ABOUT REWEAVING CONNECTION

Hi! I'm Emily LeGrand, and Reweaving Connection is the most succinct way to say what I hope to contribute to in the world while I'm here. To me, it means getting back to the core of what it is to be a human animal on the Earth. I believe that when we remember that we are indeed animals who evolved in specific contexts and therefore have specific needs that drive our behaviour, we will be able to heal much of what is causing pain and struggle, for humans, for other species and for the Earth as a life supporting system. Many of the loudest needs that human animals have are about connection: connection to each other, connection to other species, connection to land and place, connection to our own bodies, and connection to a core purpose of contributing to life. But I worry that when the humble understanding that we too are animals, with needs that are common to many other animals, falls away, we forget to plan and design for our connection needs.

My work is centred on exploring and articulating where these needs come from, how we know we have them, the costs and signs when we don't have these connection needs met, and but most importantly, offering learning experiences that can help us reweave connection back into our lives, communities and systems.

I first got the taste of what it feels like to have all my human animal-based connection needs met all at the same time at age 20, at a college farmhouse in a restored prairie of southern Minnesota, and I have been seeking it for myself and creating it as best I can for others ever since.

And how does it feel you might ask? Resonant! Like I wasn't really alive before! Like I didn't know what deep, round, quiet satisfaction was before! I realize that it is entirely possible to never luck into discovering this feeling at all in current North American life, and I feel very sad and worried about that.

This passionate, idealistic worry has led me to work on small farms, at environmental learning centres, and on trail construction and conservation crews. I have worked to bring volunteers together to plant rain gardens in their neighbourhoods, to create programs and spaces where children can remember their instinct to play and learn in nature, and where people can learn how to farm and grow their own food together in community farm programs.

Along the way, I've gotten to be a competent project initiator and strong group facilitator and educator, which I bring into my work with Nonviolent Communication. I actually first learned about NVC on a trail crew. The program organizers wisely thought it might be a good idea to equip the 24 23-24 year olds that they had just gathered together for ten months in a two room bunkhouse in the middle of a state forest with some communication skills!

ABOUT NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION

Currently, the main practice that I am using to help people reweave connection is Nonviolent Communication, or NVC for short. NVC is a communication practice and also a worldview developed and coalesced into a teachable practice by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg. As a worldview, NVC assumes that everyone has basic needs in common, such as for connection, interdependence, belonging, safety, food, movement, play, rest, self-expression and more. It also assumes that provided that our needs are basically well-met, compassion and a desire to give, to support life, to contribute is our natural state of being. From this framework, NVC offers a structured way of thinking about all of our actions and interactions so that we can communicate our needs, and invite others to help us meet our needs as well as to hear and meet the needs of others. With the help of the NVC framework and mindset, we can begin to create our own lived reality of interconnection.

NVC STUDY GROUPS

Currently, my favourite way to facilitate people learning NVC is to lead 15 week study groups, both in-person in the Ottawa/Gatineau region, and online. We use the classic NVC text Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life By Marshall Rosenberg and the accompanying workbook by Lucy Leu. We meet weekly to work through each chapter of the books, hear how others process the ideas, practice using this new way of thinking anf speaking in low-stakes ways, and witness and support each other in our lives with the NVC tool of listening empathetically and curiously for the feelings and needs at the heart of every situation. These groups are offered twice a year, in fall and spring sessions. These are offered via a participation fee that is paid upfront on a sliding scale.

To learn about the dates for the Fall 2025 session, please sign up below with your email address.

NVC TRAININGS AND EVENTS

I am developing lower commitment ways to learn about NVC for interested individuals, such as workshops and short courses, in the Ottawa/Gatineau region and online. To learn the details of these offerings as they arise, please sign up below and choose NVC Trainings.

NVC CUSTOM TRAININGS

NVC is a wonderful thing to learn with people you already know, live with or work with, and is a vital tool in a variety of contexts where humans come together. NVC has been used in schools, parenting, grassroots activism groups, workplaces, international negotiations, shared housing environments, prisons, and therapeutic contexts. If you think NVC could benefit you and your group, I bet I would agree! I would love to talk with you, learn what you believe your group needs, and design an NVC learning experience suitable for your group and your group's time and resources. Send me a message using the form below with some information about your group and your hopes to get our conversation started.