Team and GROK Story
Grok The World Co-Founder & Partner
Christine King, MA
Christine King, MA has a passion for personal and planetary transformation. For over 20 years, she has supported groups, individuals, and couples in deepening their communication, compassion, and empathy skills.
When Christine discovered Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication (NVC), she resonated deeply with NVC consciousness and became a certified trainer. In 2003, along with Jean Morrison, Christine co-founded Nonviolent Communication Santa Cruz to teach and spread NVC consciousness. In 2006, they began designing and developing GROK products.
Fueled by her work in the field of education and a strong interest in personal growth and social justice, Christine has traveled, studied, lived, worked and taught overseas in Europe, India, the Caribbean, and the Far East. For over 30 years she raised children, chickens, bees, and a garden in the Santa Cruz countryside.
Christine taught UC Santa Cruz courses in transformation until 2020 when she retired: Transformative Action, Transformation Communication, Transformative Justice, and Awakening Compassion. Working with college students has been one of the most joyful experiences in her life and she continues to stay in contact with a number of her former students and TAs.
In 2018 Christine and her husband Mark moved to the San Francisco bay area. She thoroughly enjoys her new position as Nana to two awesome grandkids, while continuing her love of gardening, traveling, yoga, meditation, reading, and playing GROK with family and friends.
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.
With a broad work experience in hospitality, travel, higher education and community foundations, Claire brings her expertise in administrative support, customer relations and content creation to her work at GROK the World. She’s grateful to be working with Christine and Mary, two women she highly admires..
GROK STORY
GROKtheWorld has roots back to the early 1990s, when NVC Trainer Jean Morrison began developing, compiling, and implementing games and exercises to teach Nonviolent Communication (NVC). In 2006, Jean joined forces with fellow NVC Trainer Christine King, forming a collaborative partnership with the shared goal of bringing NVC games, materials, and products to a wider audience.
Their inaugural creation, "GROK Empathy Games," has had remarkable successful, with over 50,000 copies sold in 100 countries and translations into seven languages. Subsequent products include "Kids GROK," "GROKit Facilitation Manual,” “Big GROK Cards”, as well as Jean's books "Communication FUNdamentals" and "Feelings on Parade.” Their latest creation, “WeGROK for Two,” was inspired during the pandemic when people were home bound, and has proven to function (as one user commented) as “a communication coach in a box."
All GROK products are globally utilized to enrich the teaching of Nonviolent Communication, symbolizing the widespread impact of Jean and Christine's commitment to fostering compassion, connection, and empathy around the world.
While retired from the GROKtheWorld Team, Jean continues to teach and see clients. Below is her bio. You can reach her at giraffe@cruzio.com.
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
Since her education in Psychology, counseling and wholistic health, Jean has been providing trainings, consultation, and mediation for diverse groups and organizations; as well as counseling, mediation, and communication coaching for individuals, family members, and couples. She's a certified trainer with the international Center for Nonviolent Communication (NVC) since 1989, a founding member of NVC Santa Cruz since 2004, and Co-Founder/creator of GROKtheWORLD.com (http://groktheworld.com/) - communication products "to get to the heart of what matters most.”
Her focus and philosophy in her interpersonal counseling and facilitated dialogue work is based on these universal values ~~
• to be heard, seen, and valued; a sense of belonging
• to learn to give and receive understanding, acceptance and empathy
• to trust that we can speak our honesty about ourselves in a way that minimizes the reactive and defensive patterns in our listeners
• to be able to diffuse and transform our patterns that lead to dis-connection and disruption
• to create environments and relationships where our needs are mutually satisfied
She enjoys spending quality time with friends and family, creating artful stuff, and being in nature as much as possible. Living alongside the Pacific Ocean with biking and hiking trails right out her door is a bonus to her healthy lifestyle.
Promoting Empathy In Over 40 Countries!
To contribute to life in a positive and life-serving way, we began our business in 2006 to promote a more peaceful and empathetic world. Galloping Giraffe Enterprises began with the original GROK cards that morphed into our current version. We have shipped to over 40 countries and it is now translated into other languages.
We were so inspired developing this product that we continue to create more materials for your use, sharing, learning, and satisfaction. Thank you for being part of this all!
― Jean and Christine