Would you like Connection, Liberation and Wholeness? This offerings framework shows how to cultivate them in various contexts by staying engaged throughout the year. Each 10-week series focuses on different areas of the NVC Tree of Life (NTOL) -- offered in-person and online in 2024 (each session concurrently on the same week). Nonviolent Communication (NVC) was created by Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. James Prieto is a CNVC Certified NVC Trainer, and Wild Heart guide.
- Online Zoom offerings with registration info here will be on Thursday from 9 AM - 10:30 AM PST Los Angeles, London 5 PM - 6:30 PM GMT, Berlin 6 PM - 7:30 PM CET -- with an additional optional 30 minutes of unstructured discussion.
- In-Person offerings in Kansas City, MO scheduled through Meetup will be on Tuesdays from 7 PM to 8:30 PM Central, with an additional optional 30 minutes of unstructured discussion.
The simplified NVC Tree of Life (NTOL) shown above was originally created by NVC Trainer Inbal Kashtan, providing a convenient artifact for clarifying the focus of each of the 10-week offerings. The NTOL shows the three modes of Nonviolent Communication (NVC). The roots of the NTOL provide the foundation of the practice through Self-Empathy (Self-Connection), which is an inner-curiosity for one's thoughts, judgments, feelings, needs, and potential strategies.
As you go up the NTOL, the left-most branch invites you to Empathy, which is a respectful listening to the heart of another person.
The rightmost branch of the NTOL invites you to Self-Expression, which is a compassionate honest expression of what you discovered in the root system about yourself.
I have three 10-week offerings that focus on different parts of the NTOL. Each series can be taken out of sequence (each stands alone without the others). However, the suggested sequence below makes learning and retaining the practices easier. I created a Yearlong Intensive offering that provides some savings when taking all three, creating some consistency, deepening of community, and includes four 1:1 coaching sessions. Why is each series 10 weeks? Because research shows that on average, you can develop new habits within 10 weeks.
1. The “Conversational Connection - Practical Skills for Communicating Compassionately” series represented above focuses on the crown of the NTOL -- deep empathic listening, compassionate honest self-expression, setting up a connecting conversation, and facilitating a flow of connection. This series can be seen as a good introduction to the classical practice of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), although I’ve extended it to include elements of Authentic Relating.
(Online Zoom Registration Link, In-Person Meetup link):(from week of Feb 18 to week of April 28)
2. The acclaimed “Free Yourself From Reactivity: 10-week Journey of Emotional Liberation” series focuses on the root system of the NTOL, a deepening of many practices of Self-Empathy focused on triggered/reactivity situations. Read a few of the Testimonials to get a sense for participant experiences and the scope of what is offered.
(Online Zoom Registration Link, In-Person Meetup link):(from week of May 12 to week of July 28)
3. The “Wild Heart - Cultivating Wholeness, Self-Healing for the Self You Always Wanted” extends the NTOL to include the conscious (above ground) Self-Empathy and the root system underground representing the unconscious. Based on James' active research integrating NVC with the nature-based depth psychology of “Wild Mind - Field Guide to the Human Psyche” by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D. The first half of the series is focused on cultivating wholeness in the four facets of the self, each corresponding to a different NVC component. The second half of the series focuses on Self-Healing of the immature, protective fragments, or subpersonalities of the Self.
(Online Zoom Registration Link, In-Person Meetup link):(from week of Aug 18 to week of Oct 20)
4. An "Integration, Practice and Support" 5 week series will also be offered including Dreamwork, Shadow work, Self-Healing, Empathy, Role Playing as a practical continuation and integration of all other series offered for real life practice and integration.
(Online Zoom Registration Link-TBD, In-Person Meetup link-TBD):(from week of Nov 3 to week of Dec 8)
James Prieto is an author, poet, CNVC Certified Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer, and nature-based Wild Heart guide. James guides toward connection through NVC workshops and “Wild Heart” nature-based depth-psychology personal development -- extending NVC through Wild Mind - Field Guide to the Human Psyche by Bill Plotkin, Ph.D. He’s passionate about the intersection of Animas Valley Institute inspired work with NVC as a way to contribute to Earth elder Joanna Macy’s “Great Turning” and Thomas Berry’s “Great Work.”
