The Fort Worth Center for Compassionate Communication
Presents
A 9-week Compassionate Communication Study
Based on “Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life” by Marshall Rosenberg
At the Center for the Healing Arts
312 W. Leuda St.
Fort Worth, TX 76104
www.centerforthehealingarts.net/contactus.htm
Facilitators:
Owen Kinser and J Kendel Johnson
www.fwcompassion.org
Tuesdays 7 – 9 pm
June 24, 2008 – August 19, 2008
Focus on the Process
Observation
Feelings
Needs
Requests
Learn to speak in a way that inspires compassionate giving and receiving.
Learn to listen in a way that gets to the heart of what’s alive in you and others.
To register or ask questions, please contact:
Owen Kinser at owen@fwcompassion.org or 214-289-6774 (cell)
J Kendel Johnson at j@texasdop.org or 214-532-3761 (cell)
We are requesting a payment range of $90.00 - $135 ($10.00 - $15.00 per class)
to cover expenses and support our work to spread this study to others throughout the Metroplex.
Please contact us if the minimum fee is preventing you from taking the class.
It is our earnest desire to make learning and deepening the practice of Nonviolent Communication available to everyone.
About Nonviolent Communication (NVC)
Most of us have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand and diagnose—to think and communicate in terms of what is “right” and “wrong” with people. We express our feelings in terms of what another person has “done to us,” instead of a feeling independent of another person. We mix up our basic human needs with the strategies we’re using to meet those needs (we say “I want you to spend more time with me,” instead of “I’m really needing companionship”). And, we ask for what we’d like using demands, the threat of punishment, guilt, or even the promise of rewards.
At best, the habitual ways we think and speak hinder communication and create both misunderstanding and frustration. And still worse, they can lead to anger, depression and even violence. Marshall Rosenberg’s vision is to teach a much more peaceful and effective alternative.
Effective Communication Skills for Work, Family, Home and Community
Rosenberg’s Nonviolent Communication process provides a simple, effective method to get to the root of conflict, violence, and pain peacefully. By going beyond "active listening" techniques and examining the unmet needs behind what we say or do, NVC serves as a practical, transformative method to address the root of conflict and violence once and for all.
Much More than a Communication Technique
Central to the effectiveness of the Nonviolent Communication process is the intention we bring to any interaction—first and foremost, an intention to make a compassionate connection, rather than being tied to a specific outcome, being “right”, or on something you’d like the other person to do.
With this focus even the most difficult of conflicts can more easily be defused. Tension is relieved, and feelings can be expressed without blame. When communicating in the consciousness of NVC, the potential for mutually satisfying outcomes—even in the most difficult of situations—is much more possible.
Transform Destructive Communication Patterns into Healthy, Effective Communication
At the root of the NVC process are a few basic assumptions about human nature, and the effect our language can have in determining the quality of our relationships:
· · We all share the same basic, universal human needs.
· · Feelings or emotions are signals telling us that our needs are or are not being met
· Compassion is our basic human nature, and contributing to the well-being of others is a basic human desire
· Enjoying another’s pain is a learned behavior, perpetuated by our habitual communication patterns, our language, and domination paradigms present in many organizations, schools and businesses around the world
Foster Healthy, Satisfying Relationships with Family, Friends,
Co-Workers and Community
These powerful communication skills will help you stay calm and compassionate even in the most trying circumstances. With our communication books, you'll learn to understand the core of all forms of violence, conflict and emotional pain—and how to peacefully find satisfying resolutions where you never thought they were possible.
The NVC process helps build your emotional vocabulary, and provides a framework so you can more clearly communicate your feelings, hopes, and what you want in ways that help guarantee you’ll be heard.
This framework creates a clear path to effective conflict resolution by helping us step away from the blame, criticism, and judgment that usually perpetuate conflicts.
And finally, the NVC process gives us steps to transform negative inner dialogue—“it’s all my fault,” “why don’t people like me,” “why am I so ugly,” “I’m so unlovable,”—into more empowering dialogue that stimulates acceptance and self-growth.
But I’m Not a Violent Person, so what can the NVC Process Offer Me?
This is a common question when people read the term “Nonviolent Communication.” Most people refer to violence as physically trying to hurt another. In the NVC process we also consider violence to be any use of power over people, or trying to coerce people into doing things. That would include any use of motivating others by fear of punishment and promise of reward, or any use of guilt, shame, duty or obligation. Violence in this larger sense is defined as any use of force (verbal or physical) to get people to do things, or any system that includes structures that support this “power-over” paradigm.
For more information, visit www.CNVC.org and www.NonviolentCommunication.com
