Miki Kashtan
Miki Kashtan is a practical visionary pursuing a world that works for all, exploring the application of the principles and tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to social transformation. She envisions, in great detail, local and global systems based on care for the needs of all life. Miki is the mother of the Nonviolent Global Liberation (NGL) Community and now focuses all her energy there, with only specific and few engagements with individuals, organizations, or movements. In her work with individuals, she focuses on supporting movement towards rapid empowerment in service of the whole. In her work with organizations, she focuses on creating and supporting collaborative systems and processes. In her work with multi-stakeholder groups, she focuses on transcending polarization and advocating for solutions that work for everyone. Inner freedom, nonviolence, dialogue, collaboration, interdependence, leadership, systems, conscious use of power, and a commitment to structural change are the lenses through which she looks at every moment and interaction. Some of her deepest sources of inspiration are many feminist theoreticians, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Marshall Rosenberg, Mary Parker Follett, radical economics, and the commons movement, and the entire lineage of what she developed is here. Miki strives to bring together theory and practice, spiritual commitment and conceptual clarity, radical vision and practical applications, heart and mind, self and other, personal change and social transformation.
She is also the author of The Highest Common Denominator: Using Convergent Facilitation to Create Breakthrough Solutions (2021), Reweaving Our Human Fabric: Working together to Create a Nonviolent Future (2015), Spinning Threads of Radical Aliveness: Transcending the Legacy of Separation in Our Individual Lives, and The Little Book of Courageous Living (both 2014). Her Ph.D dissertation is also freely available: Beyond Reason: Reconciling Emotion with Social Theory. Miki writes all the time, mostly at The Fearless Heart where she blogs and shares learning packets about the NGL framework and other resources. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Tikkun, Waging Nonviolence, Peace and Conflict, Shareable, and elsewhere.
Miki is an Israeli native with significant roots in Mexico and New York City. She lived in California for thirty-seven years before choosing to vagabond in search of learning about liberation and community. She is currently based in Catalunya and is part of a home pod and in the slow process of setting up an NGL community on land. She is inspired by the role of visionary leadership in shaping a livable future, and works toward that vision by living, applying, and sharing the principles and practices of Nonviolent Communication as they are expressed within the NGL framework. nglcommunity.org
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Creating Collaborative Organizations
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: If you’re a change agent who struggles with exactly what to do to bring NVC into your organization, Miki has tools that can help.
Miki will take you step-by-step through four vital systems that support radical collaboration and foster meaning. You’ll learn how... -
Applying NVC to Social Change Movements
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: This is the Working for Transformation without Recreating the Past preview with Miki Kashtan. Want things to change in your community, but feel frustrated or don’t know what to do? Miki’s intriguing overview of how to apply the principles of NVC to social chan...
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Working for Transformation without Recreating the Past: An Intro to Nonviolence
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Want things to change in your community, but feel frustrated or don’t know what to do? Miki’s intriguing overview of how to apply the principles of NVC to social change movements may have the exact blend of inspiration and ideas you’re seeking!
Keywords:-...
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Groups Tip Series: The Value of Groups
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen to Miki talk about the value of participating in groups, recognizing our inherent nature to do so, how industrialization has hindered our skills and the value of participating in a time when it's most needed.
Keywords:- expression
- honesty
- self ... -
Workplace Series: Supervisors Giving Feedback to Others
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Creating a trusting connection and keeping the line of communication open are the primary prerequsites for giving feedback as a supervisor. Listen to Miki work with a course participant to ready herself for an upcoming feedback session.
Keywords:- expressio...
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Workplace Series: Distinction Between Giving Feedback and Wanting to Be Heard
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen to Miki make an important distinction between giving feedback, which is grounded in a desire to contribute to another, and our own need to be heard.
Keywords:- expression
- feelings
- honesty
- needs
- requests
- self empathy
- strategies
- co... -
Workplace Series: Two Strategies for Adapting NVC into the Workplace
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen to Miki discuss two strategies for bringing NVC into the workplace in ways most likely to be well received. First Miki explains why it's best to focus more on needs than feelings in business environments. Second, she talks about unpacking needs into phr...
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Workplace Series: When Purpose Trumps Connection
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: In most business environments, purpose holds a higher priority than connection. Listen to Miki discuss the strategy of using minimum connection to remain true to the purpose at hand, and how the purpose of empathy may differ in the workplace. She suggests crea...
