Katie Testa, also known as Delilah De Cleyre, is now on Steemit!
Katie's personal mission is to facilitate healing, growth, integration, and ultimately transformation, in humanity, in addition to maintaining a deep commitment to fulfilling her needs without compromise. She works in a multitude of ways toward her vision of a freer and more wonderful world that thrives on voluntary, fulfilling, and peaceful human relationships.
Katie teaches peace making skills internationally, with a primary focus on Nonviolent Communication (NVC). She received her training through The New York Center for Nonviolent Communication, and is presently a part of the NYCNVC Leadership Team. Through her study and integration of the model and practice of NVC, she has found both inspiration and hope for living a life that is in alignment with her values as a parent, teacher, coalition builder, and ultimately as an individual. She continues her learning and work with NYCNVC through coordination and facilitation of Intensive Trainings, Weekend Workshops, Teleworkshops, and leading Practice Groups.
Katie is also the Lead Trainer and Executive Director of Metro Detroit Nonviolent Communication (MDNVC), which is an organization designed to support those who would like to learn about NVC in the Detroit area and beyond. Through MDNVC she offers a variety of life enriching classes, from Introductory Level NVC Skills to more challenging applications via Peaceful Parenting classes. Community building and organizing is also an essential aspect of her work. Overall, she is most passionate about empowering her coaching clients. As a coach, Katie is trained and dedicated to facilitating growth and awareness without judgment, and with her many years of experience practicing Nonviolent Communication, and her own enthusiasm for learning, competency, and contribution, clients find a powerful resource at their fingertips when working with her.
Katie co-founded The Michigan Peace & Liberty Coalition (MPLC) and it’s annual event The Midwest Peace & Liberty Fest. The organization is founded on the philosophy of voluntaryism, or voluntarism, which holds that all human association works best when voluntary. The principle supporting voluntarism is known as the NAP, or the non-aggression principle, which prohibits the initiation of aggressive force or coercion. The MPLC's aim is to enable like-minded sovereign and peaceful individuals to find one another and establish meaningful friendships locally, while advocating the use of education, persuasion, and non-violent resistance as the primary means to bring about freedom in our lifetime.
Katie extends her values for peace and mutuality toward her 3 children. She practices peaceful parenting, leaving coercive strategies often employed to control children’s behavior (i.e. punishments and rewards) behind in exchange for empathy, respect, communication, and trust. In alignment with this, her family lives by a revolutionary inquiry based approach to learning, combined with total choice and freedom, often referred to as “Unschooling.” She is continually amazed by human curiosity and ingenuity when autonomy is valued and trust is extended. She has found healing herself and becoming more aware of how her childhood experiences shaped her has contributed most to her parenting and attitude toward education, and hopes to inspire and inform others about this lifestyle by modeling it.
Inspired by the idea that "peace on earth begins at birth", and by her own empowering hospital birth, home birth, and unassisted birth experiences, Katie was DONA trained as a Doula, with intentions to support families in their pregnancy, childbirth, and newborn care choices. Empathy and education are her foundation in that practice.
She is also enthusiastic about optimal health, which, when combined with her love for nature, has led her to a variety of other endeavors that ultimately contribute to more self-awareness and physical wellbeing, including Forest Diving and Great Lakes Chaga, two emerging projects she is particularly excited about.