Current & Upcoming Workshops
“Our goal is to create a quality of empathic connection that allows everyone’s needs to be met.”
All/Couples/Diversity/Education/Facilitation/Family/Games/Mediation/Parenting/Social Change/Team Building/
Collaborative Feedback - Karen Starz, MA, MAEC, CNVC Certified Trainer
Feedback, Evaluations, Reviews! These words often conjure thoughts of criticism, shame and fear. They also stimulate questions like “Was I good enough?” , “How do I do better?” or “I think they hate me…”
If you’d like to have a new relationship with feedback, evaluations and reviews then join this three week workshop. The three weeks will be around how to give and receive feedback based in dialogue with each other. Using the principles of Nonviolent Communication, Karen Starz, CNVC Certified Trainer, will guide us towards a shift in our perception when it comes to the employee review process.
Some of the takeaways will be:
- skills or resourcing yourself before, during and after feedback sessions
- a new way to “review” employees
- improved connection and productivity
- the ability to pause
- ability to make doable requests
- connecting through power differences
The workshop will be 50% skills and knowledge and 50% practice. Since it is three sessions only, the strong request is that you be present for all three. Once completed, you will have access to an online practice group that meets weekly.
The Exquisite Art of Empathy and Resonance - Bren Hardt, CNVC Certified Trainer
Join me, Bren Hardt, CNVC Certified Trainer, for an interactive course where we will practice the art of empathy and resonance with ourselves and another.
DATES: Sundays 4pm to 6pm starting May 16 and then May 23, and all 4 Sundays in June.
Request: $125 or sliding scale based on your needs/my needs. Please email me with a suggested workable/ joy-based payment amount. I want all people to develop our natural skills of empathy regardless of available funds at the moment. I then will give you a code to register with a discount.
Creating and sustaining productive, trusting relationships is key to thriving. Using situations from your own life, discover the depth of your connection capacity and build your resilience. Some of what we will explore is an empathic apology, interrupting with empathy, being compassionate with ourselves when we’ve been less than perfect, the powerful ways to tune into someone’s heart with warmth, resonant language and curiosity.
ONGO - Bren Hardt, CNVC Certified Trainer
Join BREN HARDT, CNVC Certified Trainer and founder of HoustonNVC, for an opportunity to practice Nonviolent Communication at home in community with others exploring the curriculum in The Ongo Book: Everyday Nonviolence – Daily practices in Mindfulness, Nonviolent Communication & more, for individuals, couples, & groups by Catherine Cadden and Jesse Wiens.
Ongo will be offered starting May 13, 2021 and meeting weekly on Thursday 3pm to 4:30pm Central time until the last Thursday in July. The program consists of group sessions weekly, led in turn by each group participant using the scripts in the book, weekly empathy buddy sessions, again with scripts provided, (buddies change monthly), and 5 solo practices each week. The book’s contents are amazing.
Bren requests $25 per participant for the entire 12-week session to support her time and work in organizing and doing the tech work, as well as the cost of the Zoom Pro subscription. She is open to dialogue if this amount is a problem for anyone. You will also need to purchase the book at Amazon or the author’s website. Cost $24.
Heart Centered Parenting – Susan Wildin, MD, Certified Professional Coach
Would you enjoy less hassle and more connection with the children in your life? You are invited to an 8-week, online, weekly course on Heart-Centered Parenting facilitated by Susan Wildin, MD, CPC. Susan is a retired developmental behavioral pediatrician and a transformational life coach with 12 years of experience in Nonviolent Communication.
I believe we can change the current parenting paradigms and improve our relationships and empower our children to make choices based on their needs and the needs of others instead of to gain a reward or avoid a punishment. We shift things by learning self-compassion (understanding what we want from our children and why), empathy (listening deeply to what the children want from us and why), and honest expression of our own needs.
Heart Centered Parenting is for parents of children of all ages, grandparents, educators, and anyone else who has contact with children. We will meet online on Saturdays from 1:30-3:30 CDT from May 15- July 10, 2021, with no session on July 3. Sessions are designed to build on one another, and you can still participate if you need to miss one or more sessions. The format will be 1 hour of topical teaching and practice and one hour of role play with real-life issues in each session.
Registration is required so you can have handouts and the Zoom invitation prior to the meeting. I request $180 for the 8-week course and any amount will be accepted gratefully. Please contact me at susan@wildins.net if you need to request a dialogue about the fee request or have any other questions.
