This, Here, Now.

The art of presence

Along the way to transformation, group dynamics can become overwhelming. As a consultant, trainer and facilitator I guide groups across these thresholds of change.

With over two and a half decades of global practice and more than 2200 events I have a level of experience and discipline you are unlikely to find anywhere else.

I offer adaptable methods for groups to work together (This)
I attune to process, place, field, and unseen dynamics (Here)
I work with utmost fidelity to timing, tempo, and unfolding (Now)

My extensive experience in both facilitation and the arts have made me comfortable with complexity and the unknown. I have contributed to the field of facilitated behavioral dynamics with intense rigor and a commitment to a joyful, deep and poetic practice. I’m an artful nerd when it comes to how groups tick. I can change the way your groups feel, and I can teach you how to do all this for yourselves.

I bring clarity without collapse, precision without rigidity, fun without distraction, and the creaminess of creative collaboration. 

Knowing, Doing, Being.

My approach is an intersection of Knowing, Doing, and Being:

At the heart of these six points (This, Here, Now and Knowing, Doing, Being) is the polarity of One and Many: unity and difference, coherence and generative dissonance. This is the loom on which my practices in group work are woven.

Whether working with community organizations, artist networks, scientists and technologists, union teams, corporate heads or government officials, I create conditions where genuine transformation becomes possible by helping groups find coherence within dissonance, structure within longing, and wisdom at the edge of the known.

Doing
I design and enact robust and balanced pathways of action (methodologies)

Knowing
I help notice and name what matters and how it moves (epistemologies)

Being
I steward becoming across realities and timescapes (ontologies)

Begin your creative
journey here

Facilitation

Facilitation

Art & Poetry

The Time Zone

Testimonials

  • Peggy Taylor, founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment, author of Catch the Fire: An Art-Full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Communities, USA
     
    I have no hesitation in saying that Nadia Chaney is one of the top international facilitators. I have seen the incredible ripple effects her work has had on communities globally. She is a sharp critical thinker, an excellent trainer, a caring soul and a vibrant creative facilitator.
    Ella Cooper
    Founder, Director, Black Women Film, Canada
  • Peggy Taylor, founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment, author of Catch the Fire: An Art-Full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Communities, USA
     
    I have no hesitation in saying that Nadia Chaney is one of the top international facilitators. I have seen the incredible ripple effects her work has had on communities globally. She is a sharp critical thinker, an excellent trainer, a caring soul and a vibrant creative facilitator.
    Doug Blessington
    social worker at Hope for the Future Asheville, North Carolina
  • I deeply enjoyed studying you as a facilitator. I can see how your talent and skills blend so beautifully together. You have given me a tangible, visceral reference for what my version of blending my talent and skills can look and feel like.
    Ella Cooper
    facilitator, film maker, artist, Toronto, Canada
  • I have no hesitation in saying the Nadia Chaney is one of the top international facilitators. I have seen the incredible ripple effects her work has had on communities globally. She is a sharp critical thinker, an excellent trainer, a caring soul and a vibrant creative facilitator.
    Ella Cooper
    facilitator, film maker, artist, Toronto, Canada