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Workplace Series: Turning a Mandatory Meeting Into a Collaboration
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Miki works with a course participant to transform begrudging attendance at a mandatory meeting into the possibility for collaboration, more connection where little is expected and focus on clarity of purpose for meeting in the first place.
In this segment, Mik... -
The Radical Implications of Staying Within Capacity
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer:
Overriding our individual or collective capacities can sustain oppressive systems. Honoring limits better aligns with life and is more likely to dismantle patriarchal culture. Accepting, respecting and staying within capacity instead of constantly pushing bey... -
Sharing NVC With Others
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: In this prerecorded telecourse, Miki Kashtan addresses some of the most common questions that arise as we attempt to successfully teach and share Nonviolent Communication with others. Based on her success with the BayNVC organization and her experience buildin...
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Responding to the Call of Our Times - Mentoring, Teaching and Coaching
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Listen as Miki works with participants. Topics: how small requests serve interdependence; NVC process vs purpose; how to respond when empathy is used to create distance; coping with verbal aggression, and more!
- life purpose
- meaning
- culture
- decisio... -
Responding to the Call of Our Times - Step Into Your Vision
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Enjoy listening to Miki make the distinction between leadership as a position and leadership as an orientation to life. The theme: when is it time to actively step into your vision?! Check it Out.
Keywords:- expression
- strategies
- dialogue
- personal ... -
Not Trusting the “Yes”
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: In this 2-part audio series, Miki demonstrates how to stay in a dialogue when you don’t trust someone’s “yes,” how to equalize power between people and how to allow space for others to say “no” to our requests. In this 2-part audio series, Miki demonstrates h...
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Communicating with Family Across Political Divides
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: CNVC Certified Trainer Miki Kashtan talks with radio show host Hollis Polk about strategies for communicating with family members whose political views oppose our own.
Keywords:- expression
- feelings
- honesty
- requests
- strategies
- anger
- argume... -
It's Hard to Communicate When My Partner Drinks
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Miki Kashtan hosted Living Room Radio Show on KPFA Radio 94.1FM in Berkeley, California, USA. Listen as she works with a a woman whose relationship is challenged by what happens when her lover drinks. In this segment, Miki encourages the caller to get support ...
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I Want to Repair a Relationship, But I am Scared
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Miki Kashtan hosts Living Room Radio Show on KPFA Radio 94.1FM in Berkeley, California, USA. Listen as she works with a mother who is experiencing a strained relationship with her recently married daughter after a verbal “attack” from the daughter. Miki guides...
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Open-Hearted Disagreement
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Miki demonstrates how to work with judgmental thinking, offering a two-step process to shift from right/wrong thinking about our disagreements to a more open-hearted state of being.
Keywords:- consciousness
- needs
- intention
- judgment
- social change... -
Groups Tip Series: How Can I Support More Collaboration?
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: It seems to me that people see ideas which are different from theirs as threatening. Instead of listening, the group polarizes around the different ideas and a lot of judgments develop, conflicts develop and people feel hurt. Forward progress becomes a battle ...
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My Teen Daughter Dislikes NVC
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: In this brief audio segment, Miki works with a woman whose teenage daughter rejects her use of NVC, guiding her in a process of self-awareness and acceptance. Miki helps her see that it's not only about the words we use, but more about being real and staying t...
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Judging and Feeling Judged
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: In this short but potent audio, expert CNVC Certified Trainer Miki Kashtan demonstrates the eye-opening experience of translating our judgments into needs. She uses this process in working with a mother who is stuck in a loop of feeling judged by family member...
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How Does Change Take Place?
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: How does change take place? In this brief segment, Miki explores the three key ingredients that make change possible for individuals as well as for societal change. Miki points out the appeal of working for social change from the top, when one person has eno...
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The Heart of the Matter: Connecting More Deeply to Your Feelings and Needs
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: Do you want to increase your capacity to identify and connect with feelings and needs? Would you like to enhance your ability to translate judgments? Join Miki for this deep dive into feelings and needs.
In this course recording, you’ll learn skills and pract... -
How to Enjoy Your Family Dinner
Miki Kashtan, Certified NVC Trainer: If you dread family gatherings because of family tensions, you can find ways to excavate through piles of hardened judgments and hopelessness, build on your inner strength, and engage with family conflicts with open-hearted curiosity, greater presence, and con...
