I understand nonviolence not as passivity, politeness, or moral performance, but as a demanding practice of relationship. It asks how people can remain human with one another under pressure, especially when fear, injury, power, history, and difference are present.

That requires more than communication technique. It requires courage, discipline, presence, and the capacity to face painful realities without collapsing into domination, avoidance, sentimentality, or pseudo-harmony.

My work in this area is shaped by a long engagement with dialogue, mediation, restorative thinking, relational accountability, and the ethics of power. I am certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication and a Certified Facilitator of the Work that Reconnects. In addition, I have a long history of working with nonviolence approaches rooted in African Knowledge Systems (AKS), and have trained in Kindian and Gandhian approaches to nonviolence at the Metta Center.

A major strand of this work has been my longstanding involvement with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC).

I have served as a trainer, mediator, facilitator, governance leader, and contributor to international dialogue and organisational development. My past roles have included service as President of the global Board of Directors, alongside broader work in leadership, training, conflict transformation, policy reflection, and institutional accountability.

I have taught NVC all over the world, including being the first Certified Trainer to teach in several countries such as Syria and South Sudan. I am a regular faculty member at CNVC’s International Intensive Trainings, and mentor African certification candidates.

This experience gave me deep exposure to the possibilities and tensions of building nonviolent practice across cultures, languages, and organisational systems.

My work has also been shaped by international peacebuilding engagement, including work connected to Nonviolent Peaceforce, the Taatof Foundation in Syria, and related initiatives concerned with accompaniment, protection, conflict transformation, and nonviolent capacity in fragile or polarised settings.

These experiences sharpened my understanding that conflict is never simply about poor communication. It is also shaped by trauma, fear, structural inequality, memory, political history, and struggles over dignity, recognition, and safety.

This is why my approach to conflict remains relational and compassionate, but also socially and politically serious.

I work with leaders, teams, organisations, and communities seeking more mature ways of engaging conflict, rupture, mistrust, difference, and repair.

This may take the form of:

• workshops and trainings in Nonviolent Communication
• mediation and facilitated dialogue
• conflict transformation processes
• leadership and governance support in conflictual settings
• accompaniment in times of rupture, mistrust, or polarisation
• reflective work on power, justice, accountability, and recognition
• peacebuilding and relational resilience work in international or intercultural settings

I am particularly interested in the tension between compassion and accountability, and in forms of conflict engagement that are both humane and reality-based.

• Longstanding involvement with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication
• Former President of the global Board of Directors of CNVC
• Extensive experience as an NVC trainer, mediator, and facilitator
• International peacebuilding experience, including work connected to Nonviolent Peaceforce
• Work across multicultural, conflict-affected, and institutionally complex contexts
• Strong grounding in dialogue, conflict transformation, governance, restorative thinking, and relational accountability