Living NVC

Would you like to experience more connection with the people in your life? Would you like to feel more grounded in your purpose and commitment, and connected to your own needs.

Each moment in our daily lives is an opportunity to practice. Nonviolent Communication’s core principles may have already begun to show up throughout your day, in each of your relationships, including your relationship with yourself. 

Now is the time to cultivate the intention to connect and the attention to needs that can deepen your relationships and move you toward the life you want to live. 

Living NVC is a comprehensive self-paced online program that guides you toward building regular NVC practice into your life. Led by 8 certified trainers (Eddie Zacapa, Kanya Likanasudh, Kristin Masters, Mary Mackenzie, Mika Maniwa, Olga Nguyen, Samuel Odhiambo and Sarah Peyton) and 10 trainer candidates (Elke Haggerty, Emma Buggy, Juliana Cazco, Leonie Smith, Lynn McLaughlin, Morris Ervin, Nadine Helm, Neal Caidin, Reena Ginwala and Shweta Dharap) from 8 countries.

It includes 6 different modules:

1. Finding Ground – Living NVC is all about you and your relationships – to yourself, others and an ever widening circle of people. In this first module, we set the foundation for the course and help you get grounded and ready for what is to come in the remaining modules. We will ask you to set intentions and goals based on needs and you will: 
   1. Deepen your understanding of a core component of NVC: needs
   2. Consider the relationships in your life, including your relationship to yourself, in which you want to deepen connection
   3. Better understand the key distinction between needs and strategies
   4. Set need-based goals and start to practice
      
      
2. Loving Yourself – Connecting deeply and consistently to your own feelings and needs opens up possibilities for the other relationships in your life. In this module, we will practice self-empathy and you will:
   1. Establish a regular practice of connecting to your own feelings and needs in any situation
   2. Begin to develop your own approach to self-empathy
   3. Understand the key distinction between feelings and feelings mixed with thoughts
   4. Map your closest, deepest connections, and consider how you can increase connection
      
      
3.  Empathic Presence – Your connection to those closest to you is precious. Close relationships can offer great joy, steward growth, and open us to being more of our full self in the world.  By the end of this module you will:
   1. Increase your capacity to hear the feelings and needs of the people in your life 
   2. Understand the key distinction between empathy and sympathy or other forms of response
   3. Generate strategies for building relationships
   4. Take tangible steps toward building a practice community
      
      
4. Building Power With – Learning and practicing Nonviolent Communication is most effective when we do it with others because we are social, interdependent beings. Like any change we want to make in our lives or in the world, we are most powerful when we are collective.  We are surrounded by people, whether over screens or in person, and each interaction is an opportunity to connect, sometimes to enjoy, sometimes for our growth and learning, sometimes to fulfill our purpose.  By the end of this module you will:
   1. Increase your willingness to offer the gift of your care to others 
   2. Understand the key distinction between requests and demands, and feel the power of making requests 
   3. Develop your ability to generate creative solutions in any situation
   4. Connect with your needs and the needs of others in difficult situations
      
      
5. Meeting Intensity with Love – Whether you feel easy connection or massive, distinct, enraging separation, one person in each of these relationships is constant: you. In this module we will practice moving toward that sense of separation, cultivating curiosity throughout, deepening connection with ourselves at every turn, and surfacing honesty that can grow connection. Throughout this module, we will practice reconnecting to our needs, remembering needs as the place that we are already deeply connected with others, including those that seem separate, and generating strategies for connection.  By the end of this module you will:
   1. Deepen your ability to see the patterns and systemic context in any situation, and cultivate freedom and choice in the face of domination
   2. Understand the purpose of rage, the cost of not expressing anger, and ways that you can express anger that can create and sustain connection to yourself and others 
   3. Generate strategies for connection in intense situations
   4. Turn toward the power of vulnerability and honest expression as a strategy for connection
      
      
6. Bringing it All Together - By now, you have Nonviolent Communication practices throughout your daily life. Our intention is to offer strategies for cultivating the intention to connection, and the attention on needs, so that you can be more present to yourself and others, and creatively seek to meet needs in any situation. Throughout this course, you may have also developed your own rhythm and your own practices. In this module we will: 
   1. Reflect on the ways that NVC practice has already been integrated into your life
   2. Make commitments to yourself and others to continue deepening connection
   3. Explore ways to make NVC expression seamless in everyday interactions
      
      

You could come away from this course with: 

• Stronger relationships with yourself, those you are closest to, and others 
• A deeper sense of yourself and your needs in relationship to the people and institutions in your life
• Skills for navigating the most challenging aspects of life and relationships with purpose and grace
• Insights into the many ways that Nonviolent Communication can help you thrive
• A regular Nonviolent Communication practice that includes activities you can do alone and with others

Each module is packed with practical steps, exercises and prompts to help you immerse yourself in NVC principles and to build community. As you move through this course, you will likely notice the qualities of self-connection and connection with others grow. In fact, Living NVC could help you build the relationships you want and to live the life you long for.