work with me
Experiences for individuals, groups and organizations
For details and fees see Group Events, Private Sessions or Events Calendar
The About page has details on the diversity of clients and organizations I’ve served.
testimonial on the nuances of my facilitation
L.R., one of four staff observers (who asked to remain anonymous) wrote an assessment of two half-day workshops I developed and facilitated entitled “Gathering of Women: Speaking Our Minds, Claiming Our Power” for 20 African-American women undergraduate students at MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“Tonia is warm and comes across as honest, clear, and deeply supportive, with no BS. She holds the energy of the group no matter what is happening and finds a framework where people as a group or individually can honor their own experiences while respecting everyone else’s experiences.
She held the group through moments of joy and laughter as well as disagreements and painful experiences. Tonia was the constant rock yet she danced with the spontaneous experiences no matter what they were.
What I love about Tonia and the way she facilitates a group is that she is able to work with a very complex and charged set of issues within a community that is disadvantaged and disconnected on several counts. She was able to bring the people together and help them to make connections with each other, articulate difficult challenging issues – both personal and organizational, and come up with ways of seeing things as “problems that can be solved” vs. “There’s nothing we can do about this.”
Tonia brings an empowerment approach to her facilitation. She gets us to take on a “can do” attitude that is realistic and grounded – lacking grandiosity, superficiality, or overwork. She helped us to take realistic actions that are do-able, while somehow working with the ideals, the simple step-by-step goals, and the real constraints and limitations that are systemic challenges. She helps us to see there’s a way it can work.
People felt empowered. Even though it was late at night after the first meeting, and students still had a lot of school work to do, they stayed around to talk for another half hour. This further fostered relationships between students, staff and needful students.
She is one of the best facilitators I have ever seen. Her love, integrity, care and skill is exemplary. She has made a critical difference in a disconnected, difficult and conflictual community and has helped us to take major steps forward in bringing everyone together for positive, real change. I wish I could learn even more from her, and I hope she opens her own coaching school soon.”
