Ceri Buckmaster - Facilitator, mediator, workshop leader
​Ceri is a group facilitator, mediator and writer. She works in Sustainability and Community building with organisations, neighbourhood forums, schools, community groups and individuals.  In her work, she accompanies people to walk towards the things they most want to avoid; conflict, trauma, grief, loss, fear.  Believing we are made to be accompanied. It is so much harder to deal with conflict and heal from trauma alone. All her work promotes self-care and working to co-create more robust relationships based on greater transparency, openness and mutual care. She works with Convergent Facilitation to enable agreements to be made about how to handle conflicts with care and respect. 
  She has been active in grassroots organising in the Brixton area for over 10 years. This is her website and this is where she publishes regular articles on transforming conflict and collaborative practices, she is a certified trainer at The Centre for Nonviolent Communication and works closely with  NVC-UK.

In 2015, she trained in Repairing Trauma with Sarah Peyton and Susan Skye (Munich, Germany). In 2013, she participated in the Leadership programme in Nonviolent Communication, San Francisco, California. She participated in the Diploma in Group facilitation and conflict resolution at the NAOS Institute, London. 

More info on Ceri and her work can be found at www.ceribuckmaster.co.uk
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Ceri's current work includes: ​​
"I felt that the way in which Ceri facilitated the good/bad binary racism conversation really resonated with me. I felt empowered to speak my truth for the first time in that group, rather than feeling like my truth does not matter, as it may make some people feel uncomfortable. Ceri's approach by normalising it and taking ownership in having the conversation in a candid manner, not trying to sugar coat anything, helped us as a diversity group to really unravel this racism 'thing' and look into the fundamental facts. For the first time, I felt that we were really utilising the meeting in a more holistic way, which i felt enabled all of us to connect with one another and the group more. It was a very authentic experience and showed the importance of bringing in external individuals and/or organisations to really help us to check in with our blind spots. So, it resulted in us reviewing our needs, goals and objectives for the diversity working group. This was a much needed shake up to ensure that we really are trying to effect change, rather than it being a tick box exercise. Some that did not before, now understand the value in mixing it up going forward and we will be looking at opportunities to bring in external service providers that can add value, and ensure that we are really tackling the hard-hitting subjects in a more exploratory, experiential way. Then we translate to actions, policies and procedures."
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"The good/bad binary racism exercise was really powerful. I think this sparked a thought in those that have never really had to think about race, due to various factors, that racism is much more complex, it's not just about language, or spewing hate, its an entrenched oppressive system that we are all complicit in. The training was able to challenge us to take more ownership and not be defensive about such conversations, as in order to move forward, we have to acknowledge, accept and be aware enough to make different decisions. Knowing is no longer good enough!"

"Ceri is a skilled and sensitive facilitator. She supported us to engage with new - and potentially challenging - material in an inclusive way, and expertly modelled the behaviours she was asking us to adopt."
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