Certified Facilitators of Compassionate Listening℠
An orange asterisk* after the facilitator’s name means that they are currently an active member of our learning community.
Brian Berman is co-director and facilitator of the Jewish-German Reconciliation Project and offers workshops and delegations with his partner Lisa Berman (www.bermanhealingarts.com). Since 2001, he has facilitated Compassionate Listening workshops and practice groups in the USA and Germany. After 9/11, Brian developed the Listening Councils model with Therese Charvet. Listening Councils are a peer based listening model for community healing and an alternative to more traditional conflict resolution practices. He is trained in Hakomi Therapy, Attitudinal Healing, and taught yoga and meditation for many years. Brian is an award-winning stone sculptor and teacher.
Lisa Berman is certified in systemic mediation and studied Peace Sciences at the University in Hagen, Germany. She facilitates Compassionate Listening workshops in the USA and Europe. Lisa is a facilitator with the Jewish-German Reconciliation Project (www.bermanhealingarts.com) and co-facilitates Listening Councils with Brian Berman. She brings a deep understanding of how life and the wounds of the past affect peoples’ well-being and health. For the past 25 years she has worked as a compassionate healer, teacher and workshop leader. Lisa is a German certified Natural Health Practitioner and a Registered Counselor in Washington State.
Thérèse Charvet* has been a teacher, organizer, and facilitator for over 30 years, in a variety of contexts and venues, professional, community, and spiritual. She is a nurse, midwife, and ordained minister, and owner /director of Sacred Groves, a small eco-spiritual center based on her property on Bainbridge Island (see www.sacredgroves.com). She trains individuals and couples in Compassionate Listening and has offered the skills as a peacemaking tool in a variety of organizational and individual situations.
Andrea Cohen* is a communications consultant, project developer, and facilitator who has been involved with the Compassionate Listening Project for many years (see Andrea’s website). In 1998, Andrea went to the Middle East with the Compassionate Listening Project to direct the film “Children of Abraham.” She is co-director of the Jewish-German Reconciliation Project, a program of the Compassionate Listening Project that brings together primarily Jewish Americans and non-Jewish Germans to do the work of deep listening and healing. In the last several years, Andrea has facilitated numerous Compassionate Listening workshops here and abroad. She has been instrumental in incorporating Compassionate Listening into community dialogue events and works with her therapist partner to integrate Compassionate Listening fundamentals into their work with couples.
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener is the spiritual leader of Congregation Pnai Or and the director of the Interreligious Eco-Justice Network in Hartford CT. In both capacities, Andrea uses the tools of spiritual activism to bring meaningful responses to personal and world issues. Andrea has been involved in the Compassionate Listening Project since the January 2001 delegation, which she attended as a participant. She co-led two additional trips with Leah Green and has taken two delegations herself. Andrea authored a book on communication for teens called Life on Earth: A User’s Guide and is the translator of Conscious Community, a book on personal spiritual practice written by Kalanymous Kalman Shapira, a rebbe who served in the Warsaw Ghetto. Andrea completed her training under Carol Hwoshinsky in 2004. She has taught and practiced CL in retreat settings, interfaith gatherings, churches and campuses. She is active in several interfaith and dialogue gatherings in Hartford, around local and Middle East issues.
Maha El-Taji* is a Palestinian-American residing in Haifa, Israel. She is a lawyer with a Masters in International Human Rights Law and a Ph.D. in Near and Middle Eastern Studies. Maha participated in a week-long compassionate listening delegation of Jews and Palestinians at Thich Nhat Hanh’s Buddhist Monastery (Plum Village) in France in July 2001. She completed the introductory and advanced Compassionate Listening trainings, is a certified Compassionate Listening facilitator. She has co-led the Israel-Palestine Compassionate Listening delegations with Leah Green since 2004. Maha was awarded the University of Washington Graduate Student Medalist Award for being a scholar/citizen for the academic year 2003/2004 and was a Bartos Fellow at United World College in January 2006 where she mentored international students in the Constructive Engagement of Conflict program. Maha is fluent in Arabic and Hebrew.
Phil Fratesi* is an organizational development consultant and event planner. Phil’s early career in education as a teacher and school administrator taught him that listening to the stories of others was a cornerstone of learning and mutually productive relationships. In his work with organizational leaders, he elicits vision, inclusion, and accountability. The work of Compassionate Listening reflects his values and commitment to assisting others in their personal and organizational development.
