Introduction to Nonviolent Communication — 2022

Starting on Friday through Sunday Dalia and I will intro­du­ce you to the main prin­ci­ples of non­vio­lent com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on accor­ding to Marshall Rosenberg.

We will focus on needs, again and again, during the­se three days. Needs are the moti­va­tio­nal forces behind all human action, accor­ding to one basic assump­ti­on made in non­vio­lenct com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on. Needs are abs­tract, uni­ver­sal and shared and valued by all peo­p­le con­cer­ned by a par­ti­cu­lar ques­ti­on. Examples of needs are social needs such as com­mu­ni­ty, par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on, cele­bra­ti­ons and mor­nings; phy­si­cal needs such as air, water, shel­ter, phy­si­cal health and power, skill; spi­ri­tu­al needs such as beau­ty, order, con­nec­tion, faith, under­stan­ding, hones­ty and more.

While non­vio­lent com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on is built around a com­mu­ni­ca­tio­nal tool — the famous four steps of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on — obser­va­ti­on, fee­ling, need and request — what real­ly mat­ters is what pur­po­se we use that tool for, what inten­ti­on we have, when we use it. We will talk about four dif­fe­rent basic atti­tu­des when we are in cont­act with other peo­p­le: aut­ho­ri­ta­ri­an, sub­mit­ting, win-win and depres­si­on. Whenever we enga­ge with others we want to remem­ber to stop and beco­me awa­re of our inten­ti­on in rela­ti­on to the­se four dif­fe­rent attitudes. 

We will speak about the four basic key dif­fe­ren­tia­ti­ons: obser­ving wit­hout moral­ly jud­ging, fee­ling wit­hout thin­king, nee­ding wit­hout stra­te­gies, reques­t­ing wit­hout deman­ding and try to under­stand whe­re we are our­sel­ves in the­se dif­fe­rent ways to approach com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on with others.

We will also touch the two basic pro­cess in com­mu­ni­ca­ting with others — honest expres­si­on and empa­thic lis­tening in terms of non­vio­lent communication.

Each input will be short and focu­sed, then fol­lo­wed by a prac­ti­ce unit with part­ners or small groups among the participants.

You will recei­ve a book­let “Practice, prac­ti­ce, prac­ti­ce …” with all the basic prin­ci­ples and some basic exer­ci­s­es. This book­let has been put tog­e­ther by our col­le­ague Marianne Göthlin from Sweden, trans­la­ted into Lithuanian by Dalia Verbyle. 

To reser­ve your place in this work­shop, send an email to Dalia Verbyle — daliaverbyle@gmail.com