| Rev. Carol Chase |
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Having started working with children in Youth Church when my own daughter was 9 (now 31) as a way to broach my hesitancy and insecurity to be with groups of kids, it is something that brings me great joy and always a way to have fun. What surprised me were the opportunities for creativity. Having believed that creativity was only in the form of drawing, painting, or playing a musical instrument, I was stunned to find I could create games and spontaneous exercises on command. If you follow the energy and excitement with a bunch of kids, they will almost always bring you to the here and now, which is where the aliveness is for me. Having trained and served in the Redding (California) Center for Enlightenment, I started a new journey in 2000 when I joined my two daughters and their families in Santa Rosa and moved my aging parents to Santa Rosa where we shared a home. I accepted my present position with the Center upon moving while caring for my parents. This led to many unchartered waters and supplied the stimulus to learn better communication skills. What do you say to a mother who wakes up each morning dreading “another day in this body”? Knowing all the affirmations, prayers and belief systems can help, but when it is your own mother, it can be challenging and stressful. Nonviolent Communication was the miracle answer which brought my mother to a place of saying, “I wish I could be just like you” just prior to her death in 2002. What a gift to not only have a mother’s “approval,” but to also have a transformed relationship.
My continued study of Nonviolent Communication took me to San Quentin Prison to instruct and offer classes. This is a whole chapter in itself. At the same time, a couple of dedicated prayer practitioners approached me about Science of Mind classes and spiritual counseling in the local jail. We made contacts and got things up and running. The team has grown to eight members and we are about to begin a second Science of Mind class at the North County Detention Center.
Carol Chase is a Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication and offers Nonviolent Communication (NVC) training to schools, community groups, churches, hospitals, families, correctional officers, and prison inmates. She is one of the founding instructors of the Safer Communities program, an affiliate organization of CNVC and Bay NVC that strengthens community safety through supporting the transformation of prisoners into peacemakers. Carol is committed to the practice of nonviolence in daily life and in all interactions. Like anything else, you start where you are with yourself and make it a daily spiritual practice to be conscious of what you say and why you are saying it, even silently in your own head. A conscious choice of empathy can change the world, one judgment at a time.
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Rev. Carol Chase — Previous Director of Youth & Family Ministries, currently serving at the Center for Spiritual Living in various capacities, for example in leading trainings and workshops in 
