Welcome to the NVC Library

We've seen how Nonviolent Communication can provide immense personal healing, but questions have arisen on whether it can also contribute to meaningful social change. Roxy Manning believes it can, on both the individual level and the systemic level. NVC for Social Change teaches how to navigate these challenging social issues with love and compassion. By leveraging the depth of understanding that NVC provides, we can then begin to generate equitable processes in our networks and our communities.

Mary Mackenzie shares how making requests in NVC builds honesty, trust, and deeper connection.

Mary Mackenzie shares practical facilitation techniques to guide participants toward deeper understanding without correction. Through thoughtful pauses and reflective questions, she demonstrates how to help individuals connect with feelings and needs in a meaningful way.

Yoram Mosenzon explores the core NVC principle that others do not cause our feelings—our interpretations and unmet needs do.

What do we do when someone speaks to us in a way that doesn’t feel respectful? In this video, Oren Jay Sofer explores how NVC invites us to listen for the feelings and needs behind harsh or judgmental words — not because we “should,” but because it gives us more choice and freedom in how we respond.

These mindful inquiry exercises and tips are for enhancing self-empathy, and empathy for others. Using emotions and needs card decks provided, learn to reflect and enhance trust and connection through intentional practice.

Explore the core teachings and principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) to foster collaboration, mutual support, and to connect across differences. NVC emphasizes connecting through universal needs, honest expression, and compassionate listening—creating space for understanding, and meaningful human connection.

Roxy Manning's 2023, 4 session course, will help you

• Explore several essential components of facilitation using a caring for all, power-with lens
• Know how to identify and gather together the people who need to be in the room
• Learn tips and strategies for ensuring all voices are heard
• Grow your capacity to name and address power dynamics and unconscious bias that impacts group members’ experience

Our brains often quickly categorizes things as good, bad, right, or wrong and then determines who’s to blame or praise. Maybe this  supports the illusion of order and predictability, thus provides a false sense of safety and reassurance. But its less effective in truly meeting our needs. By practicing "Living in the Observation," we can focus on reality, avoid unhelpful rumination, and find peace and empowerment in everyday life.

Clear, actionable requests are vital for fulfilling needs and maintaining relationships. In NVC, a true request differs from a demand by honoring both parties’ needs equally. Effective requests are specific, present, positive, and doable, and using them strengthens connection, prevents resentment, and promotes mutual understanding. Here are three key skills to making effective requests and three types of requests.

Oren J. Sofer offers an NVC approach to navigating tough moments—balancing honest self-expression with deep listening. Discover how centering yourself, naming your intentions, and hearing the other person first can create the understanding needed for true connection.

Certified NVC Trainer Aya Caspi describes Nonviolent Communication (NVC) as a restorative practice—one that reconnects us with life, trust, and the experience of mattering. She reflects on Marshall Rosenberg’s vision of NVC as a “language of life,” helping us shift from disconnection to connection, from distrust to trust.

2020 has added three major global crises to our long and painful list of ongoing challenges:

• Public health crisis emerging from the Coronavirus infecting humans;
• Governance crisis manifesting especially in global protests against police brutality and governments more generally; and
• Economic crisis unfolding from responses to the pandemic.

And as a result, many of us who share NVC with others have been feeling a growing unease about our roles. I have heard from quite a few who want to go beyond using NVC primarily as a personal growth tool within the market economy, and often don't know how to do so. This course is designed to respond to this need by supporting anyone who shares NVC with others – regardless of experience or certification – in opening to the way systemic perspectives deepen and transform how we bring NVC to people, communities, and organizations.

Ever since the Women's Movement of the 60s and 70s, we have known that "the personal is the political" – that individual suffering and challenges often have their source in the social systems within which we live.

How can we mobilize this insight in support of our own and others' healing?

Join Miki Kashtan for this course designed to shed light on how the social context into which we are born affects our experience, and what we can do about it at the individual level within the paradigm of nonviolence. 

When working to repair a relationship after conflict, and after reaching mutual care and understanding, you’re more likely to prevent future disconnection in similar situations by coming to clear, specific, and actionable agreements. Ensure requests for agreements come from a negotiable needs-based dialogue. Clarify specifics and plan to revisit agreements to assess their effectiveness.

Join Mary Mackenzie for this 8 session exploration of the Fundamentals of Nonviolent Communication.

Fear and self-doubt often hold us back from taking action, but Roxy Manning urges us to confront these barriers, prepare for challenges, and build strong support systems. Social change is tough, and frustration is inevitable, but by embracing our humanity and staying committed, we can create meaningful impact. The key is to step in with courage, empathy, and a plan to sustain the journey.

Fun jokes: How many NVC practitioners does it take to screw in a light bulb? How many certified, advanced, NVC guru trainers does it take to screw in a light bulb? (Disclaimer: This is a humor piece. To understand why this cartoon might be funny it’s useful to have some experience with NVC and the NVC community.)

Mary Mackenzie explains that empathizing with our closest loved ones can be difficult because they matter so deeply to us, past experiences might create emotional barriers, and we might fear losing ourselves in the process.

In relationships, the desire for space can conflict with the need for intimacy. This conflict arises from different strategies to meet similar needs. By identifying specific needs behind the request for space and understanding the other person’s needs for closeness, both of you can negotiate and collaborate. Repeated conflicts may indicate the need for personal healing, which you’ll need to address individually.