Mission
& About Us
History, Mission & About Us
In 2005 Christine and Jean met to brainstorm their vision, mission, and direction as they launched their NVC products and materials. Here are some things they wrote on their wall chart in big, colorful letters...
• make empathy easily learned, celebrated, and a "household word”
• share NVC with the larger community via kinesthetic, interactive and playful activities
• contribute to peace and harmony in relationships, families, groups, schools
• bring a peaceful and harmonious consciousness to games
• support families to resolve conflicts joyfully and easily create win-win
• make and create peace one piece at a time
• have fun!
With a MA in Sports Psychology, Jean has long had an interest in learning through playful engagement and has loved teaching cooperative games that stretch the imagination and spirit. As a life-long meditator with a MA in international relations, Christine has pursued an interest in restorative justice, mindfulness, and conflict resolution from the personal to the global. Given their parallel backgrounds as small business owners and years of experience teaching Nonviolent (Compassionate) Communication (NVC), it was a natural next step for
Jean and Christine to combine their strengths and launch their GROK product business in 2006. Starting with GROK games, Jean and Christine continued to add more specialized products to help the world learn and live the principles and practices of NVC. As their work spread, international NVC collaborators joined them and translated the products which are now offered in ten other countries.
Grok The World Co-Founder & Partner
Christine King, MA
Christine King, MA has a passion for personal and planetary transformation. She supports groups, individuals and couples in deepening their communication, compassion, and empathy skills. Since 2010, she has taught courses at the University of California Santa Cruz in the following areas: Transformative Action, Transformation Communication, Transformative Justice, and Awakening Compassion.
Fueled by her work in the field of education and a strong interest in personal growth, Christine has traveled, studied, lived, worked and taught overseas in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and the Far East. For over 20 years she raised children, chickens, bees and a garden in the countryside while pursuing her interests in meditation, exercise, and social justice.
When Christine found Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC), she resonated deeply with the consciousness of NVC and became a certified trainer in 2002. “Discovering NVC was a pivotal point in my life. After learning and practicing the skills, it seemed like my entire worldview fell into place—my lifelong interest in politics and justice, self-transformation, and mindfulness. Nonviolent Communication holds a container for all of my passions providing the insight, intention, and clarity to both make sense of the world and be an agent of change. I have tremendous gratitude for NVC developer Marshall Rosenberg and his gift so generously given."
“Since graduate school, I have made a career in education—as a teacher, administrator, and perpetual student. I bring openness, curiosity, passion, and the joy of learning to this work. In 2002, I co-founded NVC Santa Cruz with CNVC trainer Jean Morrison and we subsequently developed groktheword developing and spreading NVC educational products.
In 2018 Christine and her husband left Santa Cruz for the north bay of San Francisco. She is currently teaching NVC at San Quentin State Prison to a group of highly motivated and grateful inmates. She continues her private practice in mediation, facilitation, and communication coaching in the bay area.
Grok The World Partner
Mary Goyer, M.S.
Mary Goyer, MS is an executive consultant, holistic counselor & trainer specializing in the intersection of leadership development, trauma healing, and communication in the workplace. She draws upon her traditional training in Marriage & Family Therapy (MFT), her background as an instructional specialist, and her expertise in mindfulness & somatic healing techniques to help professionals in struggling teams tap into their creative, collaborative potential, so they can make a bigger impact.
Mary spent the first leg of her career as an educator, counselor, and consultant working with vulnerable “tweens” and teens in traditional school settings. She supported students directly for years, and continues to offer her work providing trauma-informed professional development for educators. Mary’s passion for cultivating community through interpersonal skills trainings is part of her holistic approach, supporting the sustainability and resiliency of educators, and the academic success of youth. She has recently started designing corporate/school partnership projects, which aim to resource more schools with social-emotional programming to benefit entire communities.
Mary’s current organizational work is characterized by her warm, interdisciplinary approach for business leaders wanting to make a difference. She combines her teaching, coaching, and counseling backgrounds to implement step-by-step culture change strategies in organizations wishing to scale consciously. She helps them cultivate the relationship skills that support collaboration, innovation and a healthy culture – so they can be the change-makers they’re meant to be.
VP of Everything
Claire Schwartz, M.A.
As a new parent in 2019, the core principals of NVC have never been more important to Claire as they are now. Practicing compassion and empathy for herself, her daughter and her husband have helped her navigate the ups and downs of family life.
Co-Founder, Consultant and Contributor
Jean Morrison, MA
Jean Morrison, MA Co-Founder with Christine King in 2005 of Galloping Giraffe Enterprises and GROKtheWORLD.com
She is a certified trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC.org
Jean has been providing trainings, consultation, and mediation for diverse groups and organizations for the past 30 years. Her current work in her ‘Pseudo Retirement” includes counseling and coaching individuals, couples, and small working teams; and creating new products and materials to support quality connections and compassionate communication around the world.
Since her childhood in rural Northern California, Jean has had strong values for compassionate communication, personal responsibility, healthy lifestyle, honest expression, clarity, playful connections, resourceful living, creativity, and life-long learning. These values are the core of her work with her clients and her personal projects.
For more fun ~ she plays boogie blues piano, rides her electric bike (fast!), enjoys drawing and painting, lives in a small beach town, and joins in with friends and family in creative and service-oriented projects. .