About our Team
​
Each of us is a Certified Trainer with the Centre for Nonviolent Communication. Our team is growing and currently consists of 8 Assessors:
Towe Widstrand, Gina Lawrie, Shona Cameron, Thera Balvers, Ania Mills, Dionne Verbeet, Ola Gołaszewska, and Ian Peatey and 2 Assessors in Training: Matthew Rich and Anniken Poulsson Beer
​
Some ideas about how to choose your assessor:
-
Consider speaking to more than one of us to get a sense of ‘fit’ which might include: areas of special interest, past experience, chemistry.
-
think about travel expenses, as we want to meet you face to face during your process
-
our common language is English and some of us can support you in other languages
-
Some of us have a focus of working with communities in particular regions in order to support as efficient a system as possible and make the best use of all of our resources.
We are trying to balance offering choice to candidates with managing the complexity of our workload, so whereas we encourage you to form the preferences we ask you not to be attached, incase it doesn’t work for the wider picture.
​
Shona is accepting new candidates
Shona Cameron is a coach, mentor and trainer in NVC and has been certified since 2006. As an Educational Psychologist Shona's work meant she brought NVC into places where no-one knew about it, She now teaches others how to do this. She became skilled in 'street giraffe' while working with teenagers.
In 2016 she become an assessor and she trains internationally.
​
Shona believes we are all doing our best in every moment. She is known for facilitating with clarity, humour and warmth. She cannot decide what to specialise in. She is endlessly fascinated by the power of presence and empathy which she learned from being with Marshall Rosenberg. Learn more about Shona. You can meet Shona online weekly here: Words are Windows( Or They're Walls)
Thera has a waiting list for registration, please contact her for more details.
Thera Balvers has her own practice and training organisation as a psychotherapist, NVC trainer, mediator, coach, hypnotherapist, Simonton therapist (cancer treatment) and Master in Flower Art. She has a lot of experience in personal growth and development and giving trainings in various subjects and with various target groups (organisations, welfare sector, medical sector). Humour is important to her life, and she likes to balance depth and lightness in her work.
​
She loves to inspire and support people on their certification path towards sharing NVC in the world.The priority for Thera, in her role as an assessor, will be focused to support candidates from the Dutch-speaking community
Ania is accepting new candidates.
Ania Mills has been incorporating NVC into her work life since it was first introduced into Poland, with her help, 2001.
She has studied with NVC founder Marshall Rosenberg and with international trainers in Sweden, Hungary, Poland, and the United States. In 2009, she completed postgraduate Trainer Studies at Warsaw School of
Social Sciences and Humanities.
A trainer since 2003, she became a CNVC Certified Trainer in 2008. Now Ania is a full-time NVC trainer and mediator with experience working with multicultural groups leading and co-facilitating trainings in 3 continents.
A recent professional interest is training trainers—offering NVC as a tool for improving quality and efficiency also for trainers in other disciplines. She also works as MBRS mindfulness teacher introducing participants to meditation practice.
Anna lives near Warsaw, Poland where she also has her small pottery studio. Learn more about Ania
Gina is only registering candidates she already knows and who are open to transfer to another assessor later.
Gina Lawrie has been a certified trainer since 1997 and integrated NVC into her practice as a consultant, coach and trainer in both personal and organisational development. Being a facilitator of Open Space (OST), she recognised the synergy between OST and NVC and facilitated the first two giraffe conventions as well as other events since then. She may be best known in the NVC community for co-creating the NVC Dance Floors with Bridget Belgrave. This innovative method for sharing and practicing NVC is now translated into thirteen languages.
Gina has worked internationally, introducing NVC to Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. She is an experienced assessor for certification with CNVC, and has trained on IIT's both with and without Marshall. She loves to bring clarity and to support people to fulfil their dreams. Learn more about Gina
Towe is not registering new candidates
Towe Widstrand BA, is a graduate of the University of Stockholm, Sweden in business and psychology. She has worked as a training consultant since the mid-1980s. After meeting and studying with Marshall since 1987, she devoted her professional life to sharing NVC in various ways. Over the decades, Towe has conducted NVC-trainings in more than 20 countries, working in a wide variety of settings, including public organisations, private companies, public groups and with individuals. She assisted Marshall as a trainer in many IITs. She has also served the Center for Nonviolent Communication by sitting on the Board of Directors and filling the role of International Project Coordinator.
Towe has served as assessor for CNVC as long as the process has existed. She loves contributing to clarity and safety in the groups and for the candidates she works with, sometimes through "fierce kindness," to use the words of one of her participants. She wishes for others to realize how the insights of NVC bring relief and personal power."
Dionne is currently accepting new candidates from the Dutch speaking community only.
