2024 MCEA Fall Conference

According to Dr. Marshall B. Rosenberg, author and creator of the internationally recognized Nonviolent Compassionate Communication(NVC) process, learning NVC is a way of interacting (via both expressing our own feelings AND receiving the feelings of others through listening= Empathy. This way of communicating helps us to exchange information in a way that helps resolve differences peacefully with mutual respect.

Most of us have been educated from birth to compete, judge, demand, diagnose--to think and communicate in ways of what is “right” and “wrong” with people. At best, the habitual ways we think and speak hinder communication, and create misunderstanding and frustration in others and in ourselves. Still worse, they cause anger and pain, and may lead to violence. Without wanting to, even people with the best of intentions generate needless conflict.

The goal of Nonviolent Compassionate Communication(NVC), is about learning to reach beneath the surface and discover what is really “alive” within us, and how all actions (thoughts, words, deeds) are based on human needs that all of us are seeking to meet. When we understand and acknowledge our needs we create a shared basis for a more satisfying relationship --- a deeper connection with others and ourselves as well.