Our Vision
To help more people learn and live Nonviolent Communication (NVC), also known as compassionate communication, or empathic connection. We do this in the service of healing and enhancing relationships, families, communities and workplaces with the shared vision of a world in which everyone’s needs are fully valued.
What We Do
We offer NVC training and coaching. We offer coaching in schools, organizations, government agencies, communities, businesses, and with individuals and communities. Read about us here.
What Is NVC?
NVC is a process developed by Dr. Marshall Rosenberg, and it is growing all over the world. The process called NVC consists of an intention to contribute to our own well-being and the well-being of others, compassionately.
Cultural structures of domination do not appear to support the way people really want to live. We have been educated to live in structures that have a specific way of thinking and way of using power. NVC has us rethink what we've learned.
People experience joy when we exercise our power in the service of life and whatever we do is done willingly. We give solely out of the joy out of contributing to life - our own life and the lives of others.
We typically experience joy when we willingly use our personal power in the service of life - our own life and the lives of others - and when we do so solely out of the desire to contribute.
We have a natural desire to contribute. One of the purposes of NVC is to connect in a way that makes natural giving possible. It was a consciousness that helps us access our natural, compassionate giving. NVC is a way of communicating and connecting with compassion.
Different ways to communicate, behave, and use power can have amazing results in our relationships. There are many areas of practical application:
Developing compassion, understanding and connecting empathically with ourselves and with others
Practicing emotional self-care, including self-empathy
Engaging in rich, meaningful, honest dialogue with others
Translating judgments into needs (labels are words that hide needs)
Decision-making (for example, Collaborative Facilitation)
Advocating for ourselves and others and working for social change
Mediating conflict (for example, Restorative Circles)
NVC begins with the assumption that we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies — whether micro-aggressions, verbal judgments/labels/lashing out, or physical acting out — are learned behaviors that come from a place of pain - AND - are taught and supported by the prevailing cultures.
Instead of looking at things from a place of “right and wrong,” NVC assumes that living beings share Universal Human Needs (sometimes called values) and all actions are attempts to satisfy needs.
People who practice NVC have found greater authenticity and tenderness in their self-connection, better understanding of themselves and others, deeper connections, and empowered resolutions to internal and external conflicts.
NVC strives again and again to transition ALL our relationships from “power over” to “power with.” That is a powerful shift. It can be done. Together, we can be part of the world we long to live in with more ease and flow.
For more information and materials, reach out to one of us here and/or visit the Center for Nonviolent Communication, www.cnvc.org.
For history, concepts, cartoons and more, check out the Wikipedia page.