An Inspired Exploration into the Vast World of Relationships

Multiple Trainers
Time Investment: 23 hours 57 minutes, plus handouts
Recorded in 2021

Thrive Together was a virtual fest dedicated to exploring how to thrive with each other, ourselves, our communities, and our planet: especially during challenging times. Purchase this MP4 video download and you will have access to 20 of the sessions! See below for the full list of topics and trainers:

Alan Rafael Seid
How to Serve the World in a Financially Sustainable Way

Discover how to transform money, business, and marketing into life-serving forces. In this session, you will learn a 9-Step "road map" for building a positive-impact and right-livelihood that aligns with your values and ethics. Come learn how to serve others with your gifts in a way that also serves you!

Aya Caspi
NVC Zen: The Paradox of Responsibility

How do we not take responsibility for other’s experiences while taking full responsibility for the impact of our choices? Come learn how to support the move from emotional “slavery” to emotional liberation, while still maintaining interdependence. You will come away with a 5-step process to restore trust and take full responsibility without judgment, shame, or guilt.

Dian Killian
Beyond Emotional 'Safety' | Creating a Culture of Authenticity and Trust

Whether it is in the bedroom or the boardroom, authenticity and trust are the crucial elements of any high functioning partnership or organization. Come learn how to restore and build trust with each interaction while leveraging your power to create change (regardless of the structural power you hold).

Eddie Zacapa
NVC & Domestic Violence: Healthy Intrapersonal Communication Skills for Perpetrators & Victims of Domestic Violence

This session explores how NVC can transform relationships that have experienced domestic violence. You will come away with an understanding of what constitutes domestic violence and knowledge of intrapersonal skills for the individuals on all sides of abuse. Come learn and discover how to support those in a domestic violence relationship.

Frank Gaschler
What do I really need here?

Conflicts revolve around all sorts of little things, especially when living situations get tight. The socks in the living room, the dishes in the sink, or the coffee cup on the counter. Is it really about the socks, or something deeper? Here we will peel the onion to get to the core of our needs.

Itzel Hayward and Kathy Simon
Speaking Up As An Ally: How to Keep People at the Table for Authentic Conversations About Race

When people we know say things that we hear as racist, sexist, homophobic, or otherwise oppressive, responding can be difficult. Using skill-building and practices, we will explore how to respond in ways that the other person is more likely to hear. You will walk away feeling more prepared to have conversations with those who see things differently from you.

Kathleen Macferran and Jared Finkelstein
Do the Right Thing! Move Beyond “Right and Wrong” and into CHOICE

This session explores the practice of choosing to untangle right/wrong thinking so you can hold all views with compassion. From this place, we find strategies to address the complexities of needs within differences. Learn to create a reflective space that sees beyond ideas of right and wrong and into the realm of interdependence.

Kathy Ziola
Dangerous Assumptions

Assumptions can be extremely damaging to your relationships! Here we will explore two key assumptions that can consistently block the connection you long for. Then we will practice remedies to these assumptions using specific NVC skills and mindsets so you can shift from disconnection to open-hearted understanding and closeness!

Kristin Masters
Rainbow Connections: NVC for Q+

Rainbow connections is a space to explore relationships with and for those who identify as lgbtq+. With realness and warmth, we will acknowledge what we have had to face, and at what cost. We can create the world we dream of by celebrating ourselves and our love. Expect to walk away with a truer connection and understanding of self.

Lore Baur
Tea or No Tea? Requests, Agreements, and Consent

In our grab-and-go, fast-paced culture it is easy to forget to check in with one another before acting. Rather than imposing specific strategies or agendas, NVC helps us create a culture of dialogue where all voices are valued. Come learn ways to inspire cooperation and build relationships of trust where everyone’s values are equally respected.

Magiarí Díaz Díaz
Grief Ceremony: For All My Relations

Native traditions around the world see grieving in community as an essential practice for honouring, healing, restoring and releasing relationships. Yet, our modern, fast-paced lives rarely allow the time and space for it. This session will give participants a safe, loving space to grieve in community.

Mika Maniwa and Leonie Smith
Why Am I Cringing? And What Can I Do About It?

Why do we cringe? Perhaps we've been asked to convey our feelings and our needs but we have a sense that this authentic expression is not welcome. How do we handle this? In this session, you are invited to come and explore the power dynamics of cringing and its alternatives.

Miki Kashtan and Emma Quayle
Purpose, Intimacy, and Choice: Creating Relationships that Defy Patriarchy

Patriarchal conditioning creates a deep groove of narratives about relationships. This is an introduction to a different pathway that questions relational dyads and rests on a deep alignment of purpose and values that we can have with many people. It offers deep intimacy without the need for sexuality and one-on-one focus. Come explore how we can re-groove the pathway from separation to interdependence.

Mina Mo
Aesthetic Communication

Sometimes, non-verbal forms of communication can be much richer than verbal ones. Here we will all share our life stories in an artistic way through movement, drawing, music, and poetry. No professional art experience necessary. Please bring your painting supplies, drawing paper, and musical instruments if you have them!

Mitch Miyagawa
The Energy of Aliveness: Eros & NVC

This workshop is a playful and fun exploration of eros, the energy of aliveness, in relationships. You'll explore your ""eroself"" through imaginal exercises and movement, solo and in empathic pairs. Come discover the link between eros and NVC by examining feelings and needs through an erotic prism, which reflects sensual pleasure, desire, and embodiment.

Olga Nguyen
Thriving in relationship with those parts of yourself you find difficult to love

Explore how Visual NVC/Neuroart can help you see beauty in those parts of your inner self that you find hard to love. Everyone is welcome: as long as you are willing to try to draw a line, you can follow the method! We invite you to bring along parts of yourself you find difficult to love, a pen, some paper, and something to color with!

Rachelle Lamb
Love in a Time of Climate Change

Climate change does not exist in isolation. It happens in concert with anxiety, depression, and societal fragmentation – all indicators of trauma, imbalance, and separation. In this session, we will acquaint ourselves with the wisdom of making room for the discomforts we would prefer to avoid and explore what it could mean to ourselves and to humanity to be deeply connected to life in a time such as ours.

Ranjitha Jeurkar
Speak Up, Or Let Go?

Have you ever been told to choose your "battles" wisely? If yes, have you wondered how to make that choice? How do you know when it's better to speak up, or just let it go? In this session, we will take some time to explore these questions using the self-empathy process and focusing on needs.

Roxy Manning
NVC for Real: Questions about NVC in Sticky Relationships

Listen in as Roxy deftly responds to questions from participants about topics relating to conflict and major disagreements between loved ones and other important relationships, even those with power differences.

Sarah Peyton
Healing the Dance of Shame in Relationship

How do the nervous systems of friends and partners respond to contempt, shame, or disappointment? Profound neurobiological changes happen in such moments and, despite their impact, NVC can help us become shame-resilient. Come experience some life-changing brain science and empathy to help our bodies and brains become good places to live.