David takes facilitation from a technique to a brilliant art form. With a sparkling ability to communicate, he is able to create an environment where participants at every level of skill or confidence feel safe to explore and express...I can't recommend him highly enough.

—Julie Kehler, former town councillor Canmore, Alberta

I was introduced to David by my doctoral supervisor while I was conducting my doctoral research. At the time, I was still searching for a focus that truly resonated with my passions and commitments to community-centred research and learning. David was deeply immersed in his own journey of becoming a Process Work master, and he offered me powerful coaching during a pivotal time in my life. What stood out most was his calm, grounded presence, and the sense of wise eldership he carries. Being in conversation with him felt both spacious and uplifting.

David has a rare ability to hold the heaviness of complex personal and professional challenges while also bringing a lightness and sense of humour that keeps things moving forward in a meaningful way. He is a masterful Processworker, educator, and coach—deeply collaborative, insightful, and wise.

If you are a leader seeking thoughtful, relational support to guide yourself or your team through change, I highly recommend reaching out to David.

—Denise Findlay, Tslekxáliya, Ph.D., CPCC

Like a ray of sunlight through a magnifying glass, David's Processwork refocused our energy as a 3 year-old co-housing community and rekindled our fire. He supported us to reconnect with our dream of being a collaborative, mutually supportive neighbourhood. Although our path has not been eas
y to walk, we have more skills with which to walk it, thanks to David's skilled facilitation.
~ Margaret Critchlow, community building facilitator
Co-author: Community Led Housing

David’s leadership coaching was deeply grounding and transformative. He provided consistent support as I navigated complex system pressures, shifting structures, and the emotional weight that I felt in my leadership role.

What stood out most about David’s coaching was his ability to hold both professional and personal growth as interconnected rather than separate. He supported me to strengthen clarity, confidence, and decision‑making while also attending to values alignment, and self‑awareness.

The coaching was particularly impactful in its deep understanding of equity‑centred leadership. Leading in spaces focused on equity requires a distinct set of skills: humility, accountability, emotional intelligence, and the ability to sit with discomfort while still moving work forward. David’s coaching approach reflected a strong grasp of these realities and supported me to be a leader that is both courageous and compassionate.

Throughout organizational transitions, his support helped me remain grounded, reflective, and purposeful supporting not just how I lead, but why I lead. I highly recommend David,  particularly for those who are working in a health equity space.

—Shannon McCarthy, Executive Director, Indigenous Health, Vancouver Coastal Health

David is a zen cat with a deep green soul.

—Jessie Oliver, City Studio ‍ ‍

I appreciated David's conflict facilitation to navigate some of our fragile relationships by never letting us forget our common human nature and vulnerability. David created an environment that was positive and supportive, but did not shy away from dealing with difficult and negative existing relationships among participants. During the year following, the workplace changed into one of far greater understanding with the ability to address what were previously difficult conversations by utilizing the skills learned in his training and facilitation. 

—Kurt Dehnel, Owner, I/O Design & Engineering

The Singing Soul was the first time I was ever invited to participate in a miracle.

—Dr. Vaughan Marshall, University of British Columbia

The Singing Soul is powerful work. Like no other process or method I’ve ever participated in, it demonstrated to me the role of the human singing voice as a vehicle to enter into participation with creation and showed me what is possible when a group of people share in that process. David’s grounded heartfelt presence, added to his already masterful facilitation of the collective space, made me feel held, nurtured and inspired and allowed me to safely share and express the music of my own being and to step into deeply felt joy, love and awe.

—Julie Froekjaer, Project Lead, Planning and Development, Vancouver Island University‍ ‍

The Process Work that I have done with David Hatfield has had a profoundly positive effect on my ability to build healthier and stronger relationships with myself and others.   As someone with a lifelong 'go along to get along' strategy of avoidance of conflict, David's facilitation of group sessions gave me the experience of openly and compassionatelyfacing conflict with the ability 'be on 'both sides'…honestly voicing my own feelings, boundaries and experiences without invalidating the other person's, and hearing their feelings, boundaries and experiences as valid without bailing on myself.   

David is a highly skilled professional in this work, able to move between the roles of leader, guide, teacher and support as is most needed in the moment.  He listens deeply and fully and is one of the most present and accepting people I have ever met.  In working with him one-on-one, he has helped me step into a new freedom and confidence to be authentic by letting go of a drive to be agreeable at all costs and cultivating a sense of curiosity that I can access when disagreement arises.  It is not easy work and I am still learning but with each situation that I navigate with these tools, I feel more capable and, in these increasingly divided times, more positive about the future health of my relationships and my ability to be in community.

—Vanessa Bell, Embodied Movement Coach

David is not only a skilled Processwork facilitator, he is also a deeply intuitive guide who leads us through the often-challenging terrain of our own learning. Through his thoughtful and grounded teaching, David made these complex frameworks of Process Work accessible and immediately relevant. He doesn’t just lecture about the process; he invites us into it. Before I realized it, I was already applying Process Work into my professional practice facilitation.

Working in the Equity and Inclusion space, I’ve come to understand that this kind of learning is essential. David effectively guides us to explore our current conflict dynamics and unconscious biases and engage with these moments to lean into the conflict, listen for what is unspoken, and discover the wisdom embedded in the conflict. Processwork helps us see conflict not as failure, but as a source of transformation.

David isn’t afraid to challenge or push back gently when we stay on the surface. This insistence on depth and awareness is what makes his teaching so impactful. His teaching is truly about embodied practice.  I find myself using David’s teachings every single day. It is a privilege to have learned from him. His passion for this work is infectious, and his ability to hold space for complexity and discomfort has transformed my practice and my understanding of what true inclusion and multi-sided dialogue look like.

—Amrita Agaarwal, Leader, Anti Racism team, Vancouver Coastal Health Authority

Twenty-five years ago, I was in a workshop, led by David, that helped me as a teacher understand and build a safe and encouraging culture for boys in school. I have been a fan of his Men’s Work ever since. David’s work recognizes, respects and draws on the group’s wisdom and experience to achieve understanding and connection. He continues to refine and extend his facilitation skills with groups. David draws on a wide range of experiential activities and creativity in his work to build the participants’ connections and deepen their learning.

—Bill Darnell, A founding member of Greenpeace

I work in community development and in building leadership capacity for activists. David’s conflict facilitation training has been a key part in both my leadership program and in my personal development. His work lays out an accessible and practical framework to transform the personal experience of conflict into positive change. Through story, group interaction and practical steps, his content and delivery is highly effective in building participants' understanding of conflict and providing ways to solve it. I highly recommend David's work, to groups or individuals that wish to transform conflict.

—Mike Byerley, Program Coordinator Next Up Leadership, Calgary