I’ve always enjoyed travelling and being ‘on the road’...I like connections, variety, enjoy a sense of adventure and freedom. For these reasons – and as a strategy to stimulate my open mindedness - I’ve worked in a broad variety of environments while living in Ivory Coast, Romania, Kenya, England, Uganda and the Netherlands. The recurring theme has been supporting/empowering individuals and/or putting systems in place for vulnerable groups.
I was introduced to NVC in 2007 while working at the Sure Start programme in London. Trained as a social worker, I was intrigued by this offering as this seemed to touched on something else, deeper, more profound. After an IIT with Marshall in 2008 NVC became my life focus and I started offering training and 1:1 support via my organisation Flux. Since my certification in 2014, I’m connected to the trainersplatform of Ai-opener in the Netherlands.
People tell me they enjoy my calmness, clarity, depth and playfulness. I’m looking forward to travelling together for a while on our life journeys.
A psychologist by education, a trainer by passion.
Ola met Nonviolent Communication in 2001 it has been part of her life from the moment. she met it. Since then she has been active in promoting NVC in Poland.
Since 2010, she has been involved in the practice and promotion of Restorative Circles. She supports schools and kindergartens to implement Nonviolent Communication. She leads NVC workshops and programs and works with people individually.
Ola loves to accompany people in the certification process to support them. She is exploring the role of feedback as a way of being present, increasing connection and ongoing learning for all.
Matthew is An Assessor in Training and as such does not currently accept candidates.
​
Matthew Rich-Tolsma is a South African and Dutch organisational consultant, mediator, and trainer. He is also involved in mentoring certification candidates and leading conversations about evolving training and certification approaches in the contexts sub-Saharan Africa and in the Middle East. Matthew started his career in critical education and development in South Africa, before going on to live and work in China, and India. Since 2011 he has been based primarily in The Netherlands. He trained as a Montessori teacher and worked with young children, parents, and teachers in Montessori and democratic schools. He met Marshall in 2007 while doing this work, and later graduated from BayNVC’s Parent Peer Leadership Programme (PPLP07) and NVC Leadership Programme (LP08). He was certified in 2012; Towe was his assessor. He is presently concurrently training as a group analyst and an infant-parent psychoanalyst. When he first relocated to the Netherlands he worked in academia and researched transformative leadership and learning in relation to complex global challenges. Over the last decade and a half he has worked with global leadership teams and boards across a wide range of different industries and geographies. Presently he teaches at a number of higher education institutions and works as a consultant in a range of organisational and community settings, including working with complex ethnic and gender-based violence in global conflict zones.
Ian was born in Great Britain and has lived in Eastern Europe since 1994 - first in Poland and now in Romania. He first met Marshall in 2001 starting a personal transformation connecting with his deeper core and changing every aspect of his life. He has been a professional trainer and coach since 1991 and completed his NVC Certification in 2008.
His main areas of work are in organisations and with couples as well as building a thriving NVC community in Romania. He has run training in 20 countries and more recently has been offering mainly online work. He is a regular trainer on IITs and other longer programmes. He is a qualified coach and offers coaching and mentoring. He is known for his calm, grounded presence combined with a sense of humour.
Anniken is An Assessor in Training and as such does not currently accept candidates.
​
Anniken Poulsson Beer got to know NVC in 2006, as a principal in a kindergarten, it was received as the answer to her prayers for getting a toolbox for good communication.
Since then she started to learn about this as much as possible. She has run several projects on implementing NVC in Norwegian kindergartens, and the relationship between children and adults is still very dear to her.
She got certified in 2012, by Towe Widstrand, as the first one in Norway. By 2024 they are now 7 CT’s in Norway.
She holds a masters degree in Early Childhood Education and works as a freelance NVC trainer in Norway and abroad. She works with individuals, schools, organizations, workplaces and is also the CEO of NVC Norway.
Becoming an assessor in training has been on her mind for quite some years and it’s with great joy and respect she’s entering the EESEAT team.
Anniken meets people with warmth and humor. She enjoys meeting new people and being of support for them to find their way.
Born in the States, Amy has lived in Sweden since 1988.
Amy says: In 2014 I received Marshall Rosenberg's book: Nonviolent Communication, A language for life. It revealed a simple, and profound way to peel back layers of conditioning and explore humanity in new ways. With the exploration of NVC I have found a level of internal peace I didn't know existed! I was hooked.
Since then NVC has become a cornerstone of my life. One of my missions in life is to spread and support others in learning about NVC. Becoming a part of the ESEAT team is a strategy that helps me with that mission.
I look forward to supporting the ESEAT and all the individuals who cross their path.