"Visual empathy brings all stakeholders on the same page, like a mediator helps two parties understand each other's point of view."
Mireille van BremenVisual Mediator & Conflict Coach, Graphic Recorder
Visual Empathy Trainer & Coach
“Our visual voice matters because the visual empathy we express with it, leads to shared understanding and helps us attune to the audience we communicate with.”
Valuing Empathy
I believe we experience more harmony in our communication and have more synergy in collaborations when we get on the same page with ease. Empathic communication is incredibly powerful in creating connection and emotional wellbeing. It helps us establish and maintain trust in our relationships and learning experiences.
Visual Voice, Expression & Inclusion
The element that is frequently missing in our communication, is the expression of our visual voice. Most people who could have taught us in the past, how to express ourselves visually, didn’t have the skills themselves. The systemic construct of many parts of our society uses communication and educational approaches which generally don’t stimulate empathy and visual expression in our communication, and/or are hardly visually inclusive in our working and learning environments.
Visual Empathy
My years of experience in the field of visual communication as a design department leader stimulated me to learn and integrate empathy in my work. Since 2012 I have been intensively trained in Nonviolent Communication (NVC), and NVC based mediation and conflict coaching. In my Visual Empathy Courses I bring these two fields together because I experience how much empathy helps us understand and visually attune to the audience we communicate with. Because visual expression also increases the efficacy of training and development activities, both the relevance as the impact of learning experiences and collaboration increase.
To articulate the essential skill participants develop through my courses, I came up with the term ‘Visual Empathy’. I define it as ‘the visually attuned expression of our understanding, expressed with the intention to create connection with ourselves and others’.
In my work as a Visual Mediator, visual empathy is the main skill I use to create visualizations that show various perspectives and/or represent a shared reality or common vision.
My shortest definition of visual empathy is
“a visually attuned expression or response, expressed with the intention to deepen our understanding and create connection.”
Do you feel intrigued reading this, because harmony matters to you too, and you like to be effective in helping your audience develop their empathy skills?
Click on the button to start exploring the first steps in visually attuning your facilitation and communication to the audience in your training program.
What you would know, if you’d really know me …
Because I am empathic and lead from my intuition, I am often aware of unspoken intentions and power dynamics.
This makes it easy for me to put my finger on the sore spot and make the invisible, visible.
Sometimes it is confronting for people that the clarity I provide, reveals something about their own impact and responsibility in a situation.
Hi, I am Mireille van Bremen!
◉ I am a Dutch national with Asian roots and live in Slovenia since 2006. I am a mom and co-parent of a teenage son who lives with me every other week.
◉ Besides many creative activities, I love improvised plant-based cooking with home grown veggies. I enjoy mountain biking, hiking, spending time with friends, doing daily self-connection practices or simply spend time in silent solitude.
◉ Some fun facts 😊 I have a strong need for visual harmony and am a color freak. I paint as a meditation practice. Depending on the culture or religion, my name Mireille means ‘to admire’, ‘peace’ and ‘miracle’.
◉ I am a Dutch national with Asian roots and live in Slovenia since 2006. I am a mom and co-parent of a teenage son who lives with me every other week.
◉ Besides many creative activities, I love improvised plant-based cooking with home grown veggies. I enjoy mountain biking, hiking, spending time with friends, doing daily self-connection practices or simply spend time in silent solitude.
◉ Some fun facts 😊 I have a strong need for visual harmony and am a color freak. I paint as a meditation practice. Depending on the culture or religion, my name Mireille means ‘to admire’, ‘peace’ and ‘miracle’.
Mireille van Bremen
Graphic Recorder ◉ Visual Mediator & Conflict Coach ◉ Visual Empathy Trainer
Education & Training
Education
- Bachelor of Design: Design and Visual Communications, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, (Willem de Kooning Academy) (2003, 3 years, The Netherlands)
- Bachelor of Arts: Illustration, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, (Willem de Kooning Academy) (1996, 4,5 years, The Netherlands)
- Glendale Unified School District (July 1995, 3 weeks, California, USA)
- IJsselcollege (1991, 5 years, The Netherlands)
- Jenaplan School Het Mozaik (1990, 10 months, The Netherlands)
- Vrije School Rotterdam Waldorf/Rudolf Steiner School (1982, 8 years, The Netherlands)
Various Training – Participation / Certification
- ThetaHealing Basic DNA, Level 1 (2020, 4 days, Teleclass) – trainer: Dr. Lisa Cooney
- Genos Emotional Intelligence Practitioner Certification (2019, 4 days, Slovenia) – trainer: Pam Welsby, FastForward
- Awakening Coaching Training – Deepening Course (2016, 5 days, Greece) – trainer: Arjuna Ardagh
- Awakening Coaching Training – Basic Skill Course (2016, 5 days, Germany) – trainer: Arjuna Ardagh
- Methodology / Didactics, Training Design (2015, 3 days, Germany) – CNVC trainer: Klaus Karstadt
- Art of Participatory Leadership (2014, 4 days, Slovenia)
Nonviolent Communication Training – Assisting / Co-trainer
- Designing and Building Impactful NVC training (July 2019, 2 days, France) – CVNC trainer: Roxy Manning, PhD (Principal Based Teaching) and Mireille van Bremen (Visual Facilitation)
- Taste of BayNVC Leadership Program (July 2018, 8 days, California, USA) – CNVC trainer: Roxy Manning PhD
- BayNVC Leadership Program (July 2017, 20 weeks, California, USA) – CNVC trainers: Roxy Manning & François Beausoleil
Nonviolent Communication Training – Participation
- The Giraffe Business School (May 2023, 8 weeks, Teleclass) – trainer: Marie Miyashiro, Elucity Network, Inc.