To register click HERE.
NVC and Habits - Karen Starz, MA, MAEC, CNVC Certified Trainer
NVC and Habits
Join us for a 12-week supported journey creating more life-serving habits. Increase self-awareness and explore your habits within the context of Nonviolent Communication. The exploration of habits will take place in a community of trust and includes the opportunity to select a package that offers one on one sessions with Karen Starz, MA, CNVC Certified Trainer, as an additional support outside of the group coursework.
Expect to work on this for two hours a week outside of the weekly meeting sessions. The “work” however, will aim to be fun, relaxing, playful, energizing and full of curiosity around your own belief systems and thoughts. The aim is not to change habits although, that will be a byproduct of the course. The aim is deep self-connection and connection to divine beloved energy.
This workshop having 10-20 people meets needs of connection and community while also meeting needs of intimacy and deepening of your process.
We will meet together live, in weekly group sessions beginning April 3rd, 2021 from 7-9 pm CT (US).
Early bird pricing is available through March 15th, 2021.*see note at end
What you can expect:
- A 12-week commitment with a group of 10-20 people
- Bi-weekly to weekly 1:1 support sessions
*For select packages only. If this option is purchased, you will be contacted separately with details on scheduling sessions.
Weekly Themes
Session I. Introduction and Overview
Session II. “Am I powerless?”
Session III. Support Systems
Session IV. Roadmap for Self
Session V. Guilt and Shame
Session VI. Edges and Strengths (Different forms of Honesty)
Session VII. How to be Shame-Free
Session VIII. Pathways to Connection: Prayer, Meditation, Dialogue
Session IX. Honesty in Practice
Session X. Cultivating Gratitude
With a focus on growing a deep connection with ourselves, the aim of this program is not to change habits, but to bring in an element of reflective self-understanding so that we can make conscious choices that make life more beautiful. Some takeaways will be:
- Bring in reflection and conscious choices around habitual behavior
- Learn to make choices that are life-enriching and serve our deeper longings
- Move towards sustainable, choiceful changes that bring us meaning
- Meet our own needs, primarily to matter and of purpose
- Experiencing shift vs. making a compromise
Who is this program for?
This is open to anyone who would like to learn and have support while exploring habits and patterns that are no longer serving them.
These habits could be internal patterns, such as thoughts or defense mechanisms, or external behaviors like substance-related habits (this program could also be a meaningful companion to a 12-step or other recovery program).
Karen Starz MA, MAEC, and CNVC Certified Trainer
Karen is a consultant, coach, speaker, and facilitator. The connection with Marshall Rosenberg’s work and NVC came naturally and piqued further, ongoing exploration into the foundations of NVC. Her background spans many areas, from interpersonal relationships, to businesses, schools, and non-profit organizations. Other services she provides include mediation, conflict resolution, and curriculum writing. Her approach to NVC is based on embodying the whole of nonviolent consciousness to create an automatic, empathic, somatic response and awareness. Karen aims to bring social change through learning, and is particularly interested in the spiritual connection that NVC fosters.
See more at www.karenstarz.com
To request a payment plan or apply for a scholarship*, please email Houston NVC President, Karen Starz
*Scholarships are for course cost only, not 1:1 session support. Payment plans must be approved before 3/15 for early bird price.
NVC Fundamentals - Manasi Saxena, CNVC Certified Trainer
NVC Fundamentals
8 Week Series
The possibility of living nonviolently, of connecting compassionately with ourselves and others, exists in every moment. How can we bring this possibility into practice?
I invite you to an experiential learning journey through the essential elements of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), to strengthen the roots and foundations of our practice. In our eight weeks together, we will dive deeply into the fundamentals of NVC, with a parallel focus on process, purpose, and practice. I hope to co-create with you a meaningful and clarifying experience that offers a blend of experiential self-exploration, learning and sharing in a safe community learning space, and creativity and fun!
About Manasi
Manasi Saxena (CNVC Certified Trainer; Founder, enCOMPASSion) is a learning facilitator whose focus lies around the intersection of spiritual/personal growth and social change/community development. More recently, she has been engaged with emergency relief services after the violence in Northeast Delhi and during the Covid-19 lockdown in India. Her core focus now is to work closely with communities at the grassroots, with a vision of shifting from sustenance-survival to a paradigm of sustainability, collaboration, and resilience through community-driven social change.
