NVC is taught at a range of levels and across a variety of topics.
Beginners are introduced to the fundamental techniques in the FoundationTraining , a 2 day course, which provides an essential background to the process.

Further courses, called Deepening Trainings , consolidate the learning of the Foundation and introduce new techniques and the means to apply nonviolent communication in three areas: Empathy, Anger and Conflict.  There are also foci on connecting with children and young people, social change, and transforming “inner jackals” (depression, guilt and shame).

Advanced and Intensive trainings focus on furthering fluency and maintaining practice for extended periods. They can also provide opportunities for more concentrated individual work.

Further information on what is covered in the different courses is introduced below. Shared Space provides an ongoing training programme.

Foundation Trainings  

  • Present the concepts and tools used in NVC
  • Introduce you to the steps of the NVC process for use in expressing yourself, listening to others and connecting compassionately to yourself
  • Will give you sufficient information and practice to start using NVC in your daily life
  • Are run in an experiential style, working with examples from participants’ lives
  • Are challenging, moving, supportive and fun

Deepening the Foundation 

These intermediary trainings are designed for practising skills learned in the Foundation Training, plus developing further skills and understanding in the areas of conflict, anger, empathy and working through depression. Each training stands on its own, and they are designed for attendance in any order. Feedback from people who are developing fluency in NVC tells us that participants find it enriching to attend all six.

  • Review and practise the basic ingredients of NVC
  • Shares the experiences you’ve had applying NVC in your life
  • Go further with the NVC “dance floors” if you enjoy using these learning tools

Preparation: Completion of Foundation Training

Transforming Conflict 

  • Learn more about the NVC approach to inner and outer conflict
  • Remain centred when in conflicts with others
  • Have plenty of practice in using the process with your own conflict situations
  • Renew and improve the skills learnt in the Foundation Training

A New Approach to Anger 

  • Learn to express anger fully without blame, attack or threat
  • Practise receiving anger in ways that increase safety, respect and understanding
  • Discover how to work with anger you direct at yourself
  • Renew and improve the skills learnt in the Foundation Training

Working with Depression and “Inner Jackals”

  • Learn how to apply NVC to support yourself through the experience of depression.
  • Build your understanding of how you can compassionately support another person.
  • Explore the relevant NVC “dance floors” (spatial maps for kinaesthetic learning) with live examples.
  • Practise empathic listening to yourself and others.

Practising Empathy 

  • Learn more about the NVC approach to connecting empathically with yourself and others
  • Discover the healing power of presence
  • Practise “whole sense” listening
  • Renew and improve the skills learnt in the Foundation Training

Extending Empathy 

  • Learn more about the NVC approach to connecting empathically with yourself and others
  • Discover the healing power of presence
  • Practice “whole sense” listening
  • Renew and improve the skills learnt in the Foundation Training
  • An opportunity to extend and deepen your empathy practice with peers working towards fluency.

Preparation: completion of a 2 day Empathy – Deepening the Foundation course with a certified trainer.

Connecting with Children & Young People 

  • A chance to explore our ability to empathise with ourselves and with the children in our lives, and to better equip ourselves to sustain even the most challenging conversations and interactions while remaining powerfully centred, creative and connected within ourselves.
    Build trust and connection. Learn how to shift from a paradigm of demands, rewards and consequences – to a paradigm of self-responsibility, connection, trust, mutual support and shared power.
    href=”http://sharedspace.org.uk/trainings/connecting-with-children-and-young-people-2/”>Connecting with Children and Young People.

    Contributing to Social Change:

    At the heart of NVC is a deep and compassionate awareness that much of our world is brutal, unjust and dysfunctional. Asking one another, “How then shall we live?” becomes imperative as our awareness rises. It is a question that resonates at a political, spiritual and a systemic level.

    NVC allows people to peacefully influence the organisations, communities and social systems that impact their lives. Explore how this process can enable you to be the change you want to see and to work in solidarity and respect with those who long for change – and with those who fear or resist it. This training complements the Living NVC module at an individual, inter-personal and at a community level. It is also hugely relevant to the education and parenting course Connecting with Children and Young People.

    Collaborative Decision-Making:

    Learn an effective and practical approach to dialogue and decision-making to use with groups at work, with your community and in your family.

    How do groups of people who disagree with each other, make decisions together when they need to? Does it have to be in a win/lose paradigm or is there a more efficient way? How would it be for people in groups, including opponents, to realise that if all their various needs were attended to, a joint decision would be stronger, feel better, and last longer?

    The principles contained in this approach will enable you to help “opposing parties” to work together, move a group on when they get stuck and contribute to systemic change in the areas of your choice.

    Fluency Training

    The Living NVC module, launched in 2013, is a term long programme to help build fluency and think through the implications of NVC in our choices day by day. It involves 6 Saturdays over 3-4 months, practising, learning and dialoguing with the same peer group. There is also optional preparation and follow up material. Our experience of this way of working is that it builds a trusted and rich learning community for those wanting to further integrate NVC into their homes, work and vision.

    Content has included building group skills, leadership, cultivating inner resources and making conscious choices, giving feedback without criticism, handling emotional charge, learning from our mistakes without losing self-respect and an introduction to collaborative decision making.

    If you have already worked with NVC at Foundation and Deepening level and are interested in more advanced training contact Laura at Shared Space.

     International Intensive Training (IIT)

    If you would enjoy exploring NVC with an international group in a nine day intensive immersion, have a look at the options for International Intensive Training available at www.cnvc.org.

    Course Fees from 2018

    The following are based on two-day training courses:
    £185 for individuals (negotiable for those prevented from coming by cost)
    £250  for people who are self employed (for whom the fee is tax deductible) and voluntary organisations
    £295  for people whose fees are paid for by a charity or public sector organisation
    £370  for people whose fees are paid for by a private sector organisation.