August 7 — Get an introduction to Nonviolent Communication and its Application
Want people to stop trying to punch you in the nose whenever you talk to them? This workshop is for you, as well as for the rest of us who want to defuse conflict.
When: August 7th 2008 9:30 - 4pm
Where: Peace House - 1421 N. Central Ave Indianapolis
From the Peace Institute’s blurb:
Needs Connected Living: Intro into Nonviolent Communication and it’s Application
Are you interested in learning more about Nonviolent Communication(NVC) and it’s application? If so, come and learn with Bob Yamtich who has been studying NVC since 2003 and teaching since 2005. A graduate of Bay NVC’s 2007 Leadership Program (LP) and an assistant trainer in 2008’s LP, Bob has led classes with inmates at San Quentin State Prison since 2006 with BayNVC’s Safer Communities program and supported workshops, practice groups, and families in the San Francisco Bay Area. This day long introduction is intended to provide an exploration of how the practices and consciousness of the NVC model can assist us living out values of open-heartedness and nonviolence. Live modeling, role-playing, and post-hearsing hard to hear messages are amongst the options for how to engage with this body of work.
Bob’s intention is “to co-create experiences of open-hearted self-connection, needs-connected empathy, and authentic expression. I want participants to leave with inspiration and clarity about if and how they want to pursue NVC further and incorporate it into their peace- building work.”
The workshop will be held at Peace House - 1421 N. Central Ave - and there is $10 participation fee, which includes lunch. To register for this workshop, please email Kate Williams at williams@indianapolispeaceinstitute.org and if you would like to know more about the content of the workshop, Bob suggests that you email him at bobyamtich@gmail.com.
This workshop is presented by the Indianapolis Peace Institute in partnership with Peace Learning Center.
Why does Provocate think you should attend this event?
Nonviolent Communication (OK, we’ll use the acronym, NVC) is gaining a foothold in many circles. It isn’t just smiling charmingly when one talks. As the short bio of Bob Yamtich implies, there is a lot of training and specialized study that goes into it. The words Bob uses here to describe the program have particular meanings in the context of NVC training — open-hearted self-connection, needs-connected empathy, and authentic expression aren’t just fuzzy feel-good terms, they are supposed to be technical concepts.
If you think this sounds interesting, be sure to check out …
This is the first of several full-Saturday workshops offered by the Peace Institute. (Unlike this Thursday-long workshop.) Most of the rest deal with particular issues rather than with techniques: “Environmental Concerns for Kids” on September 13; “Understanding Islam on October 18; “Strange Bedfellows: China and the United States” on November 15; and “The Cost of War” on December 7. If it’s peace you want to study, you have to block off October 7 for Johann Galtung, the founder of academic peace studies. And for a different perspective of communication and violence, see the Bosnian film “No Man’s Land” on December 16. And if you want to connect to the artsier slice of the local peace community, go to the Indy Artists’ Peace Project’s “evening of music, poetry, and storytelling reflecting themes of peace, nonviolence, and social justice” August 9.
Know before you go:
Visit the website for the Center for Nonviolent Communication, established to spread the word of the founder of the method, Marshall Rosenberg. You can read the first chapter of Rosenberg’s basic book online. You can read a sympathetic (not easy) critique, “The subtle violence of nonviolent language” (and learn a new vocabulary word: Sprachregelung).