Testimonials

  • I have no hesitation in saying that Nadia Chaney is one of the top international facilitators. I have seen the incredible ripple effects her work has had on communities globally. She is a sharp critical thinker, an excellent trainer, a caring soul and a vibrant creative facilitator.
    Ella Cooper
    Founder, Director, Black Women Film, Canada
  • Through her facilitation, Nadia takes you on a journey to your internal home by creating and containing a safe space for you to converse with- interact with- and become- your creative spirit. When holding the space, Nadia gives way for creative expression, allowing for personal growth and transformation. If you are looking for ways to connect with yourself and others through facilitated creative workshops; if you are not quite sure what gifts you have to offer groups; if you are looking to get in touch with your creative spirit; or become more confident in your own facilitation, Nadia can light the way for you.
    Claire Gemmill
    Cape Town, South Africa
  • As a trainer, Nadia has taught me the many depths required to be a good facilitator.  I used to struggle with gaining the attention of my teenage group, but Nadia taught me that holding attention is not always about a loud voice. I learned that developing personal presence is far more powerful. Since developing this,  I have gained more confidence in facilitation.  I’m impressed with Nadia’s ability to really engage with a large group. People listen when she speaks. I think it’s her ability to really connect with every single person in the room that makes the difference.
    Jake Yearsley
    Psychosynthesis Counsellor (MBACP), London UK
  • Nadia is a force that once enters your life, she makes an impact hard to forget and ignore. Her straightforwardness, organized thinking, with sensibility, complexity, depth of thoughts, combined with a soul of an artist and being on a continuous journey for self-improvement and reflection, her curiosity and happiness to share makes her a treasure to have on projects as she brings so much with her – she has a valuable multi-layered approach and inspires a lot of introspection and self-challenging, yet is very concrete, goal-oriented and loyal to her work and people. I definitely look forward to the next time we get a chance to work together!
    Kasia
    Elisa Sednaoui Foundation; Senior Education Director, Italy and Egypt.
  • My workshops with Nadia were inspiring and transformative, both for me as a facilitator as well as personally. Nadia took our group to a place which not only exceeded my expectations but also stretched my imagination in terms of what is possible in a group setting. We went deep, we pushed our edges, and then we went even deeper. She was able to take the tension in the room and use it to move us to a space I never thought was possible. I simply cannot sing her praises enough.
    Natasha Duchene
    musician, artist and facilitator, Yellowknife, NWT, Canada
  • She is a scientist, an artist and a true study of Facilitation. Nadia’s depth of understanding and true embodiment of this kind of work is an inspiration to anyone who follows in these facilitation footsteps. Mix all that with a quick wit, a likable charm, and some lovely heart vibrations….and you got yourself one helluva human being! Getting mentored by Nadia has been invaluable to my development as not just a facilitator, but a man walking in this world. She has a knack of being able to see the depth of what can be worked on and offers it with precise clarity and understanding. If only I could have Nadia everyday….my skills and awareness would grow….FAST! 
    Warren Hooley
    Lead Facilitator, IndigenEYEZ, Okanagan Valley, Canada
  • Nadia Chaney is an inspiring artist, writer, social artist, and person. Her passion and commitment to her work is infectious to co-workers, co-facilitators and the groups of young people she works with. She has a unique style and mastery of walking the very fine line between the needs of each individual – and the needs of the often extremely vulnerable groups she works with. Having worked for almost twenty years in closely overlapping fields, and as an ex-student of hers in the Art of Facilitation course, I cannot recommend her more highly. She is a gift to any change-making endeavour.
    Catherine Stewart
    Applecross Scotland, managing director Eagle Rock
  • Your training will have a lasting impact in this union, I just know it! We are going to discuss this being a yearly thing as well. Merging labour organizing with what we learned is so incredibly important for the labour movement. I have so much gratitude for what you do AND as an aside, think you’re very cool and fun and natural and talented facilitator! Thank you for the work you do and pour yourself into!
    Tricia Robinson
    AMUSE (Association of McGill University Support Employees)
  • Nadia is an ace facilitator. Warm heart, bright mind, inspiring, incisive, fun and creative. Her deep well of knowledge and experience combined with well-honed intuition and a vision for the best in a group ensure a great experience every time. Having worked with Nadia for many years I know she is the kind of leader you can completely rely on for excellent results.
    Peggy Taylor
    founder of Partners for Youth Empowerment, author of Catch the Fire: An Art-Full Guide to Unleashing the Creative Power of Communities, USA
  • Nadia demonstrates dexterity and cultural sensitivity as a trainer and facilitator. I attended an intensive international training in group facilitation led by Nadia in Uganda and I learned as much from the relevant experiential group processes as from her presence. I left this training more confident and optimistic about my ability to work with young people from different backgrounds.
    Andrew Nalani
    Founder, Director, African Youth Leadership Experience, Uganda
  • You are honestly one of the most skilled facilitators I have witnessed. You have an unique ability to access the full spectrum of human emotion and experience. You dance between states of being that normally wouldn’t go together with remarkable ease. The space you create feels like an elegant elongation of your personality. As a participant I feel in such good hands, full of trust towards the intention and vision of the process. You open up for difficult topics. Unfold nuances that so often are lost. A sign of the level of your knowledge and wisdom. Invite people into the conversation, not afraid of challenging what’s being brought up. On a mission to create depth in both awareness and interactions.
    Morten Vejrup
    Kaospilots, Switzerland
  • “I’ve engaged in countless hours of training with Nadia Chaney over the past five years—and in a world of nonstop emails and unceasing program needs, it’s no small thing to say I will always continue to do so. A steady sense of wisdom and experience flows through each of Nadia’s resources and training sessions, travelling through a conduit of playful mischief and relational care. I would recommend Toolsi and Knotty Groups to anyone who has committed their head and heart to the chimeric task of holding space for the transformation of others. Learning from her is like discovering electricity—once you start, you know nothing will ever be the same.”
    Johnathon Reed
    Director of Programs, Next Gen Men
  • “Nadia Chaney is a brilliant alchemist of creative facilitation.  As a teacher she generously invites her student’s authentic selves forward.  She models authenticity and vulnerability in subtle, direct, and original ways.  I love learning from and with Nadia!  She calls forth my courage, my genius, and my authentic voice!  It is always a delicious and nourishing treat to be in Nadia’s learning environments and playful spaces. It is a true joy to span time with you Nadia!”
    Hazel Bell Koski
    artist/ facilitator, Coast Salish Territories of the Səl̓ílwətaʔ, Xʷməθkwəy̓əm, & Sḵwx̱wú7meshsi First Nations
  • “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.”
    Adriana Costa
    Facilitator and Learning Experience Designer, Brazil/Netherlands
  • I not only use Toolsi for myself as I also often recommend it to other facilitators in my network. What to me makes Toolsi special and particularly different from other resources, is that I can watch the same videos several times, and I always find something new in them, they keep adding value to my practice and helping me to refine my perspective as a facilitator in a deep and nuanced way.
    Elis Motto
    Institut Now, Brazil