Who We Are
Sandra Amiry
NVC Coach and Trainer
Since 2004, I have been practicing and sharing Nonviolent Communication (NVC), as part of my passion for building stronger relationships and developing more integrated and sustainable communities. Before finding NVC, I searched and studied countless communication/relationship help methods to try and find an answer that would break the repeated cycle of disconnection that seemed to plague my and others relationships. After discovering NVC, I almost immediately saw shifts in communication with myself and others; it truly was like magic. I felt so moved and inspired I decided to dedicate myself to sharing NVC, and my discoveries, with others.
Since 2010, teaching NVC has been central to my life, and I am grateful to have worked with various NVC teachers including Marshall Rosenberg, founder of NVC. I joined the team at Rose City NVC at this time, gaining training and experience through the Oregon Prison Project (OPP) co-founded by Rose City NVC in 2009. OPP provides a supervised, hands-on practicum environment where trainers can further develop their own NVC consciousness as well as their teaching expertise. Through our project I’ve taught NVC at Oregon State Penitentiary, Columbia River Correctional Institution, the Reentry Transition Center in Portland, and most recently at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. This work has been exquisitely meaningful to me as it brings about essential changes in the justice system. It fosters deep transformation, equipping incarcerated persons with the necessary skills to reintegrate into communities and families effectively, safely and with reduced recidivism. Learn more: Oregon Prison Project
My love of NVC led me to get further involved and pursue Certification. I joined a Trainer community team process which challenged me to “360 feedback,” enabling me to identify and create distance from all that might inhibit me from sharing this work with others. I’ve worked as a Certified NVC trainer for The Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) since 2016.
I excitedly assumed leadership of Rose City NVC in 2017. I currently facilitate Rose City NVC’s various classes, workshops, practice groups, and organizational training with the help of my “teachers in training.” I also offer coaching and mediation to individuals, couples, families, groups and organizations. I delight in offering flexibility and in the creating of offerings/support that work uniquely for each individual or group!
I integrate many other modalities including Trauma work, Codependency issues, Cognitive-behavioral, Interpersonal Neurobiology, etc., with an emphasis on Mindfulness and Body Awareness Practices. I include practices which allow me other avenues to enhance the essence of our NVC work. While I believe the words and form of NVC can help my participants touch into a place of greater compassion and understanding, I also believe that holding a space of compassion and flexibility creates ease in adopting this new way of relating.
Additional specialties include: anxiety, depression, trauma healing, addiction, codependency, divorce, parenting/co-parenting, relationship conflict, somatic experiencing, mindfulness, abuse recovery, blended families, grief and loss, alternative relationship styles, life transitions, healthy choices, decision-making.
Dana Horner
I started my NVC journey in 2016 as a way to gain more understanding of my past trauma. I was completely disconnected from myself and my past experiences, which kept me from having deeper and meaningful relationships with those who mattered most to me. When I took the first introductory class with Rose City NVC, I was immediately intrigued, and hungry for more, I soon attended every class, workshop, and practice group Rose City offered.
Nonviolent communication spoke to me in ways that self-help books and previous counseling had not. I spent my first three years learning how to connect to myself and how to listen to and communicate what was going on inside me.
Within my first year, I started volunteering with Rose City in the Oregon Prisons, and after three years, I started leading practice groups. In these groups, I was able to peel back more layers and grow. I have been mentored by Sandra Amiry of Rose City NVC, and taken classes with Tim Buckley with Salem Mid Valley NVC, Mary McKenzie with the NVC Academy, and Thom Bond with the New York Center for Nonviolent Communication. I also co–facilitated practice groups with fellow teachers in training.
NVC has been my saving grace, my sanctuary, and my church. Without this practice, I would not have the tools to show up in the relationships that are so important to me. I found healing not in the learning of a new thing, but in the practice of doing a new thing over and over again and seeing the results expand beyond my imagination!