Leah Green* is founder and director of the Compassionate Listening Project. She holds a masters degree in Public Policy and Administration from the University of Washington, where she also completed her coursework for a masters in Middle Eastern Studies. Leah is internationally recognized as a leader in Jewish-Palestinian reconciliation, having led 26 citizen delegations to Jordan, Israel/Palestine, and Syria/Lebanon. She has produced three documentaries about the conflict, including Children of Abraham, and co-founded the Jewish-German Compassionate Listening Project. Leah began teaching CL in Israel and Palestine in 1999, and since that time has taught widely in N. America. She began training as a facilitator of Systems Constellations with Francesca Mason Boring in March 2010, and is excited to be integrating Constellations into her trainings. Leah is a 2003 recipient of the Yoga Journal’s “Karma Yoga Award,” and was recognized by the international women’s peace organization, Peace X Peace, in 2010. Her work has been profiled in many articles and books.
Jan Hutton,* MSW, a graduate of the University of Michigan, believes in supporting wholeness in each human being. To that end, during the last 40 years, Jan has served as a community organizer, social worker in hospice and hospital settings, meditation teacher, group facilitator in the Quaker community and, she hopes, a ‘kind’ person. The guiding principle for Jan’s work as a facilitator is, “How do we look at those who differ from us and see our shared humanity?” She offers Compassionate Listening with the strong belief that implementing peacemaking in the public sector makes it vital that we practice, heart to heart, that very same peacemaking in our personal lives.
Carol Hwoschinsky* is the former Training Director of The Compassionate Listening Project. She holds Masters Degrees in Special Education and Psychology. She is a licensed counselor in private practice, an educator and a mediator. She teaches conflict resolution, develops diversity and conflict resolution curricula for schools and mediates for a Victim/Offender program in the courts and for community disputes. She has worked in Armenia to support dialogue and joint projects with Armenia, Karabakh and Azerbaijan, and taught psychology and communication in the former Soviet Union. Carol is the author of “Listening With the Heart – A Guide for Compassionate Listening”.
Peter Hwosch* has been active with TCLP since 1997, participating in delegations, as a Compassionate Listening Facilitator, as Project Director in South East Europe, and board member. He is a recording and performing musician/composer with three CD’s much of which is influenced by his work with TCLP, as well as a sound track for the “Listening with the Heart” photo exhibition. In addition, Peter is a video documentary producer whose credits include co-production of “Children of Abraham” and “Crossing the Lines”, both shot in Israel and Palestine for TCLP. Click here to see his website. Among other projects, Hwosch now works with the “Seedlings of Peace Summer Camp” bringing together youth from all three sides of the war in former Yugoslavia. He has produced a new video about this program entitled, “Beyond These Narrow Borders”, which is now in release. Peter lives between Southeast and Western Europe, and America.
Bill Jacobsen* teaches at Arcadia University in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution Masters Program. His specialty is conflict transformation skill building, offering trainings in Restorative Justice, Beginning Mediation, Intercultural Mediation, Conflict Coaching and Dealing with Difficult People. He earned his Ph.D. in Theology and Communication from Princeton Theological Seminary. Bill mediates in Custody Court and Dependency Court in Philadelphia, is the Director of Mediation Services and Training for The Peace Center in Langhorne, PA. He is the current president of the Association for Conflict Resolution, Greater Delaware Valley Chapter, and serves on the Advisory Committee to the PA Joint Legislative Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is a volunteer facilitator for the Alternative to Violence program at Graterford Prison near Philadelphia, where he also facilitated a Compassionate Listening Training. Bill has taught CL in Rwanda with former Hutus and Tutsis, and in Burundi through the African Great Lakes Initiative program.
Susan Partnow,* M.A., organizational development and training consultant (www.PartnowCom.com) enjoys being a catalyst for individuals and teams seeking positive changes through workshops, retreats, and coaching. Susan participated in an early trip to Israel/Jordan/Palestine in 1992, and served as a board member for The Compassionate Listening Project from 2000-2004. For over fifteen years she has facilitated dialogues, networking, and community building in organizations, government agencies, and the community to promote positive social change, ‘out of the box’ thinking, collective wisdom and teambuilding. Susan’s interest arises from a lifelong journey as a peacemaker, mediator and activist. Former teacher and speech pathologist, and author of Everyday Speaking for All Occasions with an M.A. from Northwestern University, Susan’s work is enriched by Open Space, Dynamic Facilitation, Spiral Dynamics, chaos theory, Appreciative Inquiry, Non Violent Communication and the Public Conversations Project. She co-founded Conversation Cafes and Let’s Talk America, and founded Global Citizen Journey in 2005.
