Our presenters will look at how mediation and restorative justice, combined with Nonviolent Communication, can help to transform anger and a desire for revenge into a compassionate understanding. Together we will draw on the work of Marshall Rosenberg, Thomas Gordon, Dominic Barter and others to help us act out of this compassionate place, and to guide us towards devising creative strategies for living nonviolently.

How the Gathering will be run

This conference is not a formal event with a pre-determined structure and timetable. The content and format will emerge out of what participants want and can offer. Plans and suggestions will be revisited day by day so that as many needs as possible can be met. We envisage open space forums by participants who are welcome to submit topics either at the gathering, or in advance. Those received in advance will be posted on this site.

There may be issues you want to explore, models you want to understand, strategies you want to develop or skills and knowledge you would like to acquire or refine. All these, and more, are possible. The week will be what you make it.

Invited Presenters

Maria Arpa Chair of Conflict Practitioners Network (UK) and founder and Chief Executive of the Centre for Peaceful Solutions (CPS) . The CPS is a charity funded by the UK Treasury to deliver violent crime mediation in the N. London borough of Brent. Maria is also a trained counsellor and Reiki master. She runs a private counselling practice for couples and families and also works with community organisations and corporations. She describes her vision as being to inspire us all to embrace the possibility of peace whatever we may be facing.

David Ellis is an experienced mediator and facilitator. Originally from a commercial leadership background, David has mediated with individuals and teams in diverse settings and co-mediates with Maria on a regular basis.

Cynthia King, California based author of CREATING PARTNERSHIPS. Ms. King has over 30 years of experience as a communication and organizational development consultant, facilitator and trainer. She excels at guiding groups who are ready to transform their working relationships, and to go beyond traditional hierarchical organisational models. She is the founder and principal of Communication Catalysts, an organisational consulting firm, and a founding partner in The Wisdom Way, through which she offers retreats and guides ceremonies and rites of passage. She teaches practices of Dialogue, Collaboration, and Reconciliation at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Jock Millenson taught psychology at Carnegie Mellon, Oxford (Oriel), and McGill Universities before joining the international community at Findhorn in northern Scotland where he has lived on and off since 1982. He has trained in mediation with the Bay Area Radical Psychiatry collective and is a student of harmony building communication as exemplified by Marshall Rosenberg, Thomas Gordon and the Way of Council. Jock is one of the co-founders of the Holly Foundation, an educational trust dedicated to demonstrating the power of authentic community as a catalyst for a new culture of peace and sustainability.

Nada Ignjatovic has worked for nearly three decades as a university lecturer and researcher in developmental psychology at the University of Belgrade. She has led numerous educational research and intervention projects (supported by UNICEF), and has published several books and programs in the field of personal development, communication and social interaction. She is co-founder and director of Smile Keepers, an NGO concerned with implementing experiential learning in individuals and groups, and which works to raise consciousness for the reform of educational practices and for humanistic social change.

We hope to be able to confirm shortly London-based NVC trainer and management consultant Gina Lawrie's attendance at this conference.

For more details or to book please contact us or any of the presenters: