Brave Conversation Dojo - CoLiving in Italy
Price
Price to be announced
Duration
2-4 weeks (join for the first 2 weeks or the full month)
About the Course
Brave Conversation Dojo comes to Italy: weeks of living together, practicing Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and rediscovering what real connection feels like.
We're bringing the Dojo to Montino Coliving, a beautifully restored house with a big garden and chestnut trees, in the hills above Lake Maggiore, Piedmont. This isn't a retreat you attend and leave — it's shared meals, shared rhythms, and shared practice, with the mountains, the lake, and a warm community around you the whole time.
What to expect
You'll live together in comfortable shared and private rooms, cook and eat together, and build real community with the other participants — while diving deep into NVC through sessions that mix theory with real practice: role plays, real-life conflict mediation, and embodiment work.
Beyond the sessions, there's space to rest and explore: hikes in the hills, a nearby Buddhist temple with a library and meditation room, Italian cooking lessons, lake days, and plenty of unstructured community time.
You can join for the first two weeks only, or stay for the full four.
Schedule
The program might still change, but here's the current plan:
Week 1 (May 15–21): Sat 15.5 arrival & evening welcome, Sun 16.5 The Jackal & Feelings, Tue 18.5 Empathy, Wed 19.5 Observation, Thu 20.5 Needs, Fri 21.5 break day
Week 2 (May 22–28): Sat 22.5 Request 1 & Request 2, Sun 23.5 community day, Mon 24.5 empathic support systems / break day, Tue 25.5 Self-Connection, Wed 26.5 Connecting in Conflict, Thu 27.5 break day / Q&A, Fri 28.5 Gratitude & Mourning + Graduation Ceremony (for those joining just the first two weeks)
Week 3 (May 29–June 4): Sat 29.5 departures & new arrivals, Sun 30.5 Vulnerable Honesty & Refining Empathy, Tue 1.6 Dilemma: the art of being torn, Wed 2.6 Guilt, Thu 3.6 Q&A / practice session, Fri 4.6 break day
Week 4 (June 5–13): Sat 5.6 Expressing No in Giraffe / Boundaries, Sun 6.6 break / community day, Tue 8.6 The Beauty of the Need, Wed 9.6 Going Beyond Opinions, Thu 10.6 Q&A / practice session, Fri 11.6 break day, Sat 12.6 Mourning + community afternoon & evening, Sun 13.6 departure
Most weekday sessions run 16:00–19:00, with weekend sessions typically 10:00–13:00 and 15:00–18:00. Mornings are free.
Where
Montino Coliving, in the hills above Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy.
Price
To be announced.
Registration
Interested? Head to braveconversationdojo.com to register your interest and be the first to know when dates and spots are confirmed.
A few glimpses of Montino:
Your Instructor
Martina Pesce & Matthias Flury
Martina Pesce
My mission is to contribute to a world where everyone can be heard and seen, by others and themselves.
Hi, I'm Martina. I came in contact with Nonviolent Communication (NVC) through a relationship where I started to grasp the beauty of this tool. After 3 years of self-study and occasional practice, I was touched by how this communication allowed me to connect with my mum in conflict, so strongly that I felt love for her for the first time in 20 years.
Unsatisfied with the lack of mental health support in the neuroscience research field, I decided to switch careers and dive deep into NVC. I trained as a mediator, counsellor and trainer at the Connecting2life school (Yoram Mosenzon). It was a two-year-long process of embodying the tool and then learning how to transmit it so that it could sink in the body. For a year I've been holding my workshops, courses and 1:1 practice.
My approach is based on practice and embodiment. I found NVC very revolutionary and with that respect, I like to let sink in our system a few bits of info at the time, rather than an overwhelming waterfall of theory.
Matthias Flury
Hi. My name is Matthias. To be honest with you, I’m incredibly hesitant to write this short biography about myself. Part of the resistance comes from a fear of not being enough - it’s an insecurity that often comes alive since for many years of my life my need for connection wasn’t met, no matter what I tried. Out of this experience I’m shy to show and present myself, even to an unknown reader, to not go through the pain of rejection again. Another source for this hesitation is that I’ve got an idea of how I need to present myself here as a teacher. “I need to sell myself well and in a way that will make you trust me and curious to learn from me”. And I’m worried that I’ll try to perform as something I’m not in order to achieve that. Underneath the pressure of trying to be perfect I’m certain I’ll lose something incredibly important. I’ll lose connection to myself and with that any hope of actually contributing value to you.
That’s why I’ll start this introduction of myself like this. I’m looking forward to meeting you and exploring together how we can connect to our feelings and unknown desires. How we can hold space and lovingly meet each other exactly where we are in our authentic selves. This is the place where relationships gain intimacy and depth, where love grows and where life begins to make sense.
Just in case you actually want to know about my background: I started learning about NVC in 2019, took my first lessons with Empathie Stadt Zurich in 2020, and completed my education in 2023 with a course about teaching and embodying NVC by CNVC-Trainer Yoram Mosenzon. I regularly support NVC-teachers as an assistant in their courses and occasionally teach myself. If you have any questions you can reach me at matthias.flury@mail.ch.