Willamette Valley NVC is (at this moment) an informal organization to promote the study and practice of NVC in Marion and Polk counties of Oregon.
We welcome other NVC practitioners in our area, new and experienced, to reach out and offer your strengths and skills to help WVNVC fulfill this purpose. This is a voluntary effort, without proprietary intentions.
Tim Buckley
Tim began a study of NVC in 2003 after he and his wife, Elaine, saw Marshall Rosenberg speak. Practice of NVC together helped sustain their marriage, 25 years old by then. After many hundreds of hours of subsequent training from Rosenberg and other CNVC certified trainers, he and Elaine began to teach others and to facilitate NVC practice groups. They were part of the Oregon Prison Project for almost 10 years, bringing intensive NVC to those whose lives were marked by violence, poverty, and trauma. For that work, the couple won the 2015 Salem Peacemaker of the Year award.
In this decade, Tim has worked with couples, high school and university classes, nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies, adding NVC to a menu of other things meant to build culture, expand empathy, reduce conflict and the emotional impacts of past traumatic events. He prefers a “train the trainer” model by which NVC is shared widely at little or no cost to students.
Tim’s career as an award-winning journalist, freelance writer, and author blended in later life with his NVC practice.
Mathew Hudson
Though a friend first introduced Mathew to NVC several years ago, it wasn’t until he realized its powerful connection to his studies in co-regulation and therapeutic relationships that he embraced it fully. He began studying and practicing NVC in 2021 and most recently joined with Tim Buckley to set up the WVNVC organization.
Through coaching, educating, and facilitating Mathew has been helping people with their personal and interpersonal growth for decades. He specializes in applying principles of positive psychology to help individuals, groups, and organizations improve their experience of life under the banner of Mediterra Thrive. You can read more about Mathew here.
Mathew is employed at Chemeketa Community College, as a psychology professor. He also manages this website and teaches NVC in the community, through classes and practice groups. He has a passion for teaching, loves to study and write, and enjoys swimming in open water and running in the mountains.
Molly McCarty
Molly McCarty (she/they) discovered Nonviolent Communication in a therapeutic setting in 2006 and, after watching Marshall Rosenberg demonstrate his ideas in 2008, found herself captivated by the curriculum.
She serves on the Community Response Team for Marion County Behavioral Health Crisis Center and teaches Nonviolent Communication with the Oregon Prison Project.
Molly enjoys dance, solitude, podcasts, and long walks in the fog. She is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling at Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis.
John Marshall
John first encountered Nonviolent Communication through graduate school coursework in 2019. Today, he serves as pastor with Church at the Park (C@P) in Salem, where the theories of the classroom are transformed into healing, community praxis. In his role with C@P, John supports the Outreach, Safety, and Safe Parking teams. He also serves as a staff-trainer, leading bi-weekly and monthly rhythms of NVC practice.
As a Willamette Valley native, John finds deep reward in serving our community and inviting all our neighbors to imagine and enact an environment of belonging rooted in kinship and mutuality. The frameworks of NVC and opportunities to facilitate training spaces have met John’s need to participate in this ongoing project.
John holds a B.A. in Peace Studies from Whitworth University (’17), and a Masters of Divinity from Portland Seminary (’24).