I am passionate about life and living. Yet I also know these moments when life feels like it is falling apart and rips the heart open with grief and fear and loss. I know how it feels to withdraw and to not want to be in this world. When heavy clouds of sadness, fear and despair weigh on the heart and mind. When life hits with unforeseen hardness. And I have come to trust the life force within!

I am passionate about opening into the experience and to surrender as a practice of meeting life.

My professional background

Here you can see the trainings in the 5 pillars  (NVC, Living Compassion, IFS, Mindfulness and Yoga) I absolved over the years and the training experience I got: curriculum vitae. 

My personal story

Growing up and living with my brother, grandmother and parents, I had a family home in which the adults did their best given their knowledge and capacities to provide love and shelter to us kids. Nevertheless there was yelling, door slamming, blame, accusations, hurt and once in a while we did get a smack on the ear. When my grandmother started to need caretaking, tension and (loud) conflicts started to be a “normal” part of our daily life and I started to suffer more and more.

How NVC came into play

I stumbled upon NVC in 2004 during my Social Work studies in Berlin. After approximately 10 years of an ever escalating dynamic of tension in my family,  it was a more than needed refuge. I will never forget how stunned I was reading Marshall’s book. It felt like coming home. There was another way, I knew it and somebody wrote it down: there it was, in black and white!

What changed with NVC?

Almost immediately NVC helped me build a bridge between my heart and the heart of my family members, (as well as others). It gave me concrete tools to connect to myself and to hear and understand others. NVC therefore helped me overcome the separation I felt in my family and gave rise to compassion. It enabled me to access and live the love I carry in my heart, the love that was buried by bitterness, anger, frustration and powerlessness.

Personal healing

To me the NVC process invites us onto a very personal, yet universal human journey. In my own life, NVC helped me to discover how much I long for love and harmony in my family, provided me with the tools and got me in touch with the inner power (self-empowerment) to co-create it. Robert Gonzales’ work of living compassion based on NVC, helped me get in touch with younger parts of myself that come up in my daily interactions, in moments of hurt and pain or challenge. I learned to provide a warm, loving and emotionally soothing embrace for those parts that need re-parenting. I deepened this work with IFS. Read more here:  My work

Social Dimensions

Which world do I want to live in? How do the systems (family, schools, work environment, country, etc.) influence how I see the world and myself? How does this conditioning influence my thoughts, speech and actions? NVC helped me inquire into these fields and see the interconnectedness.
I was growing up in East Germany, in a system that was set up to educate human beings to not question authority, follow rules and become diligent workers. Even though diligence is a quality I can find appreciation for, I also see that I was not raised to believe in myself (inner authority/wisdom), my gifts (self-confidence) and the capacity to take risks and dream big in this life. I gradually have to rebuild this connection to myself.

NVC Teachers that shaped me most

Once found, I immediately immersed myself into the teachings and feel blessed that I was given the chance to meet and learn with Marshall B. Rosenberg, the founder of NVC, between 2004 and 2007.

Alongside meeting Marshall and feeling deeply inspired and devoted to the way of living with honesty and empathy, I came across NVC teacher Robert Gonzales in 2006. His spiritual emphasis of NVC immediately touched my heart and I felt deep resonance. I followed the call to deepen my learning with him and have done his two-year course three times (participating once, assisting twice). He taught me how to deeply be with my own and others’ pain and to apply the powerful and concrete tools NVC offers to help transform the hardened knot of suffering into the vibrant living energy of life. Robert midwifed me into living more fully and embracing my pain.

NVC and more…

Parallel to this immersion with NVC and IFS the spiritual teachings of love, compassion, mindfulness and a deep reverence for life as promoted in Buddhism and the Yogic teachings of remembering our true nature, Sat Chid Ananda, began to consolidate the firm ground I find myself standing on today. They have become the five pillars of my life and work. Read more under My work.

What I offer

Holding a space for compassionate (self-) connection, empowerment and healing is the most meaningful thing to me. I do this in individual sessions as well as in workshops. Please see more here about my offerings (one-on-one sessions, workshops).

I am grateful to anyone who crosses my path and shares this passion for life. May we grow, learn and heal together. May we inspire each other and be lights upon one another’s path. May we “walk each other home” (Ram Das).