The direct part
Say the real thing.
Name what is true and what happened, without softening it into nothing or waiting for permission. Directness is clarity, not cruelty. It is the willingness to be honest and to be seen wanting something better.
Direct Compassionate Communication
Direct enough to tell the truth. Compassionate enough to stay in the room.
DCC is a somatic practice for the hard conversations: about race, grief, harm, and repair. You learn to stay grounded, say the true thing, and keep your humanity and theirs intact.
What DCC is
Two capacities, held at the same time.
Most of us can do one or the other. We go direct and lose the connection, or we stay kind and lose the truth. DCC is the practice of holding both, in the body, so a hard conversation can move toward repair instead of rupture.
The compassionate part
Keep the person.
Stay regulated enough to remember there is a human on the other side, and one inside you too. Compassion is not agreement or comfort. It is refusing to abandon dignity, yours or theirs, while you tell the truth.
When you can do both at once, you no longer have to choose between honesty and belonging.
- Mental
- Emotional
- Spiritual
- Somatic
On Demand Class
Don't Take the (Click) Bait!
The world is built to hook your nervous system. Outrage often travels faster than presence, and reaction feels like power. This on-demand class teaches us how we can cultivate not only fortitude and resilience for engaging on social media, but how we may bring empathy to all our digital interactions.
The bait
A stranger replies to your post: "You people are never happy. Maybe try being grateful for once."
The practice
internal self-connection pause
I notice my chest tighten and the urge to fire back. I do not owe a stranger my energy or my wound. I can mute, block, or respond only if I am regulated enough to say what I actually mean.
expression
I don't know you, and this comment isn't an invitation to dialogue I'm available for right now.
Pause first. Then choose your response.
1 / 3
Practice groups
Small rooms. Real practice.
Live, capped circles where you practice DCC out loud with scenario cards and gentle coaching. You leave with tools, not just theory.
All of these sessions are included in the Heal Your Way Forward Collective membership. Become a member.
1st Mondays
How to Say (& Hear!) the Hard Thing
Practice not only expressing difficult truths, free from blame and criticism, but also receiving them with grounded, empathetic presence. Guided exercises use real-life scenarios with partner and small group practice. Bring a situation you are navigating if you like.
1st Monday, 5:00 to 6:30pm PT / 8:00 to 9:30pm ET. $22 suggested.
2nd Saturdays
Radical Permission to Play
What if play is not avoidance, but a sustainable resistance strategy? We explore the ways we block play, exploration, and possibility, not with shame but with curiosity, and translate the judgments we carry into the unmet needs beneath them.
2nd Saturday, 11:00am to 1:00pm PT / 2:00 to 4:00pm ET. $22 suggested.
3rd Tuesdays or Thursdays
Grief & Gratitude
An intentional space where we may grieve all that we are navigating as a community committed to Black liberation, while gently cultivating authentic hope and gratitude. We open with communal grief practice and close with an authentic gratitude exercise.
3rd Tuesday, 5:30 to 7:00pm PT, or 3rd Thursday, 9:00 to 10:30am PT, alternating months. $22 suggested.
4th Fridays
DCC Basics
A monthly practice group exploring the basics of Direct Compassionate Communication while building community together. Guided exercises emphasize self connection and practical relating skills you can use right away, whether you are brand new or strengthening your foundation.
4th Friday, 4:00 to 5:30pm PT / 7:00 to 8:30pm ET. $22 suggested.
28th each month
Reflect & Request: Self-Connection
We slow down the self connection process, look back on the previous month, and explore what is alive in us. Unpack judgments, shift stories into clear observations, build awareness of feelings and needs, and reach for a request you can make for the month ahead.
Monthly on the 28th, 9:00 to 10:30am PT / noon to 1:30pm ET. $22 suggested.
Start on your own
The DCC Basics Workbook.
A self-paced way in. Learn the core moves of Direct Compassionate Communication, practice noticing what happens in your body before you speak, and build a few grounded scripts you can actually reach for in the moment. Best paired with a practice group, and a good place to begin if you are not ready for a live room yet.
One Week Feb 2027
Learn to hold the room, not just enter it.
A live, virtual training for the people ready to guide others through hard conversations. You will learn to facilitate DCC containers, hold groups through discomfort, and carry the practice into your own communities and work.
- Feb 2027
- Starts
- 3 Days
- Length
- Live, Virtual, on Zoom
- Format
For organizations
DCC for teams, small business, non profits.
Bring Direct Compassionate Communication into your workplace, board, or community team. We design short trainings and practice containers for groups ready to turn conflict into connection.
Who you'll practice with.
myisha t. hill
HYWF Founder + DCC Creator
myisha is the founder and heart of Heal Your Way Forward Collective — a writer, life coach, healer, and activist guiding others in healing their relationships to systems of oppression. Her work integrates neuroscience, ancestral wisdom, and healing justice. She is the author of Heal Your Way Forward and creator of the Direct Compassionate Communication framework.
Mitzi Magdaleno
DCC Practice Guide
A creative entrepreneur, multi-medium artist, and business coach who spent 15 years in the Bay Area focusing on youth, women, and staff empowerment at organizations like the YMCA and Mission Girls. Mitzi became a committed co-conspirator with HYWF in 2019, supporting people through human-centered, creative tools for healing.
Jen Gergen
DCC Practice Guide
Beginning her NVC journey in 2008 training with founder Marshall Rosenberg, Jen has been dedicated to the practice, facilitation, and education of NVC since. She collaborates with the HYWF Collective to build fortitude and resiliency in liberation movements through authentic, compassionate communication.