June 9 - 11, 2011 Living Radical Self-Compassion Workshop, three transformative days, Bainbridge Island
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June 19 - 24, 2011 Transforming Conflict into Cooperation, NVC style mediation and reconciliation
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June 26 & July 3, 2011
Living with Authenticity and Courage videoconference with Mary Mackenzie and Kathleen Macferran
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August 14 - 19, 2011 Transforming Group Culture: Leading with Compassion & Clarity (teachers, business leaders, community organizers & group facilitators)
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October 9 - 14, 2011 NVC in institutions and prisons, creating safety through connection
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January 2011: A Path of Compassion & Empowerment with Karl Steyaert and Kathleen Macferran (enrollment full for 2011)
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NEW: CNVC Certification
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Monthly Parenting Group
Communicating across difference.
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More Events and Trainings
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NVC is a practical, learnable process for communicating with empathy, honesty, power and compassion. It integrates personal development with social change. The purpose of NVC is to ensure everyone's needs are valued equally and fulfilled in ways that contribute to connection, harmony and peace. It develops people's ability to listen to and transform blame, anger and criticism into respectful, constructive communication, and to resolve conflicts peacefully.

In addition to working with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, Kathleen is the Music Director and founder of the Rainier Chamber Winds. Founded in 1990, this not for profit organization has performed throughout the Northwest. She appears with the Rainier Chamber Winds on the MMC Recordings, Ltd. and RCWinds Recording labels. Kathleen views the music ensemble as a wonderful metaphor for social organization since the well being of one individual clearly depends on the well being of all.

The Freedom Project is a nonprofit organization including men and women from diverse backgrounds and races sharing a common dream to strengthen our community by supporting the transformation of prisoners into peacemakers. We represent both victims and perpetrators of crime; our collective experience with prison spans many decades and includes both work and service in the correctional system as well as incarceration. We are committed to the practice of nonviolence in our daily lives and in all interactions.

We offer trainings in concrete skills of nonviolence leading to reconciliation with ourselves, our loved ones and the community.  Our work addresses the healing of relationships ruptured by violence and the forging of community founded on genuine safety through connection.

Clients:

• Business- for profit and not for profit
• Community Organizations
• Educational Institutions
• Families
• Individuals

Workshop samples:

1) Authentic Relationships

Things you can expect to learn:

• To create the quality of connections that allow everyone’s needs to be met
• To transform pain into power
• To connect more deeply and openly with those you love
• To build relationships based on trust
• To connect more deeply with yourself
• To have difficult conversations while maintaining respect and connection

2) The Life Dance of Nonviolent Communication

• Explore the power of presence and words to be the change you wish to see in the world
• Develop skills to create the quality of connection that allows everyone's needs to get met
• Nurture fuller connection with yourself and others
• Foster trust, understanding and compassion
• Transform blame, judgment and criticism into understanding and connection
• Resolve conflicts while maintaining respectful and empathic connection
• Communicate in a way that brings clarity, compassion and empowerment into your relationships, work and life
• Connect with the hopes, dreams and values underlying your speech and actions
• Communicate in a way most likely to get your needs met without giving up or giving in

3) Stoking the Fires of Joy: Living with Gratitude

As a powerful process for resolving conflicts peacefully, Nonviolent Communication (NVC) garners attention worldwide. Just as powerful, yet not as widely understood is NVC’s invitation to live fully present to the joy in life, even in the midst of pain. Experience the richness of living from the energy behind the values that sustain you. This class will explore ways to nurture and maintain joy through gratitude, as well as explore what blocks us from experiencing joy.

• Learn ways to express and receive gratitude
• Live with renewed energy and savor moments that matter
• Find ways to hold pain and joy simultaneously
• Expand awareness of the ways you are living your values
• Find peace around needs not fully met in your life
• Practice celebrating your power to serve life
• Understand what keeps you from living with gratitude
• Develop strategies to incorporate more gratitude into daily life
• understand the difference between gratitude and compliments/praise

4) Transform Anger into Life-Serving Connection through Nonviolent Communication.

In this workshop we will:

• Explore causes of anger
• Learn to hear beneath the surface of anger
• Practice diffusing anger in the home, workplace and school situations
• Understand what triggers anger
• Create strategies to cope with anger in yourself and others
• Appreciate the gift of anger
• Develop compassion around anger
• Learn to act from your values rather than anger

5) Cultivating Compassion with Yourself

This hands-on training is designed to:

• Explore ways to hold yourself with respect and compassion
• Transform anger and pain into life-giving messages and personal power
• Identify and care for your own needs in ways congruent with your values
• Authentically connect with and live from your dreams and values
• Support congruence between your inner and outer life

6) NVC Based Mediation: Meeting Everyone's Needs

• Learn to hear needs behind every message
• Translate judgments and demands into words that connect
• Create stable agreements where no one gives up or gives in
• Create understanding of the underlying issues
• Maintain respectful, honest communication
• Learn to track and address all needs

7) A Leaderful Life: Moving Toward Effective Leadership

• Increased sense of trust in your own abilities to connect, influence and lead
• Mutual trust with those you are working with
• Inspiring others to join you in creating the world in which you want to live
• Improved ability to articulate and convey what matters mos
• Creativity and cooperation
• Team learning, trust, connection and honesty
• Eliciting useful feedback

8) Parenting Group

• Parenting with NVC consciousness
• Staying connected during difficult conversations
• Setting boundaries
• Living in harmony with your values
• Supporting your children
• Caring for yourself and your intimate relationships