About James
James Bigelow is an educator, curriculum designer, and facilitator with over two decades of experience at the convergence of healing, education, and community.
He has taught Nonviolent Communication for more than 14 years and trauma-informed, nervous-system-based education for the last ten. He currently serves as the lead educator for Echo Parenting & Education and spent four years at Wolf Connection, where he rewrote the curriculum for their flagship eight-week youth program, hired and trained staff, and developed a loving, old-time, traditional work culture.
Across both Echo and Wolf Connection, James was entrusted with updating and deepening their core curricula—bringing greater practicality, cultural humility, and overall integrity to the work. His current offerings—workshops, single-day immersions, and consulting—integrate nervous system education, nature-based learning, and relational healing practices.
Much of James’s approach has been quietly shaped by his long-time relationship with Rick Klein, an elder from New Mexico, and the land-based ways of learning and living that Rick carries. These teachings live in the way James honors responsibility, reciprocity, and the ordinary ceremonial nature of daily living. At the heart of his work is a shift from the individual, isolated “self” toward "the village", and a collective understanding of self and responsibility. He designs learning spaces that invite people out of individualism and into shared belonging and responsibility. Where life and health are a communal project.
James’s teaching has also been shaped by years of community organizing. He is a founding member of the Los Angeles Tenants Union, a proud member of the VyBe local and of the "I Love Lucile Ave" Tenants Association (where his lives). His political practice is grounded in community, relationship, and movement-building.
