A 3-Meeting NVC Class for Couples
Dates: The following Tuesdays in September and October--9/28, 10/12, & 10/26
Time: 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Location: Silver Spring, Maryland (Metro accessible, plenty of free parking)
Cost: $150-$300 per couple, sliding scale (you decide the highest amount you can easily and joyfully contribute*)
Pre-Requisites: Attendance at an "NVC for Couples" workshop
To Register: Please email Lynd Morris to reserve space at this event.
My husband, David Steigerwald, and I celebrate our 25th anniversary this October. In the last quarter of a century we've learned a lot about how to stay connected to our own hearts as well as to each others, something that is especially challenging when one or both of us is upset. NVC has provided us with extraordinarily effective tools for maintaining compassionate dialogue and we've offered several workshops this year to share what we've learned with other couples.
I believe that learning and practicing these tools and living our way into compassionate consciousness was made far easier because we attended numerous NVC trainings together and have had lots of support in practicing what we've learned with each other. If fact, we've heard something similar from others who've taken our trainings. Learning new ways of communicating with each other will not transform your relationship, you must practice what you learn to integrate it. And, practicing a new way of being in relationship is hard to do when faced by habitual reactivity in our communications with each other (or ourselves).
For this reason, we are offering a 3-meeting class to those couples who have attended one of the “NVC for Couples” workshops we've offered this year. Our intention is to pick up from where the workshop leaves off...using the processes introduced in the workshop and adding new ones--with time for coached practice--to deepen connections within couples.
In the weeks between classes, participants will be asked to practice with their partners as well as with another member of the class (who will be rotated after each session). Between class practice can be done in person or by telephone, to be arranged at the convenience of those practicing together. Thus, at the end of the series participants will not only have practiced all of the new communication processes with their partners, but will also have two new empathy buddies with whom they can continue to meet, if they choose.
Although it would be preferable for both partners in the couple to attend all four class sessions together, this may not always be possible. If you or your partner must miss one or two meetings this will not preclude you from taking this class, as long as at least one of you can be present at the session to report back to the other.
We plan to hold this class in our home and so space will be limited to six couples. However, if enough people want to participate in the series, we are exploring other venues that would hold more people (please note that this would involve an increase in the requested financial contribution to cover the space rental).
Please let us know right away if you’d like us to hold space for you in this class so we'll know whether or not to find a larger location in which to hold it.
* This training is available to all eligible couples, regardless of their ability to contribute financially. If you would like to participate but would have difficulty making the minimum requested financial contribution, please let us know so we can make arrangements that will work for you and enable us to keep offering these trainings.
Lynd Morris is an NVC trainer certified by the global Center for Nonviolent Communication. She graduated from the 2005 North America NVC Leadership Program and has participated in the LIFE Program since it began in 2006. For more than 5 years she has led NVC classes and workshops in Maryland and Virginia and has participated in or assisted at numerous NVC trainings across the United States. Lynd leads the Welcoming LIFE Program, a 5-month spiritually-based program co-created with international NVC trainer Robert Gonzales. She is a founding member of Capital NVC and is a member of the Still Water Mindfulness Practice Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. In 1997, Lynd was ordained as a lay member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing.
David Steigerwald has participated in NVC trainings since 2004, has assisted at most of the workshops and classes offered by Lynd, and has co-led two “NVC for Couples” workshops with her. He can be heard singing bass with the APL Scats and playing bass with the rock band, "White Chichuachua." His sound designs are heard in several community theaters in the Metro DC area.