Join any or all of my Compassionate Communication workshops, designed for anyone who wants to improve their communication, in any setting. These sessions are inspired by Marshall Rosenberg's  Nonviolent Communication (NVC), which is also known as Compassionate Communication or Giraffe Language. The first several sessions cover the four basic pieces of NVC: Observations, Feelings, Needs, and Requests. The remaining sessions address ways we can use these basic tools to improve specific topics in our communication. The in-depth coverage of the basic topics offered in the early sessions will deepen the experience of subsequent sessions, but each session is designed to stand-alone, such that even those who have not been exposed to earlier sessions can understand the material and participate fully. Start the series at any point, and continue attending until you've attended them all!

Compassionate Communication Session Topics:

• I’ve got the Power! Four Choices When Responding to Others

• Tell It Like It Is: Observations versus Evaluations

• Beyond Mad, Sad, & Glad: Identifying Your Genuine Feelings

• What do I Need?: Getting to the Heart of Your True Desires

• Making Requests: Asking for that Which Makes Life Wonderful

• Finding the “Yes” in Any “No”Finding the Choice in Everyday Chores

• Responding with Empathy: Listening for Connection

• Transcending Anger: Moving from Fury to Self-Connection

• Resolving Conflicts: The Power of “Power With”

• Appreciation and Apologies: Connecting with Met and Unmet Needs

• Intention & Attention: Where You Focus Changes Your World

All materials for each workshop are provided. Registrants will receive relevant handouts and the Communication Basics booklet to take home.

Click here to find a Compassionate Communication workshop near you.

Emotional literacy skills are among the most valuable skills we can impart to our children and supporting children's development of effective interpersonal communication skills may be one of our most important tasks as parents. Communication skills instruction can be a vital part of our efforts to raise thriving, healthy children who know and accept who they are and exhibit care and concern for other people in the world.

My Giraffe Language, Compassionate Communication for Kids, and Compassionate Communication for Teens series are inspired by Marshall Rosenberg's Nonviolent Communication (NVC), which is also known as Compassionate Communication or Giraffe Language. In these courses, complex, yet fundamental, concepts such as Universal Human Needs and Empathy are respectfully translated into simplified chunks that your young person can understand and apply to his/her life. While valuable learning will take place during these courses, we will also be having a lot of fun!


How might my child benefit from taking a Giraffe Language or Compassionate Communication for Kids/Teens course?

Good question! The first part of the answer is to describe what we do in these classes. In essence, these courses cover:

• the identification of a variety of different feelings,

• the distinction between feelings versus thoughts, interpretations, and/or statements of blame

• the reasons underlying these feelings, in the form of the universal human needs that everyone has and that we are all trying to meet in everything we do.

We start by expanding children’s basic understandings of the concepts of feelings and needs, and then begin helping the children get in touch with their own feelings and needs. This is the foundation of self-empathy. We also begin to develop children’s ability to identify what others are feeling and needing. This is the foundation of offering empathy to other people.

Being able to tune into ourselves and get in touch with what we are feeling and needing allows us to administer self-empathy, which helps provide the most immediate and reliable relief from emotional upset and pain. Knowing what what we are feeling and needing is an important precondition for our ability to move forward, making decisions which will best serve us, meeting important needs and bringing forth the kinds of feelings that make our lives wonderful.

Responding to others empathically helps us connect with the other people in our lives, whether they are family members (siblings and parents included!), friends (including classmates and, eventually, coworkers and colleagues), teachers, or employers. Empathic or compassionate communication helps us support other people emotionally, which contributes to a more nurturing environment in the world, and it also helps us prevent and resolve conflicts, as well as fostering our ability to work collaboratively to achieve mutual goals, and more! The more children (and adults!) use compassionate communication, the fewer incidences we will see of bullying, conflict, and physical violence.

In short, knowing oneself and being able to practice self-empathy, and understanding others and being able to communicate compassionately with them are two keys to living a happy and successful life. The world would be a more pleasant, productive, and peaceful place if more people had training in compassionate communication. I am thrilled at the prospect of helping to foster the development of these skills in young people, who are the future adults and decision-makers of the world.

