Imagine how it would feel to be able to choose how you respond in difficult moments.

We all have within us a fight/flight/freeze impulse in the face of conflict. NVC Mediation offers an alternative.

John Kinyon and Ike Lasater’s approach to NVC-influenced mediation builds on the work of nonviolent communication (NVC) founder Marshall Rosenberg. In 2003, John and Ike began collaborating on their own innovative approach for applying the language of needs and the skills of NVC to mediating all aspects of conflict: internal, interpersonal, and external.

Click here  for a summary of their innovative program and teaching philosophy.

Today, Ike and John’s training programs are offered around the globe. In addition to its yearlong immersion programs in the United States (East Coast, West Coast, and Heartland), NVC Mediation offers trainings in the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, and South Korea. For a growing body of international participants, NVC Mediation has been the key to learning not just a new way to communicate, but a new way to live.

Participants report dramatic life changes after just one year in the immersion program.

Learning to respond to conflict in a new way is very much like learning a new language. And the best way to become fluent in a language is to immerse yourself in an environment where others are speaking and learning it too.

NVC Mediation’s yearlong immersion program consists of three four-day intensives, spread across the year. (For example, the United States’ East Coast program has one intensive in January, one in May and another in September.) Each of the intensives builds on the one that preceded it. Between intensives, you’ll integrate all you are learning with structured, supported individual and group practice.

While our aim is to build a cohesive community of practice, you don’t have to commit to a whole year of training to see if the program is right for you. The first intensive is open to those who want to try one before committing to the full training.

It takes effort to maintain fluency in a new language and new consciousness, especially when these feel counterintuitive in many contexts in our present culture. That’s why the structured practice times between intensives are as important as the three in-person intensives. The immersion program is pleased to offer a community of fellow learners who support each other’s practice and growth, both during the immersion year and after.

The first intensive is open to those who want to try one before committing to the yearlong program.

Here’s what you’ll learn in each intensive

INTENSIVE 1: Participants develop the capacity to be present during conflict and will practice applying NVC to mediating all aspects of conflict. Topics include: self-connection and intensity practices; the three-chair model; the nine mediation skills; enemy image process; and the mourn/celebrate/learn process. More.

INTENSIVE 2: This retreat introduces new material on interpersonal (self–other) mediation while expanding on previous learning. Participants begin to gain real confidence in their skills. Topics include: the enemy image process for self-transformation; conflict coaching and pre-mediation; the interpersonal mediation model; the “making amends” process; and using Marshall Rosenberg’s healing and reconciliation model. More.

INTENSIVE 3: We go deeper still into mediating internal conflicts and explore mediating group and community conflicts. Participants begin to embody the skills in their everyday lives. Topics include: mediating connection between inner and shadow aspects of the self; the healing and reconciliation role-play process; group decision making and “accreted” mediation; and putting barriers to success “into the chairs.” More.

Support between training sessions

As in-depth as the intensives are, you can’t master NVC Mediation in a few days. It’s your commitment to continued practice that gets you to a place where your ability to hold and mediate conflict really shifts. That’s why we’ve created a structure for learning and practice between intensives.

• Daily individual self-connection and skill-building practices
• Weekly telephone dyad and triad practice with fellow participants
• Monthly joint teleconference sessions
• Ongoing support from the trainers

Register today

To enroll in an immersion program: Please complete the registration form for the location you’ve chosen and e-mail, mail, or fax it with your payment to the NVC Mediation office listed on the registration form. We will reserve your place once your payment has been made or arranged. Online registration is available for the East Coast and West Coast intensives.

If money is the only thing limiting your attendance, please e-mail connect@nvcmediation.com.