What Happens in a Practice Group?

(Time to read: ~2 minutes)

Different practice groups are different. The ones I run have one basic objective:

To offer people the empathy and support you need to deal with challenging situations in your life.

At this point, as a certified NVC trainer (CNVC-Certified Trainer), I do have significantly more NVC experience than the other participants in the group, and I serve as facilitator of the group, seeking to create a space in which we live the objective of NVC:

“To create a quality of connection in which everyone’s needs are equally valued
and are met through natural giving.”

Agenda

The agenda generally looks like this:

1. I review the objective of the group, the skills we will be practicing, and, to create predictability and safety for everyone, the proposed agreements about how we will and will not respond to what other people share, to check that they will work for everyone.
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2. We do a check-in round, with each person reflecting the essence of what the previous person said before they share their check-in.
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3. We do another round to check for what support each person would like to receive that day – for example, a particular situation they would like help with, and the kind of support they would like.
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4. I propose a sequence of activities designed to satisfy as many of these requests as possible, taking into account the support each person has received in previous practice group sessions. So that, even if we don’t have time to complete all the activities in a single session, over the course of a series of sessions, the level of support offered to each person feels equitable to everyone.
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5. We go through as many of the activities as we have time for, seeking to reach a point that the person(s) who requested the support of that activity feels satisfied.
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   Lately, based on the requests that have arisen, this has meant my working individually with one person at a time on their situation. Other participants have commented on how much they learn from the opportunity to observe these processes. Examples have included:
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   – Supporting someone in shifting negative thoughts and feelings about a challenging real-life situation, so they feel peaceful and compassionately connected to the other person and themselves, so they can determine what to do next.
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   – Helping someone who has made that shift to peaceful compassion, to figure out what to say next in a situation of disconnect and conflict, to help create the connection and collaboration they want.
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   We have also done partnered exercises, where participants work in pairs to hear and support one another.
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6. We end with a check-out round, where people share what is alive for them.

Summary

A space to ground ourselves in compassion for self and other, so that the actions we take in the bustle of everyday life arise out of this compassionate foundation.

A place to get skilled coaching on how to apply the principles and practices of NVC in challenging situations in everyday life, building awareness and skill in how to speak and listen in ways that truly work to create connection and collaboration with others.

Would you like to join us?

• Send me an email with your request, and a bit about your NVC background.  We currently meet one Sunday a month (2-4 pm, and we sometimes choose to go longer), and one Tuesday a month (7-9 pm). The fee is $113 (including HST) for a 3-session pass which is good for 5 months.
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  In the spirit of seeking to meet everyone’s needs, the upcoming dates are in the process of being clarified and possibly adjusted. So if there are dates that work or don’t work for you, please include them in your email.
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  For people who have completed all 3 “advanced” levels of NVC I teach, we have just started having a Sunday morning practice group session on the same day as the regular practice group, to offer a full-day practice opportunity each month.
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  Pre-requisite:  In order to ensure that everyone has an understanding of the basic objective and tools of NVC, we request that each participant have read at least the first 8 chapters in the book “Nonviolent Communication” by Marshall Rosenberg. This is available through online bookstores such as amazon.ca and chapters.ca, and is also available in ebook format from Kobo and Kindle – and there may be other sources as well.
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  FYI re “why an email?” – I’ve run into a technical limitation of my registration system software (it’s not designed to support as many events as I offer!). I do hope to figure out a work-around by the end of March – and supporting people and groups that ask for support is always a higher priority for me than attending to technology (much as I appreciate it). 🙂 Glenda