About NVCSC: Meet the Trainers

Jean Morrison
831-685-2326 giraffe@cruzio.com

Jean Morrison, MA, has worked in the areas of health, education, business, and criminal justice since 1985; with individuals, families, and groups who want more satisfying relationships and harmonious interactions. She's a facilitator, communications coach, and mediator and she feeds her vitality and creativity by her involvement in a variety of settings for her work and projects. She continues her own learning process with the diversity of her clients.

Jean has been an NVC-certified trainer since 1989, and deeply appreciates the value of compassionate communication and the contribution it makes to the quality of her own life as well as others.

After receiving her masters degree in Psychology, Jean went on to discover NVC and the benefits of working at the human-to-human level with each person or group she is with. To augment her understanding of human relations, she continues to study and integrate the Enneagram, and whole brain learning and thinking styles. Both of these systems help clarify the dimensions and patterns of feelings, thoughts, and strategies operating within each of us in all of our relationships and life circumstances.

For playful group interactions and to contribute to groups and organizations, she facilitates retreats; and is an associate with Apex Adventures for team development.

Kelly Bryson
831-462-EARS kelly@languageof compassion.com

www.languageof compassion.com

Kelly Bryson, MA, MFT, is the author of the best selling book Don't be Nice, Be Real - Balancing Passion for Self with Compassion for Others.

He has been featured in Elle magazine, chosen by Barnes and Noble for special promotion, seen on NBC news, ABC AM Northwest, CBS, and heard on NPR, KPBS, KPFK in L.A.  He is also a humorist, guitarist/ singer/ songwriter, speaker (keynote for National Montessori, Sunday morning speaker for many churches) licensed marriage, family and child counselor in private practice, and director of The Center for Compassion in San Diego.

He is an authorized trainer for The International Center for Nonviolent Communication(sm), and has trained thousands in the U.S., Europe (the Zegg Community in Germany) and the Middle East including hot spots like Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and Israel. He trains and consults with corporations (Bristol Myers, Tony Robbins, Paul Mitchell), churches (all flavors), schools, (Cal State Long Beach, Body/Mind College, School of Healing Arts), clubs and organizations. 

Christine King
831-454-6330 cking@baymoon.com

www.mindfulmediation.com

Christine King's undergraduate degree is in the social sciences and she is credentialed to teach kindergarten through high school. Christine has a strong interest in understanding why countries go to war, which led her in the 1980s to earn an advanced degree in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
She's traveled, lived, and worked overseas, including with the United Nations. Locally, Christine has been employed by the University of California, Santa Cruz Waldorf School, and Santa Cruz City Schools.

Christine has practiced Buddhist meditation for over 30 years, actively participates in the Santa Cruz Society of Friends, and sings with the Threshold Choir. Christine has been married to Mark Neenan for 30 years and they have two adult children. She has co-taught a Mindful Communication course with Mark at Stanford University for the past three years.

After hearing a talk by Marshall Rosenberg and taking classes with NVC Certified Trainer Jean Morrison in the late 1990s, Christine realized that Nonviolent Communication was the missing link between her meditation practice and social action work. Since 1999 she has studied NVC extensively: attending classes, workshops, retreats, and international trainings in preparation for receipt of her NVC certification in 2004. Christine is passionate about this work and enjoys sharing it with participants of all ages. She is part of the NVC voluntary team that is teaching at San Quentin Prison.

Rick Longinotti
831-425-7581
longinotti@baymoon.com

www.Findingharmony.org

Rick Longinotti, MFT, encountered Marshall Rosenberg when a friend invited him to a workshop in 2001. It was good timing, he says. "I had trouble relating to a co-worker and less than joyful interactions with my teenagers. I was ripe to learn something new.

"I’m grateful for the changes I’ve experienced in my family relationships and work life. NVC is the tool that has given me a different relationship to myself. Everything else flows from there."

Rick left his electrical contracting business to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. His private practice focuses on couples, men and relationships, parents and teens, and family reconciliation. Rick speaks Spanish fluently.

In 2004, Rick co-founded NVC Santa Cruz with Jean, Christine, Kelly, and his life partner of 32 years, Aviva. Rick and Aviva teach NVC to couples in workshops and private sessions. They also lead workshops on NVC and Social Activism and have been guest lecturers in Sociology, Psychology, and Education for Sustainable Living classes at UCSC. Rick has also taught communication workshops at SAFE, a drug rehabilitation program in the Santa Cruz County Jail and teaches NVC in Spanish in Watsonville.

Kristin Masters is committed to creating a world that works for everyone. She has long been a group facilitator and diversity trainer, and loves helping groups find ways to move toward the goals of their good work more easily. She is currently engaged in learning, teaching and sharing compassionate communication, and is working toward certification as an NVC trainer through CNVC.  

NVC came to Kristin via Jean Morrison early in their friendship and collaboration on the Alternatives to Violence Project at San Quentin Prison. NVC seemed like a smart addition to the conflict resolution work Kristin was already engaged in, and she incorporated it into staff trainings in her long time work as the director of the City’s community center. NVC took on more meaning when it saved her relationship from a harsh stuck place. She happily took on the role of board chair for NVCSantaCruz upon its formation, and never looked back.

For nearly twenty years, Kristin has been a leader in diversity issues and believes that we can heal the hurts we’ve suffered in our domination society. She joined and led a local chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute, building community around fighting oppression. She anticipates great joy in the future of applying NVC to social change and healing. She also utilizes Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects – incorporating empowerment, mourning and action.

“I am thrilled to join this venture of NVC and Diversity, as it joins two bodies of work that fuel my life and passion for justice: liberation work and compassionate communication.”

“I anticipate contributing to the creation of a safe environment, one in which we choose to share, to heal, to learn from one other and to express what is alive in us as people who live in a world lacking the peace and justice we yearn for. I am a passionate advocate of creativity and justice, and I dream of a time when each person knows they are (watch out, here comes some evaluation words) beautiful, valuable, and that their contributions are important and well received.”