Living Peace Retreat

An Online Retreat in Nonviolent Communication
with Oren Jay Sofer and Roxy Manning

August 21 – 24, 2025
9:00–11:00am & 1:00–3:00pm PT, Daily

Are you interested in developing skills to work for change and make peace in your community, at home, and at work? The tools of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) can support us with skills to navigate challenging situations with loved ones, in hierarchical workplace settings, and during these challenging times of great change. With training, we can learn to stay balanced and make a difference for everyone whose lives we touch.

Join us for this special, four-day online retreat exploring NVC as an embodied practice for transforming our lives, relationships, and world.

What You’ll Learn and Practice

  • Stay grounded in challenging moments
  • Listen deeply—even when others are reactive
  • Speak with clarity, honesty, and care
  • Resolve conflicts with more confidence and ease
  • Navigate power dynamics at work or home
  • Strengthen your relationships
  • Communicate across differences with skill
  • Apply nonviolence in social change and justice work

PROGRAM DETAILS

  • When: August 21–24, 2025
  • Schedule: 9:00–11:00am & 1:00–3:00pm PT
  • Where: Online via Zoom
  • Format: Two sessions/day + optional empathy group
  • Who: Open to all—no prior experience required
  • Sliding Scale: $1000–$250 (Requested: $650)
  • Scholarships: Apply by June 30 (then rolling)
  • Recordings: Available for six weeks
  • Questions? Email us here

About the Retreat

This online retreat includes two interactive sessions per day with teaching, practice and discussion: from 9 – 11 am and 1 – 3 pm Pacific Time, plus the option to join a one-hour empathy practice group each day (empathy groups will be offered at various times to accommodate time zones and work schedules).

Who’s It For?

This retreat is appropriate for those new to Nonviolent Communication as well as for experienced practitioners seeking to bring their practice to a new level. Previous retreats have drawn therapists, activists, teachers, health care providers, parents, writers, artists, engineers, life coaches, and many more. Please note: This program does not currently offer CEs.

group of people

(Participants at Living Peace Retreat (residential)

““This retreat was a beautiful experience that filled the gap between learning and practice.””
— Grace Yang, Therapist and Lawyer, San Francisco Bay Area

GET SUPPORT IN KEY AREAS

  • Collaborating more effectively
  • Resolving conflict with colleagues
  • Understanding internal conflicts or “stuck” places
  • Feeling more confident in tense moments
  • Making clear decisions
  • Working with clients, patients, and customers
  • Growing communication skills with children
  • Embodying nonviolence in social change work

What You Receive

  • Four days of live, interactive online teaching
  • 16 hours of training towards CNVC certification
  • Small group coaching with experienced assistants
  • Robust packet of NVC reference materials
  • Tools to integrate NVC into daily life
  • A welcoming, diverse learning community
  • Daily empathy practice groups (optional)
  • Six weeks of access to session recordings
““Learning NVC has .... positively impacted my relationships with adults and my students. I have more compassion and understanding, even in stressful times.””
— Maria, Elementary School Teacher, San Francisco

Beyond the Retreat: Immersion in Nonviolent Communication

Participants may apply to continue their learning in the Immersion in NVC (“IN”), an 8-month online program that we are offering from September 2025 through April 2026. More detailed information can be found in the IN info packet. NOTE that the Living Peace Retreat provides the small group experience recommended as a prerequisite for IN.

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Program Leadership

The Living Peace Retreat will be co-led by Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainers Roxy Manning, Ph.D. and Oren Jay Sofer, and will be supported by a team of experienced NVC assistants. Our leadership team is designed to provide significant coaching in small groups.

Roxy Manning, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist, certified Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) trainer, and author of How to Have Antiracist Conversations and The Anti-Racist Heart. Since 2004 she has operated a private consulting business and regularly holds international workshops and intensives centered around nonviolent communication and social change issues. She has served as executive director of Bay Area Nonviolent Communication and focuses her outside efforts on working with the homeless population of San Francisco.

Oren Jay Sofer, a CNVC Certified Nonviolent Communication Trainer, teaches workshops and retreats on meditation and communication internationally. His teaching emphasizes how awareness practice and communication training deepen one another in a synergistic manner. He holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University and is certified as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for healing trauma. Oren is a husband, a father, and the author of several books including Your Heart Was Made For This, and the best-selling title, Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication.

““Roxy and Oren have an almost magical capacity for teaching NVC in a relatable way.””
— Chantelle Britton, Government Executive, Richmond, VA

Program Cost

This retreat is offered on a sliding scale with scholarships available. People who contribute at the top of the sliding scale support our ability to offer spaces at a cost below the bottom of the sliding scale to those who would otherwise be unable to participate.

Sliding Scale: $1000 - $250

Our sliding scale is intended to make this retreat accessible to people of a wide range of income levels. Requested tuition is $650; please choose an amount that reflects your ability to contribute. People who contribute above the requested rate support our ability to offer scholarships to those who would otherwise be unable to participate.

financial aid & accessibility

We wish to support all people who are passionate about this work to train with us, independent of their current access to financial resources. We recognize that, because of various social and economic systems, some people experience financial barriers to participating in events with cost-based attendance.

We are explicitly inviting participation by people who come from any of the following communities. We know that when these people are included, all communities benefit:

  • People with visible or invisible disabilities

  • People who do not have white skin privilege and/or who come from communities who have been targets of racism

  • People who identify as LGTBQIA+

  • Low-income/poor or working class people

If you identify as part of one of the communities listed above and would like to be considered for a low-cost space, please apply for a scholarship by June 30, 2025. We will award our limited scholarship grants after this date. Preference will be given to those who are new to this work and who have not attended past events at reduced or no cost.

Questions about this retreat? Feel free to email us here.

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“As a coach and former learning and development executive, I have a high bar for learning experiences and can say with confidence: this retreat is an excellent use of time!”

— Linda Platt, Executive Coach, Boston, MA

 

"A special opportunity to deepen my understanding of the principles of NVC and to practice them in a very supportive, caring environment."

— Anna Cassilly, Communication and Conflict Resolution Trainer, Corvallis, OR

 

“Roxy is a natural healer with a huge capacity to hold pain and and create space for deep healing. I love the way Roxy facilitates groups; there’s something about her energy and the way she leans forward that inspires me and gives me hope.”

— Martha Lasley, Founder and Certified Coach, Leadership that Works

 

“Being able to tune in to myself and become more fully present while in the presence of challenges with loved ones has been revolutionary. This training is making me more attuned as a therapist.”

— Kitty Costello, Author and Psychotherapist, San Francisco, CA

 


“This practice has brought me closer to my family and friends than any other life event. I see the world as a more beautiful place now.”

— Laura W., Middle School Teacher, Oakland, CA.