Communication Dojo

A weekly opportunity to learn and practice Nonviolent Communication, to transform real challenges in your life and to build community!

Each week we cover a different aspect of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) aka Connected Communication. The skills, principles and awareness we share help in intimate relationships and family, and in workplace, social, political and spiritual life.

Using experiential learning in whole class, small groups and pairs, together with trainer demonstrations, we help you build your skills with: - Self-connection and self-understanding. - Listening with empathy. - Expressing yourself from the heart with compassion and courage. - Transforming "enemy images" of others. - Building resilience and capacity to resolve conflicts, and more!

These classes can also help you form community with others who value connected communication. Many lasting friendships and "empathy buddy" relationships have started or deepened in Communication Dojo workshops!

UPCOMING TOPICS

- 9/24/24 Empathy Guesses - Deepening the quality of our listening and aiming to understand what's most important to the person we're listening to. Empathy guessing will often increase our capacity to connect and strengthen our relationships with those we want to be close to. It also allows us to build a foundation of shared humanity with those who see things differently to us. If we can get clear on our needs and theirs, new outcomes can emerge that honor the needs of all involved.

- 10/1/24 Evaluation/Judgment/Blame and other flavors of "Pointy Communication" vs Observation & Ownership Language Expressing yourself with evaluations, judgments, blame and other "pointy" modes of communication will simply invite defensiveness on the part of the person you're talking to. This makes things less connected, less efficient and less likely to lead to changes that you'll enjoy. This evening we'll look more closely at this, and at more empowered and connecting ways of expressing yourself

- 10/8/24 "Umbrella" or "Finger-Pointing" Feelings - "Umbrella" or "Finger-Pointing" Feelings - When we tell someone that we feel "abandoned" or "rejected" or "manipulated," etc., it's very likely that they will start to defend themselves against a perceived accusation. An argument often follows that might resemble this exchange: "I feel rejected" "I'm not rejecting you," "Well, that's how I feel," "That's not even a real feeling!" etc. In this class we'll look at different ways of hearing and expressing these words that can be so full of information and meaning, but also so frequently triggers for disconnection and conflict.

PRICING

Early bird $25; General Admission, Sliding scale $30 - $40. This means we'd love to receive $40 for the sustainability of Communication Dojo and The Center SF, but we make a sliding scale available as we know this $40 is not affordable for everyone.

If these prices are an obstacle please contact us about discounts.

*Doors open at 6:45pm, and close at 7:20pm.*

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Newt Bailey, Lead Trainer

Newt's passion is to help people connect, to experience greater intimacy, and to find the potential for mutually satisfying change that lies within conflict. Newt started attending NVC programs in 2005 and immediately knew he wanted to understand and share with others the essential core of NVC. He believes strongly in teaching the principles of NVC in a way that frees students from specialized language, and allows facility with connected communication to grow in small, quickly assimilated steps. Since 2007 Newt has been facilitating NVC groups, leading workshops and retreats, and developing his unique approach in public and organizational settings. He has taught NVC, NVC mediation and NVC coaching across the USA and in Europe.

Leeza Pesenson, Assistant Trainer

Leeza is passionate about understanding how our minds work and how we connect with each other. She studied cognitive psychology and works as a User Experience Researcher by day. Leeza fell madly in love with NVC after attending Newt’s drop-in classes at The Center SF in 2018 and has been a dedicated practitioner ever since. She has participated in immersion programs in NVC, Mediation, Conflict Coaching, and Inner Compass work with Oren Sofer, Roxy Manning, John Kinyon, and Arnina Kashtan. Since 2020, Leeza has assisted Newt and organized her own NVC practice and empathy groups. She is overjoyed to be sharing NVC on a larger scale as part of the Communication Dojo team.

MORE INFO:

Website: https://www.communicationdojo.com

FIND US O N SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/communicationdojo/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/communicationdojo

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@communicationdojo/

If you are interested in volunteering for a future event in exchange for a ticket, please fill out this form.

**no refunds or exchanges are available for this event - you can sell or gift your ticket to a friend**