Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughter at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up
and the door of my heart
could be left open,
the door of compassion.

- Thich Nhat Hahn.
You can read the whole poem here.

In this Newsletter:

• Staying Connected and Compassionate in Today’s Challenging Times, a 6-Week Practice Group with Zach Yocum starting May 2nd.
• Foundations of Compassionate Communication: Family Focus with Elke Haggerty. Our 6 hour foundations training with a focus on family dynamics.
• Why is NVC important in the World at this Time? Writing by Elke Haggerty
• Resource: Take a Moment with Marshall Rosenberg, from Sounds True. An 8-minute meditative video.
• CCCO Free Offerings: Empathy Calls & Intro to NVC

We hope this newsletter brings you a sense of value, as we share resources and offer programming that we hope meets you where you are in learning and practicing NVC. We hope it provides a sense of community with others on this journey, and are eager to hear how you want to engage and what you need. Please feel free to reach out anytime to info@speakingpeace.org with comments, questions, concerns and suggestions.

Upcoming Practice Group

Staying Connected and Compassionate in Today’s Challenging Times (online)
Saturdays,
May 2 - June 6
11:00 AM - 12:30 PM EST

We are pleased to offer our tiered pricing to make this offering accessible, as well as opportunities for scholarships. Please click the registration link to learn more.

How do we stay self-connected when one event or headline has the potential to disrupt our well being, when political beliefs impact our family or relationships, when differing opinions about world events obscure our ability to see the humanity in others?

This practice group will focus on bringing the processes of NVC into difficult situations by working with self connection, empathy, practicing how to receive hard-to-hear messages and also sharing our heartfelt truth even when it’s challenging to do so.

Participants will work on skills for building capacity and will have the opportunity to work with real situations through guided role plays, which can include simulated conversations around political or ideological differences. This is geared toward participants who have some NVC experience, either having participated in a practice group, attended an NVC Foundations training, or the equivalent.

About the trainer: Zach Yocum

Zach attended his first trainings with Marshall Rosenberg nearly 20 years ago. Continuing to study Nonviolent Communication under a variety of trainers, Zach has been teaching and facilitating workshops and practice groups since 2017. Zach strives to share processes that have been deeply impactful in his own life, and to offer skills with real life applicability.

Foundations of Compassionate Communication: Family Focus
a six-hour training with Elke Haggerty

June 6th & 7th, 10 am - 1pm EST (online)

CCCO offers quarterly Foundations training for newcomers and the experienced alike to learn (or refresh) the essential principles and skills of NVC. Our Summer quarter’s class will be taught by Elke Haggerty, with a focus on parenting and family.

With parenting examples and active practice, you’ll learn a way to:

De-escalate tension instead of triggering more
Understand what you need so you can respond instead of reacting
Ask for support without making demands that lead to resistance
Unpack what’s motivating your kids so they feel heard and you feel calmer

Why is NVC important in the world at this time?

In a time of polarization, NVC offers us a way to get back to a common foundation for discussing the issues. It's harder to argue with "a dozen eggs cost me $X at the grocery store today" (observation) than it is with "eggs are outrageously expensive" (evaluation).

Observations empower us to find more common ground and a clear basis for talking about issues. Observations also help us to stay more grounded because they help us strip away assertions aimed at swaying our views and emotions from what actually happened.

Establishing an objective common ground is important now more than ever, I believe. Why?

Firstly, search engines bring us information based on past searches rather than a wide range of perspectives.

Secondly, it seems that news sources are presenting information through ideological lenses. For example, when I reviewed news articles with a group of NVC students, we noticed only 2 or 3 observations in articles 1.5 to 2 pages long. Interpretations, predictions, and other evaluations used the remaining space. When I have watched news broadcasts from decades ago, the reporting seems more fact-based to me.

Thirdly, I understand that there are influences from foreign political groups in our social media. Whether we agree with the above three points or not (and we could look for more observations to come to an informed understanding), it seems to me that having a shared sense of reality is a strong basis for tackling community, state, and global issues.

Elke Haggerty is a trainer with CCCO. Learn more about Elke here.

RESOURCES

From Sounds True: An 8-minute meditative dive into the essence of Nonviolent Communication, narrated by Marshall Rosenberg.

FREE INTRO to NVC: Speak Peace with Compassionate Communication

Every 2nd Sunday of the Month
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM EST
Online

Next Session: Sunday, April 12th.

Click here to see more of our offerings.

Click here to see our free offerings.

Click here to learn more about our trainers.

In our work to make NVC more accessible, each of our offerings has three different pricing options: subsidized, sustaining, and supportive to others. We encourage you to pay at the level that feels right for you.