Living Peacefully - Humanistic Counselling and Life-Coaching

17/03/2025

I'd like to invite you to "Embracing the Beauty of Needs under Our Core Beliefs" my online workshop via ZOOM on 6th April 2025 from 13:30 to 17:30 CET.

The intention of this workshop is to support you in:
• identifying some of your own core beliefs about who you are and what and how the world is
• recognising how these core beliefs have protected you and how they have helped you to survive in your life
• recognising these beliefs might have at the same time created a safe “prison” limiting you to thrive fully in your life
• identifying the needs underlying these core beliefs and the needs that are not served by these beliefs
• new awareness opening possibilities to new life-enhancing strategies that recognise and embrace all your needs.
• Ultimately, it intends to open the doors for us all to live in wholeness from the connection with the fullness of the Living Energy of Needs.

This workshop has been designed drawing heavily on The ONGO Book 2.0: Everyday Nonviolence by Catherine Cadden and Jesse Wiens Chu (with their agreement) and it is influenced by teaching on the beauty and living energy of needs by Robert Gonzales.

It has elements of teaching incorporated in it but the main idea is for it to be explorative and experiential. Hence, together we shall engage in a practice of exploration of our core beliefs and deep connection with our needs through practices of empathic presence and self-empathy.

For more information and to register please go to the link
https://events.humanitix.com/beauty-of-needs-within-our-core-beliefs
The number of participants is limited to 20.

Ths workshop is offered on a sliding scale from €0 - €100 to ensure the equality of access, all the proceeds from your contributions will be DONATED (read more about it on the registration page)

19/02/2025

Prijave su otvorene za sledeću NVC edukaciju koju ćemo voditi Snežana Molnar-Jokić i ja u Zagrebu.
Radujem se mogućnosti novog druženja u mojoj rodnoj zemlji.

Pozivamo vas na radionicu na kojoj će vam biti predstavljen esencijalni unutarnji proces NVC-a kroz oblik plesnog podija: „NVC Plesni Podij Bijesa“

Plesni podiji predstavljaju prostorne mape sastavljene od velikih kartica koje prikazuju NVC procese na podu u različitim konfiguracijama nazvanim “plesovi”. Ove inovativne metode razvile su certificirane trenerice Bridget Belgrave i Gina Lawrie početkom 2000-tih, pretvarajući originalne NVC procese Marshalla Rosenberga u prostorne mape koje aktivno koristimo u procesu NVC plesa.

Zašto je važno sudjelovati?

Duboko razumijevanje NVC procesa osnovni je preduvjet za pripremu i razvoj vašeg putovanja prema CNVC certifikaciji. Kroz ovu radionicu, produbit ćete svoju svijest i preuzeti odgovornost za življenje u skladu s NVC vrijednostima.

Što će te naučiti?

Radionica koristei Plesni podij koji:

Poštuje različite stilove učenja (slušni, kinestetski, vizualni)
Pruža vizualnu jasnoću bez upotrebe lutaka žirafe i vuka
Omogućuje aktivno i reflektivno učenje kroz interakciju i diskusiju
Pomaže u razumijevanju ključnih faktora vezanih uz NVC procese, uključujući unutarnje osude (govor vuka), svjesnost o osuđivanju i okrivljavanju te otkrivanje važnosti „vučjeg govora“ koji je dio NVC; i nije nešto što treba odbaciti, potisnuti, misliti da je loše, pogrešno ili nekorisno te kako je slušanje našeg “vučjeg govora” suštinski dio postojanja u svijesti žirafe

Više o edukaciji/radionici pročitajte putem linka ⬇️

https://nenasilnakomunikacija.hr/edukacija-radionica-nvc-plesni-podij-bijesa/

20/11/2024

When someone we love passes on, it feels like the world shifts beneath our feet. The emptiness they leave behind is overwhelming, a silence so loud it can consume us. We look for them in every shadow, every whisper of the wind, every familiar song. And yet, as much as we long for their presence, life continues, forcing us to learn a truth we never wanted to know: love doesn’t end when life does.

The people we love don’t truly leave us. They stay in the memories we carry, the lessons they taught us, the love they poured into us. Their laugh echoes in the back of our minds, their favorite phrases sneak into our conversations, and their essence lingers in the spaces they once filled.

Over time, the sharp ache of their absence softens into a bittersweet reminder of the love we shared. We begin to realize that they are not truly gone; they are woven into the fabric of who we are. Their love becomes a part of us, a quiet strength we carry through our days.