- Mediate Your Life (September 2021, 9 months, Teleclass) – CNVC trainer: John Kinyon
- NVC for Real: Coaching Across Racial Microaggressions (September 2020, 5 weeks, Teleclass) – CNVC trainer: Roxanne Manning PhD
- Street Giraffe (2017, 2 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainer: Marjeta Novak
- BayNVC Leadership Program (Yearlong NVC training) (2016, 12 months, Teleclass/California, USA) – CNVC trainers: Roxy Manning & François Beausoleil
- Empathic Livelihood Coaching Program (March 2016, 4 months, Teleclass) – CNVC trainer: François Beausoleil
- Contact Improvisation & Nonviolent Communication (2015, 2 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainer: Robert Kržišnik
- Brain Science – on healing childhood pain and trauma (2015, 4 days, Germany) – CNVC trainers: Sarah Peyton & Sarah Hart
- Awakening the Flow of Life Retreat (April 2014, 6,5 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainers: Robert Gonzales & Robert Kržišnik
- Intensive International Training (IIT) (2014, 10 days, Palestine/Israel) – CNVC trainers: Klaus Karstadt, Robert Kržišnik, Roberta Wall, Arnika Kashtan, Hagit Lifshitz
- Self-Empathy (2013, 2 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainers: Robert Kržišnik & Marjeta Novak
- Communication with Children (2013, 2 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainers: Robert Kržišnik & Marjeta Novak
- Deepening Course on Nonviolent Communication (2013, 7 days, Greece) – CNVC trainer: Louise Romain, Marianne Götlin, Towe Widstrand, and Kaspar Ritz
- Nonviolent Communication based Conflict Resolution (2012, 2 days, Slovenia) – CNVC trainers: Robert Kržišnik & Marjeta Novak
- Introductory training on Nonviolent Communication (2012, 2 days, The Netherlands) – CNVC trainer: Nicole van Ladesteijn
Experience
- Graphic Recorder, Visual Mediator & Conflict Coach, Visual Empathy Trainer at The Visual Mediator formerly known as The Visual Catalyst (2019) and Empathic Pathway (2015).
- Assisting / Co-trainer
> Designing and Building Impactful NVC training (July 2019, 2 days, France) – CVNC trainer: Roxy Manning, PhD (Principal Based Teaching) and Mireille van Bremen (Visual Facilitation)
> Taste of BayNVC Leadership Program (July 2018, 8 days, California, USA) – CNVC trainer: Roxy Manning PhD
> BayNVC Leadership Program (July 2017, 20 weeks, California, USA) – CNVC trainers: Roxy Manning & François Beausoleil - 9 years Head of Design & Art Director in an internationally operating advertising agency in Slovenia
- 5 years owner of Studio LiEF – graphic design & illustration studio based in The Netherlands
- Trained hundreds of trainers, coaches, facilitators, leaders, designers, project managers, lecturers and teachers in developing their visual empathy skills
- Supported many entrepreneurs in being more impactful with their marketing & communications
- Created countless graphic recordings, visual summaries and other visual representations & illustrations
Skills
- Visual literacy
- Digital literacy
- Critical thinking
- Leadership skills
- Organisational skills
- Trainer skills
- Communication skills
- Facilitate trainings, conversations, meetings, workshops, …
- Empathic listening & Empathy skills
- Visually capture the essence of a story, conflict, idea or plan with striking clarity
- Visualise the bigger picture of ideas, concepts, models, processes, visions, plans, etc.
- Generate new value & tons of ideas
- Reduce complexity to what truly matters
- Make the invisible visible & tangible
- Graphic Recording, Visual Translation
- Art direction, Graphic design
- Illustration
- Conflict Resolution, Coaching & Mediation
- Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
- (Online) Marketing & Business
Expertise
- Visual communication
- Empathy
- Graphic recording
- Graphic Facilitation
- Training
- Coaching
- Facilitation
- Nonviolent Communication
- NVC based Mediation & Conflict Coaching
Languages
- Dutch (native)
- English (professional)
- Slovene (professional)
- German (basic)
- Any other language with simultaneous or consecetive translation
Locations
- Internationally
- In person
- Online
- Hybrid
Organizations already working with me
The Visual Mediator
Mireille Annette van Bremen s.p.
Žlebej 1a
8000 Novo mesto, Slovenia
VAT ID: SI10975748
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