What is Strength of Connection?
Strength of Connection facilitates the quality of connection within ourselves and between people that creates respect, trust and a world where the needs of all people matter.
Kathleen Macferran is an author, facilitator and Certified Trainer for the Center for Nonviolent Communication and the owner of Strength of Connection.
Kathleen holds a vision for a peaceful, just, and sustainable world. She is committed to co-creating a world where peace replaces violence, love replaces hate, equity replaces inequity, and all people live meaningful lives. She has worked as a Certified Trainer for the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) since 2003, and as a CNVC Assessor for 13 years. For 20 years she served as a workshop facilitator for the Freedom Project of Seattle, WA, an organization that supports healing and restoration inside and outside prisons through Nonviolent Communication, mindfulness, racial equity and anti-oppression.
Kathleen travels internationally offering facilitation, workshops and conflict transformation using practical skills that lead to reconciliation with ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. She has worked with individuals, families, community groups, businesses, educational institutions, faith-based communities, hospitals, prison inmates, law enforcement and government organizations.
Prior to her work in nonviolence, Kathleen spent much of her life bringing harmony to communities through music, including two decades as a classical music conductor and leader of a nonprofit organization, and seven years as a public school music teacher.
Kathleen is the author of Calling In the Dawn: Shaping Our Future through Authentic Dialogue, and co-author with Jared Finkelstein of Choice: A Field Guide for Navigating the Polarization of Our World and Living Interdependently. She is the author of the children’s books How Giraffes Found Their Hearts and How Giraffes Got Their Ears, and conductor for Giraffe Tales a children’s CD setting those stories to music. Kathleen is the conductor on multiple Rainier Chamber Winds classical music recordings. Explore this website for her TEDx talks, books, and music.
Stories and Inspiration
Call Each Other Back Into Love
There is so much challenging us right now to choose to bring on the love, to find our common needs behind the labels and groupings that separate us. [...]
Uncovering Our Love
Did you know the word "apocalypse" originated in the Greek language and literally means an "uncovering"? It is a disclosure or revelation of great knowledge, an event that [...]
My new book, Choice, is now available!
After over a year of collaborating with Jared Finklestein, we are proud to launch this out into the world. This will help inform navigating your conversations, inside [...]
Watch TEDx Seattle Women: Fearless featuring Kathleen Macferran – recorded 11/19/2020
TEDxSeattleWomen 2020: Fearless from TEDxSeattle on Vimeo. Kathleen presents at TEDx for her third time on November 19, 2020. This complimentary and virtual event will center on [...]
2020 September Virtual Intensive Training
VIRTUAL INTENSIVE TRAINING Alive and Empowered: A Virtual Intensive Training in NVC American Time zones, September 9-18, 2020 Trainer Team: Full bios can be found at the [...]
Interview with Kathleen
Watch TEDx interview Kathleen Macferran backstage
Upcoming Workshops & Trainings
| Name | Location | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Viet Nam International Intensive Training 2025 (10 days) | 10/24/25 - 11/02/25 |
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