COMPASS offers an introduction to Non-Violent Communication based on Dr. Marshall Rosenberg’s book: Non-Violent Communication, A Language of Compassion. (www.cnvc.org)

Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is a way of communicating that promotes understanding and helps us to move beyond our all too familiar patterns of blaming, criticizing, judging, analyzing and diagnosing ourselves and others. NVC focuses our attention on what we are feeling and needing rather than who is right and who is wrong and gives us new ways to express ourselves so that others can hear us more easily. The same model is also useful in how we interpret messages from others. Developing skills in NVC are useful in any relationship but can serve us particularly well in professional relationships.

NVC is gaining global popularity and there are opportunities to join local practice groups in your community. There are also private workshops that are advertised on the BC Network for Compassionate Communication (www.bcncc.org) which address various applications of the NVC model from parenting to social change.