David ShindollMy intention in creating this website is to support others and myself in learning and living Nonviolent Communication (NVC) consciousness and skills. I wish to provide a space where people who share a common interest in creating a world in which we have power with others instead of power over others can learn and work together to realize this vision.

I have been learning and sharing NVC since 1999 and became a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication www.cnvc.org in 2010. My particular focus with NVC is on how to live this consciousness with children, parents, and teachers in schools and in families. I have been working with children and their families for over 20 years in a variety of settings from villages for abandoned children in Bolivia and Costa Rica, to cram schools in Taiwan, to Montessori preschools and elementary schools in Denver. I have taught in Montessori schools for 15 years and have been a teacher trainer in Lower Elementary Language for the Montessori Education Center of the Rockies. In addition to my work with children, I also do couples/family mediation, communication coaching, present NVC trainings, facilitate a free weekly practice group in Denver, and am co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Center for Compassionate Communication.

In a sense, this website actually began on a crowded bus in Taiwan in 1993 when I first opened the book The Absorbent Mind by the Italian educator and doctor Maria Montessori that a friend had lent me. I found myself resonating deeply with her vision of education not as a mere transmission of knowledge but as a way to liberate our human potential by removing the obstacles that prevent us from being who we really are. NVC has given me clarity about the nature of these obstacles as well as providing me with the skills and consciousness that support me in living my values.

I am particularly interested in bringing more awareness about NVC to the Montessori community and educators in general because of the gap that I see between the language and consciousness that I have learned from my culture and the values I have around following the child, what it means to be an aware adult, and preparing an environment that reveals children instead of molding them. I hope that what you find on this website contributes to your life in some way. Please let me know if it did or not by responding to one of the blogs or e-mailing me at dshindoll@hotmail.com.

David Shindoll