Yael Petretti* Bringing people together comes naturally to Yael. This theme has run through everything she has ever done and continues to be what most inspires her passion in life. Both before and after earning a degree in International Relations at UC Berkeley, Yael traveled widely to meet people of other cultures and creeds. She organized citizen diplomacy groups to travel to other countries, giving Americans the chance to build real friendships with people they would otherwise have never understood. She served on the Israel-Palestine Working Group at the United Nations and facilitated a number of Compassionate Listening trainings in the United States. As a licensed tourist guide living in Jerusalem over three decades, she facilitated encounters between her tourists and the various religious and ethnic groups who inhabit the Middle East: Bedouins, Druze, Israelis, Christian and Moslem Palestinians. Appreciation of cultural diversity, friendship and mutual respect are her deepest values. Yael relocated in 2010 to New England where she teaches Compassionate Listening to a wide variety of groups and organizations. (Click Here to see her website) Her work as a certified Compassionate Listening Facilitator provides the perfect tool for bringing people together: the practice of listening and speaking to one another from the purest places of the heart.
Amy R. Rakusin* is a licensed psychotherapist. For over 20 years, Amy has worked with numerous populations using her knowledge of psychodynamic and somatic therapies to bring health and integration of body, mind, and spirit. Specializing in the treatment of trauma, she provides individual and group therapy to survivors of abuse, violence, torture, and war-related conflict. She holds the vision that healing and lasting peace is possible through service and compassion. You can read more about her on her website at www.amyrakusin.com.
Rona Ruben* is an Associate Professor of Psychology at St. Martin’s College in Lacey, Wahsington and a certified Compassionate Listening trainer. She has been active with the Compassionate Listening Project since 2000. She teaches a college-level course in Compassionate Listening and Dialogue. She has twice been a MidEast Citizen Diplomacy delegate and participated in training Israelis and Palestinians in Compassionate Listening on the West Bank. She has been a member of a Jewish-Muslim Living Dialogue Group. She is active in Compassionate Listening-related projects in her community.
Shifrah Tobacman, MPA, CFP has a profound recognition of the power of listening to bridge differences and promote healing in individuals, communities and international conflict situations. Ms. Tobacman has 15 years experience as a trainer and instructor with a specialty in self-empowerment and active listening. She facilitates Compassionate Listening opportunities for educators, business people, those working in the area of cultural diversity, interfaith groups, health care providers and others in northern California and nationally. She has facilitated Compassionate Listening workshops and provided presentations for the American Friends Service Committee, Together in Faith, the East Bay Jewish Palestinian Dialogue Group, The World Affairs Council and others. Ms. Tobacman is the writer, producer and performer of Rooftop Poems: A Montage of Stories from Israel/Palestine, a show based on travels to the region in 2001 and 2002.
Linda Wolf* is co-founder and Director of Teen Talking Circles, (www.teentalkingcircles.org), whose mission is to educate, inspire and empower young women, foster understanding between the genders, generations and cultures, and support youth activists for a just and sustainable world. She is co-author of the award-winning books, Daughters of the Moon, Sisters of the Sun: Young Women and Mentors on the Transition to Womanhood, and Global Uprising: Stories From a New Generation of Activists. Linda trains adults to facilitate teen talking circles and speaks on the issues teenage girls are dealing with and on gender reconciliation through group process. Her handbook, Speaking and Listening from the Heart: The Art of Facilitating Teen Talking Circles was published in the Fall, 2004.
Naomi Wolfe* lives on Vancouver Island, where she is a faculty member in the English Language Program at North Island College. Originally from Saskatchewan, Naomi also lived, studied and worked in the USA for 11 years and in Guatemala for 10 years. As a teen in Tennessee, Naomi developed a keen interest in anti-racism work and cross-cultural awareness. In Guatemala in the 70’s and 80’s, Naomi did research for the National Indigenous Institute, began her career as an English teacher and studied legal translation. Her journey took her to Toronto and British Columbia in the late 80′s. Naomi’s growing awareness of the challenges and barriers facing immigrants in her community led to the founding of the Campbell River Multicultural and Immigrant Services Association (CRMISA) in 1992. She continues her connection with CRMISA as a trainer and committee member. Naomi has certification and/or worked extensively in intercultural, diversity, and anti-discrimination training, Spanish/English interpretation, ESL teacher training, Theatre for Living, and human rights and international solidarity projects. She has facilitated Compassionate Listening trainings for interculturalists, restorative justice and hospice volunteers, educators and students, daycare workers and others in Canada, the USA and Spain. Naomi greatly values any opportunity to share her skills in ways that heighten our understanding of and deepen our connections to one another. Email Naomi at nlwolfe@hotmail.com
