Discover a simple, reliable system for safe and calm conflict resolution and collaborative teamwork.
Get your needs met
Create new agreements
Gain cooperation & respect
Hi, I'm Catherine Cooley...
I invented Breakthrough Conversations—a unique blend of NVC (Nonviolent and Compassionate Communication), Mediation and Council Circle—to give you a way to resolve emotional conflicts and repair team relationships with grace and ease.
After 20 years of raising two beautiful daughters, training in NVC with Marshall Rosenberg, mediating in Superior Court, volunteering in the Alternatives to Violence Project in our prisons, leading couples circles, building community using Sacred Council Circle, starting two businesses and thriving in 25 years of marriage, it became clear to me that families and business teams need a reliable, simple way to resolve conflict quickly and painlessly, and create harmonious collaboration without sacrificing clarity, integrity and truth.
That's why I coach Breakthrough Conversation Mastery—to give you the road map and the power to transform negative emotions and destructive behavior into honest, heartfelt self expression and supportive, respectful and joyful relationships in all areas of your life.
Are you in a stressful work or personal relationship right now?
Click the button below to schedule a complimentary 50 minute Breakthrough Conversation with me.
In this one-on-one, live video session, we will:
Q:
What if you could get the core of my system condensed down into a single page?
A:
You can.
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What Is My Superpower?
I'm A Mediator
Conflict & Collaborative Communication Coach
Organizational Council Circle Facilitator
Mediator
As a trained mediator, I can work with two people in conflict, or entire groups in conflict. In many court situations I've seen, the parties may start out with quite severe grievances against each other. By instilling compassion into the mediation process, I help each person separate out his or her individual needs from emotions. Then I help everyone become conscious of judgments or stories they may be holding about the other parties that make resolution more difficult. Finally, I show them that they can get their needs met without creating "enemy images" or believing things that aren't true about others. Often, everyone ends up on the same team, wanting to help each other.
Coach & Trainer
I teach people the "inner game" of emotions and needs. This allows my clients to get clear inside themselves before connecting with another. This "emotions literacy" and "needs literacy" training takes time, but pays huge dividends. My clients solve their current issue, while learning a new way of being. Instead of giving them a fish, which lasts a day, I teach them how to fish, by helping them distinguish their own and other feelings and needs, allowing them to resolve conflicts for a lifetime. My clients gain a new superpower they can apply to create successful relationships for the rest of their life.
Circle Facilitator
Trying to be "efficient" with people doesn't work, as Stephen Covey has shown. You can only be effective with people. My entire career is a testament to the fact that the best way for three or more people to drop into their hearts quickly and deeply is through a council circle. This is how you as mom, manager or coach can be most effective with the people in your life. I've developed a process I call Mediated Council Circle for maximum bonding & understanding. Circle replaces the "negotiating table." Combining mediation, empathic communication and circle helps the parties resolve conflict and come to new agreements together faster than any other method.
Having deep experience in all three of these skill sets allows me to tackle difficult situations other professionals can't handle. Consider for example...
If your business partnership sours...
After coaching you alone and gathering all relevant facts from those involved, I can bring in your business partner and we'll work to achieve a mediated win/win solution together...
I can teach you and your team how to have authentic conversations, putting individual and organizational needs on the table early, before derailed emotions make them major business SNAFUs.
Business meetings, when there is strong emotion present, are sometimes best held in council circle format also. Although many business people believe you can use hierarchy to run over personal feelings, successful mediated solutions emerge, miraculously, from a circle.
If you have trouble in your marriage...
After coaching you separately, I can bring in your parter / spouse and we can work to a mediated resolution together...
I can teach you and your spouse how to work through all the most difficult repeated conflict areas to breakthrough conversations, moving you both from a past of resentment to a future of love.
We can bring in any other relevant parties who may be influencing your spouse behind the scenes, so that all the facts are on the table. The work has a sacred context that each one is worthy of compassion. Council circle brings the sacred element, whenever three or more involved in the conversation.
If your daughter is bullied at school...
You can duplicate this section and use it in multiple places on your sales page, wherever you need to elaborate on something.
I can teach your daughter how to manage what happened and to coach her in the inner and outer emotional game to avoid it in the future. This will strengthen her for the rest of her life.
Together, we discover what the "bully's" needs were and distinguish these needs from their tragic expression. Sitting in sacred council circle together, we're tapping into wisdom of communities for the past 10,000 years who sat in circle before us. There is empathy present (from empathic communication) and we speak and listen from the heart.
testimonials
What Peaceabl's clients are saying
If You Need Help Now...
Schedule A Free Discovery Conversation With Me At Your Convenience