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Giraffe Language Course for Children

This 8-week course helps kids ages 5-8 learn the foundations of Nonviolent Communication, or  "Giraffe Language."  Using group discussion, movement exercises, games, stories, crafts, and more, we will explore human Feelings and Needs, building students' vocabularies and encouraging the use of empathic communication skills in relationships with friends and family.

Click here to find a Giraffe Language for Kids workshop near you.

Compassionate Communication for Kids

Designed for kids ages 8-12, this 8-week course teaches some basic tenets of Nonviolent Communication, giving kids the skills to better listen and respond to the people in their lives. We will use group discussion, movement exercises, games, books, crafts, and more to promote learning about Feelings, Needs, empathy, and interpersonal interaction, including basic anger management skills and the foundations of conflict resolution.

Click here to find a Compassionate Communication for Kids workshop near you.

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Getting Real: Compassionate Communication for Teens

Offered in two 6-week sections, this course first provides teens (ages 13-19) an opportunity to connect with their true selves, and particularly, with their Observations, Feelings, Needs, and Requests. From this foundation, teens will then deepen their empathic listening skills and address important topics such as Transcending Anger, Resolving Conflicts, offering Apologies and Appreciation, examining their Intentions, and more!

Click here to find a Getting Real: Compassionate Communication for Teens workshop near you.

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Parenting is some of the most important work we will do in our whole lives. The way we raise our children impacts the way they think about themselves, the way they treat themselves and the way they treat other people in the world. Every parent wants to give their child they best chance to live a joyful, fulfilling life. Loving our children and having the best of intentions, though, is not always enough. Parents are human, too, and we make mistakes, saying or doing things that we wish we hadn’t. Parenting skills workshops like the ones I offer can help parents develop new habits of using skillful communication in even the toughest moments. Each of these workshops supports parents with the introduction of new ideas in class and reinforces learning with reading material, the chance to discuss and practice these ideas with other parents, and built-in time to focus on these skills and the parents' relationships with their children over a period of several weeks. Of course, these workshops can also be helpful for people who work with children, whether or not they are parents themselves.

 

Get some answers! Talk with other parents! Attend one of these workshops, based on the books by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, facilitated by an experienced communication skills instructor. Check the schedule of workshops to find a series of workshops that work for you, or contact me to set-up a series in your community!

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Are you...

Tired of asking your kids for their cooperation?

Struggling to help your children with their feelings?

Ready for your child to show some more autonomy?

Seeking alternatives to punishment?

Then it's time for you to learn How To Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk!

This workshop involves seven sessions offered over a period of seven weeks. The registration fee for the seven-week How To Talk So Kids Will Listen workshop is $80 per individual participant or $150 per parenting couple. All materials for each workshop are provided, including books! Session topics include:

• Helping Children Deal with Their Feelings
• Engaging Cooperation
• Alternatives to Punishment
• Encouraging Autonomy
• Praise
• Freeing Children from Playing Roles
• Final Review

Registration for the How To Talk So Kids Will Listen workshop includes:

• How To Talk So Kids Will Listen Workbook to use and keep
• Use of the How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk book by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
• Use of Liberated Parents, Liberated Children book by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
  
• Reminder Cards for each week’s skills
  
• Certificate of Completion upon completion of the series

Click here to find a How To Talk So Kids Will Listen workshop near you.

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Siblings Without Rivalry

Workshops

Are you...

Tired of making everything equal for each of your children?

Struggling to help your children through their disagreements?

Seeking to free your children from harmful roles?

Ready for your children to act like they love each other?

Then you're ready for Siblings Without Rivalry!

Six sessions offered over a period of six weeks. Registration fee for the six-week Siblings Without Rivalry workshop is $70 per individual registrant or $130 per parenting couple. All materials for each workshop are provided, including books! Session topics include:

• Helping Siblings Deal with Their Feelings
• Keeping Children Separate and Unequal
• Siblings in Roles
• When Kids Fight
• Problem Solving
• A Final Review

Registrants for the Siblings Without Rivalry workshop receive:

• Siblings Without Rivalry Workbook to use and keep
• Use of the Siblings Without Rivalry book by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
• Reminder Cards for each week’s skills
• Certificate of Completion upon completion of the series

Click here to find a Siblings Without Rivalry workshop near you.

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