ABOUT DONAL
Currently based in South Portugal, I am a catalyst for personal, relational, and cultural transformation, striving to take steps towards a world that works for all.
Since 2003, I have been travelling extensively providing training, facilitation, consultancy, system building, mediation, and coaching to individuals, couples and groups of all shapes and sizes (families, teams, organisations, communities).
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In these, I use an extensive tool kit from various modalities to develop skills in conscious communication, effective collaboration, authentic relating, community/team building, shared leadership, cultural transformation, as well as personal and relational healing.
I learnt many of these modalities (Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Sociocracy, The Wheel of Consent, Forum, Restorative Circles and Systems Building) whilst living in various intentional communities. I noticed the communities that had implemented these were functioning better than those which hadn’t. So I began teaching them at those communities that were struggling without them.
A similar pattern emerged with individuals and couples. As I gained more expertise and skills in supportive practices (some listed below under 'Eclectic Skillset'), I started coaching, mediating and offering consultation.
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The requests for support and training from me continued. At the same time, my own hunger to deepen my understanding of these tools and to learn new complementary skills magnified. At many points, I was spending months of almost back-to-back trainings and transformational events (either offering or receiving). I think I inherited this capacity (and addiction) from my mum!
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And so, I became a bumblebee; cross-pollinating from one corner of the world to the other, working with thousands of individuals, relationships and groups. These have been my teachers and my students. Sometimes deliberately; more often not.
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And in them all, I continuously discover similar struggles, patterns, longings and unconscious systems in operation.
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And so, the remedy is almost always the same - to slow down, bring awareness to these harmful patterns of interaction, create enough space to breathe and notice what’s really going on - inside ourselves, in relation to each other, and in the systems within which we operate. And from there, we can make conscious choices about how to act in more connected and effective ways.
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It is such a joy to witness the results; to revisit a client or a friend who I've coached, a participant from a training, or a group with whom I helped resolve a conflict and build new response systems… and to see the smiling faces, hear the stories of rekindled hope, regained trust, renewed enthusiasm for life….the depth of healing, the lasting transformation… people really thriving. I know it's possible, because I’m seeing it, I’m doing it, I’m sharing it.
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I want to share it with you; with everyone who also wants to co-create a more beautiful world that works better for everyone.
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I continue to collaborate as a Certified Trainer with the Centre for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC), Creative Director of HeartSpace Collective, and a member of the Cultural Catalyst Network (CCN), the School of Consent, Sociocracy For All, and Arise to Succeed.
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Previous Participants:
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"Donal is the most dynamic & dedicated facilitator I have ever been with"
- Goiatz A. -
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"I don't think anyone else could hold things with that much love and clarity"
- Anon -
"Donal was ALWAYS full of ease, clarity, flow… It was very easy to have mutual understanding with him"
- R. K -
“Really helpful to see the NVC way modelled so well by Donal – clear, empathically attuned & a gentle & encouraging way of delivering the info”
- Maeve O'Connor -
“You have really been a Milestone in my Journey to selflove! Your insights in NVC have really changed my way of relating to others and myself & the love and compassion you showed me touched & transformed me deeply!”
- Magda Arupananda -
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"I attended a 2 day foundation training with Donal and couldn’t recommend him more! Compassionate and wise facilitator who obviously not only teaches but lives NVC and conveys it beautifully!"
- Ida Blazek -
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ECLECTIC SKILLSET INFUSION
I am committed to exploring and sharing ways in which we can meet the needs that have tended to be neglected due to social and cultural conditioning, and/or traumatic experiences.
This exploration has brought a vast diversity and richness to my life and to those with whom I have worked and played. Thus I have developed an extensive skillset of various practices which infuse into what I offer. These practices are listed according to which of those needs each primarily serves to meet.
Play, Fun, Joy, Laughter, Spontaneity, Freedom and Movement - with Cooperative games, Ecstatic Dance, Circus skills, Theatre / Drama Improv, Laughter Yoga, Community music (especially drumming and singing)
Intimacy, Touch, Closeness, Affection - with Contact Improvisation, The Wheel of Consent, Tantra, Synergy, Kaleidoscope Community Yoga, Massage, Primal Play and Conscious Connection activities
Empathy, Deep Connection, Emotional Expression, Healing and Transformation - with Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Authentic Relating, Re-evaluation Counselling, Circling, Focussing, The Work of Byron Katie, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Shadow and Process work, ZEGG / SD Forum, and Family Constellations