KNOTTY GROUPS

Shruti, coach, educator and facilitator:

Nadia is a masterful facilitator in enabling empowerment and transformation of individuals and groups. This course was extremely engaging and insightful. It gave me new tools, challenged and broadened my understanding of what it means to facilitate groups, it highlighted blind spots in my practice and left me feeling more empowered and excited to move forward in my work. I am deeply grateful for Nadia's wisdom, generosity, passion and commitment to this work.

Aslam, facilitator and community engagement specialist:

I'm sometimes asked for Facilitation Training recommendations and there are some good ones out there but my most recent experience doing the Advanced "Knotty Groups" Facilitation Training with Nadia Chaney was a truly memorable experience. The cohort I got to learn with, the variety of teaching methodologies, and her decades of facilitation experience all made it a lovely and worthwhile experience. The biggest learning for me was going deeper into the critical part of myself and asking how I can be more caring to myself and others.

Part of the course included access to Toolsi, her huge facilitation resource library that she broke off into digestible chunks throughout the program. Worth accessing on its own if you've puzzled over some common facilitation issues (the Orange Model of giving and receiving feedback has already become incorporated into my personal and professional life). https://lnkd.in/gBbj3bCY​

Pom, artist and community leader:

I am deeply grateful for Nadia's expertise in facilitating group dynamics, which has created a healthier and more comfortable environment where everyone feels heard. Her guidance has sparked significant positive changes back home, leading us to become healthier, more compassionate individuals.

Elena, Youth Mentor:

Knotty Groups helped me reconnect with creative practice in a way that was a surprising and wonderful gift, not just for my work, but also for my spirit. 

Marlo, facilitator and community organizer:

I am immensely grateful for the magic and vulnerability that was present in this knotty cohort space. I am relieved to have the recordings to return to for future reflections and learning.

Elis, facilitator and experience designer:

For the past 2-3 years I had been looking for a space to further develop my facilitation practice and was about to give up finding something that really suited where I am in my development journey and my needs in terms of who I want to learn from and with. I needed a space, a group and a facilitator that could both hold and challenge me; that would help me look deeper inside of myself while also seeing and sharing with others who come for lived experienced and journeys very different from mine; I needed to be in a space where I could both further explore power dynamics in groups, and practice very concrete tools; and, I didn't know it beforehand, but I also needed a place where I could meet some truly amazing humans. It's still hard to believe that I found all of that in the Knotty Groups, so beautifully held by Nadia. I'm so grateful for this experience - and I haven't even mentioned the really impactful content I found on Toolsi (anyone who has talked to me in the past months has heard me recommend it)!

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Natalie, university professor:

Knotty Groups involved 7 online three-hour trainings sessions, a weekly peer group practice session, and I also signed up for 1-1 sessions. Our skilled facilitator Nadia Chaney supported our intimate group to cover some intense content and learn new much-needed skills for creating and holding spaces that can engage difficult conversations, but more importantly, uphold the dignity of all participants even while engaging conflict. Some of the topics and skills we covered included: community building, personal leadership, strength-based facilitation, supporting healthy redirection, working with resistance, how to work with strong emotions, developing resilience, building the foundation for anti-oppression, the tension and release of transformative learning, consentfulness and care, entertaining simultaneous truths, emotional labour, interrupting a speaker without breaking the bond, and more. This training has transformed my teaching practice! 

Nadia skillfully supported me to be able to clearly recognize and articulate some patterns in my teaching approach, including some dynamics that I had not fully understood before that were causing me to feel burned out by the end of each semester. I clearly recall how the first few weeks of training were characterized by my resistance to the idea of welcoming “disruptors”, “resistors” or conflict in my communities of learning. Throughout the training, Nadia enabled me to see conflict as a site of transformation, and I have been introduced to skills and tools that I can lean on as I develop more experience and confidence in being more open to and curious about divisive perspectives that may emerge in my classroom environment. 

I knew this training had really transformed my thinking by Week 2 of Fall 2023 when a student directly asked me how I navigate “disagreement” opposing ideas in my course. Instead of being anxious, I found myself engaging some of my new tools, and I felt a sense of deep curiosity about what lay beneath the question and to explore strengths-based responses.

Veronica, facilitator and feminist organizer, Brazil:

This experience went far beyond what I expected. Under Nadia's guidance, I learned more about myself and how to work with myself as a facilitator. It was a transformative journey! I also feel much more equipped to handle complex groups with a gentle, empathetic, intersectional, and truly non-punitive approach.

Danny Lybbert, Program Manager and facilitator, Burnaby:

The Knotty Cohort was an invaluable experience; it rekindled my joy and excitement for facilitation, introduced me to unique ways of approaching this work, and provided practical skills to navigate complex group dynamics. I highly recommend this program for facilitators, teachers, and anyone else who wants to engage in group work in a more intentional and effective ways.

Adriana Costa, Facilitator and Learning Experience Designer, Brazil/Netherlands:

Nadia's capacity to welcome and elevate her participants is just mind-blowing! She models what is possible when we are highly committed to and fully trust the potential of a group. It really made me reflect not only about the way I have been receiving my participants but also how I would like to do it from now on. This woman holds a ridiculous amount of knowledge about facilitation, group dynamics, ecosystems and if I can say, humanity and love. Knotty Groups was really a next level course. It brought me back to the core and to why I do what I do.

Vanessa Richards, Facilitator, Vancouver on Squamish, Musqueam, Tslei-Waututh lands:

Nadia Chaney is philosopher and an exquisite teacher. She brings the pragmatic and the poetic into clear view for good use. Her well-honed ideas and strategies come from a global dialogue and a singular dedication to the science and art of community communication.

Her capacity to share transferrable skills to varied practitioners is elegant, nimble and wildly satisfying to experience. It is deeply useful.

Adrija Chakrabarti, psychologist, India:

Nadia is the most approachable, kind, assertive, and open minded trainer I have ever met. Knotty Groups completely transformed my approach to both work and life.

Zoë Osanna, Wellness and Team building Coach, Valle de Bravo, Mexico:

Nadia is an incredible facilitator and teacher. I’ve taken both short-term and long-term trainings with her, and every time, I walk away with a deeper understanding of both facilitation and myself. She has a particular gift to hold space for complex, multilayered groups with ease, meeting everyone with warmth, skill, and a truly non-judgmental presence.

What makes her trainings so powerful is that you’re not just learning facilitation techniques—you’re actively immersed in a well-held group container, experiencing in real time what it means to engage, navigate dynamics, and refine your presence. The learning happens on multiple levels at once. Thanks to Nadia, I’ve become a more self-reflective, skilled, and attuned facilitator, and I can’t recommend her enough!