About Us
Our Story
Elizabeth founded Life at Work in 2004.
Initially Elizabeth delivered Nonviolent Communication trainings for public services, in healthcare, education and the police – as well as community groups, such as the Cambridge Buddhist Centre. This is where Peter came along. In 2004, Peter attended Elizabeth’s trainings at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre, and, inspired by the approach, he also trained as a certified trainer in Nonviolent Communication. In 2010, Peter joined the Life at Work team, which allowed Life at Work to broaden its scope. Peter’s expertise allowed us to enter the business arena, where his expertise in sales, management and team collaboration was highly valued. In 2012, Peter moved back to his native Slovakia and founded Life at Work, Slovakia. Elizabeth’s focus developed into coaching, and mindfulness, and in 2014 she became the first-ever Mindfulness practitioner at Cambridge University, where her courses were the subject of ground-breaking research published in The Lancet (2017). Ever since they have collaborated on projects in the UK, Slovakia and elsewhere.
Our Approaches
Nonviolent communication
Nonviolent Communication™ (NVC) is an approach to understanding and improving communication and emotional intelligence. It covers different aspects of communication: proactive expression, receptive listening and inner reflection. NVC has an international network of certified trainers teaching across the world and the approach over the last decade has been finding its way to businesses and organizations.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is an ancient Buddhist approach to dealing with stress, dissatisfaction and unhappiness — and for bringing about an alert and vibrant sense of calm. Now widely taught as Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), this approach includes a variety of relaxation exercises and mediations which help us to understand and resolve stress patterns, to develop natural resilience in the face of difficulties, and to find new perspectives and approaches to old situations.
Focusing
Focusing offers one of the most subtle and far-reaching processes for developing emotional intelligence. It encompasses how we think, what we feel and need, and the impulses which condition how we act and behave. In addition, Focusing opens up the more mysterious aspects of our inner interactions, such as experience which has no obvious language to describe it (the felt-sense), metaphor and symbol, body-wisdom, implicit knowing and intuition.
The Two of Us
Elizabeth English
Consultant
Elizabeth is the Cambridge University Mindfulness Practitioner, teaching mindfulness to students at the University. She has an academic career, with a Masters and Doctorate from Oxford University in Buddhology. Always interested in personal development, in 2004 she began her work as consultant, trainer and coach in the professional sphere having certified as a trainer in Nonviolent Communication and Focusing, and more recently, trauma therapy (Somatic Experiencing). Alongside her work at Cambridge University, Elizabeth currently spends more of her time coaching. She has written several books on mindfulness meditation and mindful communication.
Peter Kukliš
Consultant
Peter graduated in finance and accounting from the University of Economics, in Bratislava, Slovakia, and pursued business studies at the Wirtschaftsuniversity in Vienna. He managed a marketing team in a cutting-edge IT company in India, before joining a Cambridge-based fair-trade gift importer specialising in sales and sales management. Since 2010 he has specialised in management, leadership development and communication trainings. In 2012, Peter certified in Nonviolent Communication and Focusing, and currently works for a leading training consultancy Maxman Consultants in Slovakia.
