Rafaele Joudry

I am passionate about group process and self-governance. I have had involvement with many communication and personal development techniques, Transactional Analysis, Re-evaluation Co-Counselling, Consensus and Facilitation, Conflict Resolution, Non Violent Direct Action training, Nonviolent Communication and more recently, Sociocracy. I also love intentional community, and am a member of Narara Eco Village at Gosford, Australia.

I have run my own small business in natural health for thirty years, delivering portable Sound Therapy programs for ear and brain rehabilitation. I have incorporated some of my communication and group process experience into my business and am interested in expanding the use of Sociocracy in this forum.

I love teaching and facilitating and would like to be a resource who can help the spread of Sociocracy. I am particularly committed to helping us to apply it well at Narara Ecovillage because I think that elegant and skillful group process is the make or break of any project. It takes a lot of good judgment and skill to ensure that these tools improve efficiency and allow for nimbleness while also letting every person feel included, valued, and able to contribute their best.

I was involved for some years in the loose collection of households known as the Nonviolent community network in Melbourne, (or “Groundswell”) after the Franklin Blockade. We used many of the resources from Movement for a New Society, and it was rewarding and encouraging being part of a community where communication skills were so highly valued, and to be able to see how culture evolves with the consistent application of these empowering methods.

The changes we are attempting and the challenges we are facing now in intentional communities–and ecovillages– require extraordinary capacities for empathy, collaboration, transformation, resilience, tolerance and methods for inclusion across difference if we are to succeed in creating a more livable future.