Yearlong Nonviolent Communication Integration Program
with certified NVC Trainers Peggy Smith & Leah Boyd
An advancing NVC Experience
A full year of Deepening NVC Consciousness in
Monthly online events - 1 evening/1 full day
Learn to embody NVC as tools, not rules
We are excited to offer this well honed learning experience in an online format, making it available to a wide variety of participants from many geographical locations. Please note that all teaching is in English. Participants will be expected to print their own handouts prior to each session. All times are Eastern Time.
Program Highlights - In this experiential Nonviolent Communication program, we will explore themes that lead to an embodiment and deepening of NVC awareness and skills. Led by Peggy Smith and Leah Boyd, experienced certified NVC teachers and practitioners, participants will have the opportunity to shift from simply understanding NVC as a concept to living from NVC consciousness. Month by month, a strong and vibrant learning community forms as participants practice deeply together during sessions and in practice groups between sessions.
A word about practice groups - We invite, support and strongly encourage participants to participate in practice groups of 3 - 4 people throughout the program. These groups typically meet for about 1 hour per week by phone or online technology to practice and deepen into the skills being taught in each session. The consistent practice with fellow learners has proven very powerful for participants’ growth & integration.
The program is dynamic and lively, based on proven learning methods. Woven into NVC practice is current understandings gleaned from Sarah Peyton’s (www.empathybrain.com) synthesis of Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). We delve into not only how NVC works but why it works with our neurobiology.
Weaving NVC and Interpersonal Neurobiology
Creating a learning community, both during our sessions and in the practice groups between sessions
EXCITING THEMES EXPLORED IN THIS PROGRAM
Hearing the Needs within our Judgments - We will explore our cultural conditioning around judgment. We will hold with tenderness and compassion those parts of ourselves that are conditioned to name and blame. Sitting with whatever our thoughts and feelings are, the ‘now’, we will strengthen our abilities to find the needs, (Life-force) hidden within our judgments. Using all feelings and emotions as guides to self-awareness, we connect to the needs underneath. We will observe our patterns rather than getting absorbed within our stories. Using NVC to find our way to authenticity and self-care.
Ever Deepening Empathy - What happens when we are suffering? Where do we go in ourselves? How do we react to others in pain? We will study how our brains react when old traumas are stimulated and how empathy can transform old memories. This weekend we will learn more about how to use presence to actively explore the space of inner calm and awareness that Carl Rogers and NVC calls Empathy. Our exercises will help us strengthen our abilities to stay in a place of presence and acceptance during a flow of dialogue. While all our sessions will hold Empathy at the core of what we do, this particular weekend will focus on strategies to strengthen our access to Empathy both for ourselves and others.
If I’m Triggered It’s Mine - Needs are the very heart of NVC. They are the means by which we connect with our own deepest humanity and the humanity in everyone else. Using personal inquiry to explore the realm of needs we will interactively investigate: how we hold needs; how to separate needs from strategies; discover how strategies can masquerade as needs; and inquire into the layers of what we call needs.
Strengthening Relationships - Relationships are usually the place where the rubber meets the road of life. This context of intimacy puts all our learning to the test. We will use supported inquiry to explore how old trauma affects our closest relationships. We will then use NVC consciousness and skills to open new possibilities.
Communication Where Being Right Doesn’t Matter Anymore - We will experience bringing the art of NVC dialogue to life. This dynamic, interactive session will strengthen our abilities to bring NVC into our internal and external conversations. Whether we want to enrich our internal dialogues, our family/ work communications or political/activist communications, participants will practice, practice, practice within the supportive community developed over our year together.
Throughout the program a strong bond of NVC community grows among the participants. The direct instruction will be enriched by online practice groups, empathy partners, readings, & journaling.
This is an amazing opportunity to develop NVC consciousness and skills online.
“Participating in the Integration Program has given me a rich collection of practices to which I can return again and again as I continue to deepen my engagement with NVC. Perhaps even more importantly, it has fueled my commitment to opening my heart to the boundless possibilities of loving connection. Peggy and Leah are highly skilled, fun, and dynamic teachers/facilitators - both in person and online - and they create a container where all participants can show up just as they are.” - Erika Arthur, 19/20 Participant
“What I found in this training program is that there is no expectation to be perfect, there is no right or wrong, there is no pressure to get it right or say the right thing because you realize all those pressures live inside you. This is the chance to really ask yourself “Am I Ready? Am I willing?” - Carleen Mahaffey, 19/20 Participant
FAQ’s
How much NVC experience do I need to benefit from the Integration program?
We encourage a basic intro to NVC as a pre-requisite, and at the same time we will accept you wherever you are starting from, knowing that you will progress even if you come in with little experience.
Where will I end up?
The program is designed to allow you to go as deeply into each aspect of the teachings as you are ready to go. You will end up right where you belong!
What is a learning community?
It has been our experience that strong bonds develop between participants in the program. Since it is highly interactive and experiential, participants have ample opportunity to practice together, support one another and grow together. Each year students comment on how close they come to feel and how their learning has been enhanced by the sense of belonging, authenticity and acceptance they experienced within the learning community.
Can you take the program more than once?
Certainly, many people do. We have had students take the program as many as six times and they report they continue to be challenged and to go more deeply into the material each time.
What’s unique about this program?
This is a comprehensive NVC program that focuses on classical NVC skills and consciousness while weaving in the neuroscience insites and strategies developed by NVC certified trainer and Neuroscience Educator Sarah Peyton
This program is clearly structured. Both Peggy and Leah have degrees and experience in education and draw upon this in designing a program that flows, with clear instruction and welcoming of questions.
We clearly articulate what classical NVC is and share how it is enhanced by practical neuroscience based on our personal experience
All practices are carefully scaffolded to be meaningful learning experiences. We are careful to structure each session to build upon skills introduced in previous sessions.
We have a clear outline of the skills and understandings we will cover. And as the program unfolds we are flexible and responsive to the interests and skill levels of the participants within that cohort. The program is crafted to the students.
Is this a therapeutic program?
The NVC Integration Program does not claim to be a healing or therapeutic program
The program is a cognitive development program that provides the skills to bring warmth to our tender places and skillfulness in attending to ourselves while growing our capacity to connect authentically with others.