You learn how to speak with honest authenticity and vulnerability, listen with real empathy, think and feel through difficult patches, act in alignment with what is true for you and become effective in building compassionate and supportive relationships.

The result is that you to become a skilled communicator and can create more genuine love, support, and connection in your relationships. The focus is on opening the heart, mind and energy to your natural state of love and care, and learning how to find the words that reflect this in your communication, with an emphasis on how this relates to your personal journey and the spiritual implications of the principles and practice.

The skills are based on NVC, the work of renowned psychologist Marshall Rosenberg. I also incorporate mindfulness and nonverbal energetics of the language of the body.

There emphasis is on embodying the principles that are at the core of compassion as well as developing the foundational tools that take compassion into action. Through this practice you also have the opportunity to look inside at your personal belief systems and change what is in you that is not supportive of what of what you value. You transform yourself from the inside out. The level of sharing is rich and the connections deep.

Love is what we are born from. It is our spiritual nature. It is our natural state of being, especially for us women. This natural state of love needs nurturing, as we travel through the challenging terrain of life, terrain which often leaves our love covered over with layers of hurt, emotional pain and contraction.

We women are the weavers of the social fabric of life. We are natural connectors. Our love is our power. Unfortunately in this culture we have been taught not to share our love with each other. We have been taught to be in competition with each other. So instead of being allies for one another at a deep level we are at odds.

Do you ever find yourself feeling lonely, yearning to share the depths of your heart, but not feeling like you can, even though you have women friends? You are not alone in this.

Even if you have gotten past the hurdle of being in competition with other women, the way that we are taught to speak with each other is based on competition and judgment. Have you ever tried to share something tender with another women only to end up thinking “oh forget it”, because she wasn’t able to listen to you in a way that helped you to feel heard and really understood?

We women are also particularly vulnerable to loosing ourselves to others and loosing our center in our relationships, taking us away from self connection, our truth and our naturally loving nature. It is time to unwind these habits.

Creating connection and nurturing it is a learned skill. The Alchemy of Empathy is about learning that skill and using it to create supportive connections and friendships with the women in your life.

In the Alchemy of Empathy you will develop the self connection and communication skills that will give you the ability to be honest, courageous, clear, transparent, vulnerable, caring, understanding and real without loosing yourself or your connection with another, even in conflict or in the face of upset. Through the principles and tools of Compassionate Communication (based on NVC), you will learn to express yourself and listen to others in ways that are empowering and connecting to everyone.

The passage from 50 to 60 to 70 and beyond is unique through every decade. We older women are lumped into the “over 50” category as if life stops at 50 and nothing else happens for us of any consequence. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life is as nuanced as we get older as it is in our teens and early adulthood.

The multifacet events events of late mid life can leave us feeling lost. Children leaving home, our bodies changes radically, parents passing, careers changing, core relationships needing redefinition, questioning our identity can leave us with big unanswered questions. All these changes happening pretty much in a short period of time, leave us with the need to reinvent ourselves in a culture that is ready to put us out to pasture. It is a challenge to navigate through this world and stay vital and fully engaged with creating our next chapters.

In a circle of women practicing loving acceptance, appreciation, gratitude and support, you uncover what really matters to you and cultivate true self-love and self-respect. Experience the joys of sharing the common threads of womanhood, feminine essence and empowerment and reclaim your vitality and enthusiasm as you travel through the realms of being an “older woman”.

Are commercial group adventures and meet up groups a turn-off because of all the hubbub and surface chitchat that goes on? Contempletive Nature Awareness offers you the opportunity to be in nature with a focus on inner reflection, body awareness, communion with nature and the sweet sharing that can happen among an openhearted group of women, when focused on connecting and sharing what is meaningful.

Here is your chance to be out in the beauty of nature in a contemplation and rejuvenate your feminine spirit and body. In these small group outdoor gatherings, you have plenty of time to be silent and allow your connection with the natural elements to deepen. You will also learn how to prepare yourself for being outside, in the way that honors your femininity, so that you can be comfortable, safe and free to relax.