Key Takeaways
You can hope to leave with:
An experiential understanding of Nonviolent Communication, its purpose, intention, and practice
Clarity and practice in the fundamental capacities of NVC: Observations, Feelings, Needs, and Requests
Self-empathy: How to come home to a point of balance and centering within myself, to respond, rather than react?
Empathy: How to listen empathically to another person without telling them what to do (and why would I do that in the first place!)?
Expression: How to speak my truth while still holding deep care and respect for the other?
And, how to dance in the flow of connection between empathy and honesty, between you and me!
Course Schedule
Week I: Introduction and Arriving
Week II: Intentions and Heart Awareness
Week III: Presence and Resonance
Week IV: My Heart’s Ears
Week V: Making Life Wonderful
Week VI: Coming Home To Myself
Week VII: Dancing in Communication
Week VIII: Gratitude, Celebrations, Mournings
Dates: Saturdays, March 20 – May 8, 2021
Timing: 9.00-11.00am CST (8.30-10.30pm IST)
Dialogues for Social Change – Susan Wildin, MD, Certified Professional Coach
In these difficult times when everyone seems to be taking sides, I want to support people working together to separate our perceptions and judgments from our deepest longings. I believe if we act from these longings, change can happen more effectively and without alienating others.
To create this connection to longing and a space of mutual connection and understanding between people across barriers of belief and judgment, I use a process I call Dialogues for Social Change which is based on the work of Marshall Rosenberg, PhD and Jim and Jori Manske. I will be sharing this process and basics of Nonviolent Communication online in 3 two-hour, weekly workshops Saturdays March 13, 20, and 27, 2021 from 1:30-3:30 pm CDT.
I am asking for $75 for this workshop series and I do not want cost to prevent anyone from coming. Please contact me at the email or phone number in the link below if you’d like to attend and find the cost prohibitive. Thank you.
Living Peace - Susan Wildin, MD, Certified Professional Coach
Join Susan Wildin, MD, Certified Professional Coach for the workshop series, Living Peace, an online experience in connection to others and to yourself. The workshops are based on the work of Marshall Rosenberg on Nonviolent Communication, and will explore the basic elements of Marshall’s work in the context of our own lives. There will be a 2-hour workshop each month on a Sunday from 1:30-3:30. Please make note of the following dates and topics:
Choose Connection! January 10, 2021
Choose Self-Compassion! February 7, 2021
Choose Empathy! March 7, 2021
Transforming Anger into Compassion. April 11, 2021
Choose Honesty! May 2, 2021
Dates and Times: One Sunday each month, 1:30-3:30 pm CT, Jan 2021 thru May 2021
Cost: Susan requests $25 per session or $100 for the series to support her work and any amount would be appreciated.
Recommended NVC Academy Courses
Finding Common Ground in Challenging Times with David Weinstock
- Learn how to speak your truth with confidence
- Increase your ability to live with inner and outer harmony
- Discover new tools for creating and deepening connections
- Expand your capacity for holding others with compassion
- Click here for details
The “Let’s Work Collaboratively” Coaching Program with Dian Killian
- Bring NVC to work in radical game-changing ways
- Enjoy greater collaboration with your colleagues
- Expand your team’s effectiveness
- Experience more empowerment and ease with your boss
- Click here for details
Taste of Compassionate Leadership Free Video Conference with Jim & Jori Manske
- FREE program that meets on the fourth Saturday of most months
- Experience a taste of living within an empathic community
- Enjoy short yet powerful training/practice sessions with our trainers
- Learn concrete skills and steps for practicing compassion and leadership
- Click here for details
Customized Workshops
Would you like to bring Compassionate Communication to your group? Whether it is a school, a professional group, a gathering of friends or a spiritual based organization, we have a diverse group of NVC trainers in our area ready to create workshops or presentations to address your group’s specific needs.
Email us at info@HoustonNVC.org to learn how our highly qualified trainers can support you and your group.
Projects and lasting partnerships have evolved through people meeting each other in our workshops. Workshops are offered online and in-person. The in-person opportunities allow for a heightened experience of integration whereas the online workshops offer ease and accessibility. Houston NVC is committed to offering entry level courses as well as advanced work. We are also open to requests and love to hear feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Since we aim to service multiple time zones with our online courses, you will want to check our calendar regularly for changes.
Joining our workshops is a reliable way to expand your community of friends who want to learn and explore connection and communication. Inclusion is important to us, so tuition assistance is always available, please contact us directly at info@houstonnvc.org or reach out to the facilitator to find out more information.
