to monitor the purpose of the session, discerning if and when to shift the agreement about the purpose for me...
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Developing Your Tracking Skills (Part 1)
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary offers tips for developing effective tracking skills, including how the energy of the group is managed discerning the qualities of presence for each of the members, and monitoring group participation and striving for a balance of inclusion.
Keywords:... -
Developing Your Own Teaching Exercises in 8 Steps
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Borrowing teaching exercises from other people is fun and can be relatively easy. However, when we develop our own activities, our learning of the topic that we're teaching is magnified and deepened even more. Developing our own teaching exercises is a power...
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Developing a Needs Consciousness
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer
Shifting to a needs-based perspective is one of the most powerful and challenging aspects of integrating Nonviolent Communication (NVC) into daily life. In this short video, Mary Mackenzie offers three simple, practical tips to help you cultivate needs consc...
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Dealing with Hecklers and People You Don’t Like When Facilitating
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen to Mary tackle one of the greatest challenges of facilitating an NVC group: How do you deal with hecklers and people you don't like? Mary offers insightful tips and helpful guidance.
Keywords:- Group Facilitation Tips
- groups
- listening
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Create a Workshop Outline in 12 Easy Steps
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: For many people thinking about creating a workshop outline is overwhelming because they focus on the whole thing at once. Breaking the process down to bite-size pieces eliminates much stress and overwhelm and brings fun and creativity to the process. here's ...
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Balancing All Needs as a NVC Facilitator
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Ever wondered how to balance everyone's needs when leading a NVC group? In the first part of this interactive video, Mary shares tips on how to balance the facilitator's, the individuals members' and the group's needs. In the second part, Mary talks about tr...
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Allow Yourself to Feel Your Emotions
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Do your emotions ever feel overwhelming or out of control? You're not alone. In this heartfelt video, Mary Mackenzie shares a simple yet transformative technique inspired by Nonviolent Communication (NVC) that helped her move past the fear of feeling too muc...
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Acknowleding that the Needs are the Same!
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Have you ever found yourself passing judgment on a co-worker's seemingly disorganized desk? Mary Mackenzie's experience sheds light on the fact that she and her colleague with the "messy desk" shared a common need for order. Recognizing that our needs align ...
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About Empathy
Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Mary Mackenzie shares her understanding and experience of empathy.
Included in this inspiring video are:
- Clarity about "tragic expressions of unmet needs," a phrase originally coined by Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg, creator of Nonviolent Communication... -
Personal Practices to Stay Connected to Your Power, Values or Hope
In the 2025 Reclaiming Strength and Hope event, Catherin Cadden, Duke Cuchsherer, Jesse Wiens Chu, Kathleen Macferran, and Mary Mackenzie explore how global events impact daily life, emotional resilience, and self-connection. Through a focus on empathy, grounding, and parenting, they share honest...
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Needs Behind Every Action
One of the core principles of Nonviolent Communication is the understanding that everything people say or do is an attempt to meet a need. In this teaching, Mary Mackenzie explores how shifting to this perspective can transform how we interpret difficult or frustrating behavior. When we recognize...
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Navigating Relationships Between Individuals and Political or Cultural Systems
AK-LL-MM-RM-SBM, Certified NVC Trainer: Please listen as we discuss and grapple with the issues of growing polarization in our world, political structures and personal relationships.
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Experience More Joy and Success at Work
Dian Killian PhD, Gregg Kendrick, Martha Lasley, Mary Mackenzie, Melanie Sears, Wes Taylor, Certified NVC Trainer: A recent study showed that the number one thing great bosses all had in common was their ability to understand and care about their employees and team members. Join us as six senior...
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Forming, Uniting and Nurturing NVC Communities
Barbara Larson, Deborah Bellamy, Jeff Brown, Kristin Masters, Louise Romain and Mary Mackenzie, Certified NVC Trainer: Does your workplace convey a sense of “community?” And how does that sense of community you feel at work differ from what’s present at your church, your sangha or dojo? What abou...
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Naturalizing NVC Language Q&A
Jeff Brown, Jean Morrison, Kathleen Macferran, Karl Steyaert, Mary Mackenzie, Sylvia Haskvitz, Certified NVC Trainer: Join CNVC Certified Trainers Jeff Brown, Jean Morrison, Karl Steyaert, Kathleen Macferran, Mary Mackenzie and Sylvia Haskvitz in a lively Q&A session focusing on naturalizing NVC ...
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Greeting the Holidays with an Open, Joyful Heart
Christine King, Faye Landey, Liv Larsson, Mary Mackenzie and Rita Herzog, Certified NVC Trainer: Many of us have our cars checked / tuned-up regularly, yet we all too easily forget about checking in with ourselves – especially during the holidays. Let’s face it: the stores and malls are crowded a...
