My life has been profoundly influenced by the war and breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when my hometown of Vukovar, in Croatia, was severely ruined. The war in my own country intensified my need and search for peace in the world, which eventually led me to Nonviolent Communication (NVC). The more I dived into NVC, the clearer it became to me that, when looking for peace and harmony in the world, we need to start on the level of each human being and her or his (universal) human needs.
Next to learning and practicing NVC, I also obtained a Diploma in Humanist Counselling at the Academy for Counselling and Coaching (ACC) in the Netherlands. This was a part of my desire to constructively use my life experience and knowledge in order to help others to look into themselves and find that light that, in my opinion, everyone carries inside them. Hence, until recently, I have mostly used NVC to guide people in one-on-one settings in my counselling and coaching practice.
However, in the last couple of years, I have started offering NVC trainings, which have varied in content and themes: from the Introduction to the Basics of NVC, via individual Dance Floor (following Bridget Belgrave & Gina Lawrie‘s Dance Floors) to the Beauty of Needs workshops. I have facilitated trainings both in person and online, and I have offered them in English, as well as in Serbian and Croatian languages.
Through my life journey and experiences of loss over the years, I have become aware of how important it is to grieve fully in order to live fully. Hence, in 2021, I chose to follow David Kessler’s very first Grief Educator Certification program. Less than two years later, I was able to apply much of my learning and the previous experiences of loss and grief, as well as my NVC practice, when, suddenly, Jerry, my beloved partner (in life and on my NVC journey), died in 2023.
Through my decision to consciously and intentionally embrace the grieving process, I became aware that there is almost a necessity for “normalization” of grief in our everyday interactions and on the societal level. Grief, which is not witnessed, acknowledged, processed, and/or expressed in some way, is very likely to turn into a “tragic expression of needs” such as increased divisions and violence among and between groups of people and nations, alienation, numbing, and addictions, and a number of other maladies in our societies both on individual and group level.
What I am passionate about communicating now is that grief is both a path to and a full expression of life to be embraced and lived. I plan to develop and offer trainings that would marry my knowledge and experience of loss and grief with my NVC knowledge and way of life. And I wish to collaborate with other NVC trainers and grief practitioners on this.