Grief doesn’t go away—it changes. It becomes a companion, a reminder of the depth of our love. We learn to live with it, not by forgetting, but by honoring. By smiling at their memory, by continuing traditions they held dear, by speaking their name with warmth instead of tears.

And though we may not see them, they are with us in ways that words can’t explain. In the quiet moments, when the world feels still, we sense them. In the milestones we wish they could witness, we feel their pride. In our hardest days, we feel the echo of their encouragement.

The love they gave us becomes our guide. It teaches us to cherish the present, to love deeply, and to never take a single moment for granted. Their absence reminds us to hold tightly to those who remain, to express our love without hesitation, and to live in a way that honors the legacy they left behind.

When people we love leave this world, they don’t leave us empty—they leave us full. Full of memories, full of lessons, full of love. And that love, even in their absence, has the power to sustain us, to heal us, and to remind us that they are never truly gone. They live on in us, in every step we take and every breath we draw.

They gave us their love, and that love remains. Always.

29/10/2024

Since waking up this morning and especially after the dyad meditation I’ve been feeling subtle joy of life and a deep sense of presence of love from within me, sense of Jerry with me that stems from that love within.
With that I decide to honour the moment, to stay in this connectedness with life, with Jerry, with Love. Like so many times before in the last 20+ months since Jerry died, I sit on the upstairs balcony, Jerry’s photo on the table, a candle lit and very soon blown off by the wind. Sipping coffee sharing a moment of love with Jerry without his physical presence with me.
I decide to check my journals and open on today’s date a year ago, here is the entry from then:

“Seasons change, life around me moves. It is inevitable.
But inside I am at a crossroad. A slight confusion between moving forward and moving on. I do not want to move on from you.
Moving forward is inevitable. It happens naturally with life.
The only question is whether I move forward consciously, or I suffer in resistance trying to hold on to something that is no longer there.
And so, I find myself binging on Netflix. Unconsciously avoiding moving forward with life. Impasse. Neither here nor there. Buying time for a week, or, at least, until I finish the six seasons of yet another hospital drama.
However, I cannot avoid it for long.
First, tears break out in a meditation. They seems to be saying: “I do not want to move on. I am scared if I move on, I’ll forget you.”
This is enough opening for Life. It reaches out. It finds me, even through Netflix.
Life is smart like that. It finds the smallest crack in our defences and it touches our vulnerable heart from where we expect it the least. This time it is through a dialogue in the episode 2 of season 4 of this hospital drama:
Dr. C: Maybe it is time we stopped coming here.
Dr. K: You’re ready to move on?
Dr. C: No. But, he’ll still be with us, right? Wherever we are.
He changed me. That’s not gonna go away.”
This resonates and I awake to an insight – it is not about moving on, away from you my Love. It is about integrating you and moving forward with you. And then whenever and wherever I need you – I stop, I take a breath. And, I tap into that of you that is forever a part of me.”

And today, a year since the above journal entry I tap into that of you in me with ease, with joy, from within love.
I chose to share this because for me it shows the depth, complexity and simplicity of grief as well as life and love. For me today is a celebration of grief as a process of deep authenticity and honesty. I celebrate that today a year later I can report that I’ve been slowly living that insight. Today Jerry is integrated within to the point that I am able to sip coffee sharing a moment of love with him without his physical presence with me. Physical death ’’ended the life but not the relationship.’’ I know that there will be moments of sadness again. There will be moments of missing him on this path and in my process of grief, but today I feel fully alive, I am joyous and I am sharing in Jerry’s Loving Presence. For now that is enough, it’s more than enough, it’s a precious gift and blessing of love.
And maybe someone deeply in grief will read this and it will give them a tiny glimmer of hope, and, if not, it still sustains me, and I honour both grief and love.


Gordana Stankovic

15/10/2024

ONENESS

The moment I die,
I will try to come back to you
as quickly as possible.
I promise it will not take long.
Isn’t it true
I am already with you,
as I die each moment?
I come back to you
in every moment.
Just look,
feel my presence.
If you want to cry,
please cry.
And know
that I will cry with you.
The tears you shed
will heal us both.
Your tears are mine.

Thich Nhat Hanh
"How to Live When a Loved One Dies"

16/01/2024

We all need to be on a look out for more glimmers💖

24/12/2023

So true.

09/10/2023

NVC has changed my life in so many ways and it is an essential part of my counselling and coaching practice.
If you are curious about NVC, or would like to deepen your skills NVC Global Rising is offering many free events during the October and November, check it out!
And if you wish to immerse yourself in this way of life check out the NVC Raising 10 months online programme.