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Fundamentals of Nonviolent Communication - Starting now! Registration is open until the 2nd week & recordings are available for registrants Do you want to create more joy in your life?  Do you want to transform conflicts into: Self-awareness and choices in life? Connection with children, family, and friends? Collaboration and win-win situations at work? If you answered yes to any question above, come join the upcoming “Fundamentals of NonViolent Communication” course! NVC offers tools to help us evolve steadily towards collaborative and respectful relationships — enhancing peace, understanding, synergy, productivity, and creativity. This course is co-facilitated by four Center for NonViolent Communication Certification Candidates. This is a new initiative by Houston NVC to support future leaders in NVC. Come support our candidates and the vision of Marshall Rosenberg, founder of NVC! We will be meeting remotely via Zoom on Sundays from November 28, 2021 to January 30 2022, from 10am to 12 pm Central/Houston Time. There will be no sessions on December 26, 2021 and January 2, 2022. Who is this for? This is an excellent foundational workshop for the beginner or a sound refresher for returning practitioners. The people who will get the most out of the experience are those who read along in advance of each week’s session and come ready and willing to risk trying the things they read about in a real conversation with a real person. Learn More & Register

Mediate Your Holidays with Karen Starz and Michael Dillo Give yourself and those you love a gift that really makes a difference. Join us for the next series of mediation with Michael Dillo and Karen Starz!  "All it takes is a lot of patience, the willingness to establish a human connection, the intention to follow NVC principles until you reach a resolution, and trust that the process will work." -Marshall Rosenberg, Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life For six weeks we will explore mediation in community from the perspective of a Nonviolent Communication consciousness. We will take time off for the holidays to practice what we learned in the first three weeks. Guiding us through this journey are two CNVC Certified Trainers, Karen Starz and Michael Dillo, who have a passion to connect people in a human way so that they can enjoy contributing to each other's wellbeing. We will be meeting remotely via Zoom on Fridays from December 3rd, 2021 to January 22, 2022, from 10am to 12 pm Central/Houston Time. There will be no sessions on December 24 nor 31st, 2021. Learn More & Register

Pilot Program coming in 2022: NVC Toolkit for Social Media Are you scared and nervous to post on social media? Do you want some ways to bring back the joy of connecting this way? Join us for a pilot program in January. 6-weeks to a better social media experience using NVC as our guide to navigate the choppy waters. Led by Karen Starz, CNVC certified trainer. This will be fun, interactive and exploratory.  Here are some of the things we focus on in our six week project: What impact can compassionate communication have on social media awareness? How do you practice kindness through online platforms? How do you care for yourself and balance social media and life? Creating agreements on social media. How to “not take it personally.” Keeping access doable in your life How much is too vulnerable? Transparency, privacy, and vulnerability. What is accountability anyway? How labels separate us. How do we shift the herd? Modeling through social media presence. What is the difference between Jackal and Giraffe Honesty?  Come curious and bring your real life issues, we will work them out together and change the face of your social media presence. We will be meeting remotely via Zoom on Saturdays from January 8th to February 12th, 2022 from 11 am to 1 pm Central/Houston Time. Learn More & Register

Heart-Centered Parenting with Susan Wildin, MD, CPC Are you longing for more connection with the children in your life? You are invited to an 8-week, online, weekly course on Heart-Centered Parenting facilitated by Susan Wildin, MD, CPC. I am a retired developmental behavioral pediatrician and a transformational life coach. I started my Nonviolent Communication journey in 2007. I believe we can change the current parenting paradigms and improve our relationships and empower our children to make choices based on their needs and the needs of others rather than to gain a reward or avoid a punishment. We shift things by learning self-compassion (understanding what we want from our children and why), empathy (listening deeply to what the children want from us and why) and honest expression of our own needs.  Heart Centered Parenting is for parents of children of all ages, grandparents, educators and anyone else who has contact with children. We will meet online on Sundays from 1:30-3:30 CDT from January 9 through February 27, 2022. Sessions are designed to build on one another, and you can still participate if you need to miss one or more sessions. The format will be 1 hour of topical teaching and practice and one hour of role play with real life issues in each session. Registration is required so you can have handouts and the Zoom invitation prior to the meeting. I request $180 for the 8 week course and any amount will be accepted gratefully. Please contact me at susan@wildins.net if you need to request a dialogue about the fee request or have any other questions. To register click HERE.

Remembering Robert Gonzales (1949-2021)

Robert Gonzales, a beloved member of the NVC community, passed away on November 20, 2021. Houston NVC hosted him in Houston in 2013 and 2015. I enjoyed Robert’s presence and understanding of NVC as a spiritual practice so much that I enrolled in the 2019-2020 LIFE program. I learned from Robert that we can strive to be alive in every moment; that is in awareness of our thinking, feeling, gratitude and yearning. We can live in awareness when life is going well and when life is challenging. I know that he was practicing this during these final months of his journey here on earth. Susan Wildin I experienced his calming wisdom at several NVC gatherings, and he always deepened my understanding of myself and NVC. A sage who will be dearly missed. JL McDonald There are so many lessons I have learned through Robert, his inquiry of life, and his presentation of NVC. Perhaps, for me, they center around personal responsibility and personal empowerment --- knowing and having access to inner resources, my life force or Higher Power, that most authentically and powerfully support and nourish my life. Dr. Mark A. Friedman Robert was a bright shining star that helped bring out my inner light. Looking back at the last 17 years being with him and his teachings, I am grateful for the agency I have, the growing compassion for self and others and the aliveness I experience life. He was an embodiment of heart and walked his talk. I am so grateful that he offered two workshops in Houston, the beneficial effects of which ripple in countless ways. You may be gone physically, Robert, but you are within all of us.  Dr. Nellie Grose

Regular Empathy Practices:

Empathy Circle with Bren Hardt Empathy, also called “Attuned Listening”, is both a gift to you and a gift to others. Empathy enlarges our understanding of ourselves and others and awakens compassion where there was once judgment and separation. I cannot imagine the needed world transformation happening without more of us developing our capacity for giving and receiving empathy. So please join me, Bren Hardt, CNVC Certified Trainer, and others in a community of practice. Saturdays, from 9-10:30 am CT. Invite your friends to join you. Periodic donations appreciated on a gift economy basis. To register go to: https://www.cognitoforms.com/BrenHardt/EmpathyPracticeCircleRegistration

Empathy Practice from Home Tune in every Monday night from 7 to 9 pm CT for a donation-based NVC practice group facilitated by Karen Starz. For more information on the online group go to karenstarz.com

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Volunteer Newsletter Editors: Susan Wildin & Melissa Elaine If you would like to volunteer to help with the newsletter, please reply to contact Susan at susan@wildins.net