Click here to download an application.

NVC Teaching & Leadership Between Program Sessions

"In my years of learning with Miki and Inbal, including in the Leadership Program’s first year, I have seen myself transform into a powerful woman who is living my dream and passion by sharing NVC in the war torn context of my original home of Sri Lanka. While I believe I always had a lot of determination and fierceness, I also had a lot of trauma and internalized oppression and fear, especially of taking leadership or being powerful. The support and healing I got from BayNVC trainers and colleagues eventually led to me not only taking leadership in the form of teaching NVC in the Bay Area but in all kinds of difficult and challenging contexts back home in Sri Lanka, where I have been living and sharing NVC now for the last 6 years."

Jeyanthy Siva, LP02, Sri Lanka
Mediator, facilitator, NVC trainer, management coach

Some participants join the Leadership Program with extensive NVC teaching experience (we have had certified trainers enroll as participants), and some join the program without any prior teaching experience. Some participants focus on teaching, while others focus on other formats for sharing NVC, including counseling, mediation, and coaching. We aim to support all participants regardless of your level of prior experience and your specific strategies for sharing NVC.

During retreats, we offer opportunities to present and teach, activities and experiences to deepen NVC living and teaching skills, coaching on specific questions related to teaching NVC, support in clarifying goals, and assistance in reaching next steps in achieving personal and teaching goals. We find that these activities benefit participants regardless of the specific strategy you choose for sharing NVC.

All participants are expected to begin to share NVC with others in their community during the course of the year. Twice during the course of the program we invite people to offer an NVC series or other learning opportunity in their communities: in May and in September. We anticipate that each of these times a group of participants will begin at the same time, and thus will be able to support each other in the process. Some participants may offer a series both times, while others may choose to make different offerings at different times. At a minimum, we request that each participant offer at least one introduction to NVC event before the June 2010 retreat so you will have personal leadership experience that will help you gain the most from the coaching and practice during retreats.

To support you in getting started with teaching, we will provide you with a curriculum that you can use in your classes if you wish, as well as a PowerPoint presentation, handouts, and more. We also make most of our other materials available for any LP participant or graduate to use. We will also ask you to share materials with each other so everyone can benefit from each other’s work.

This aspect of the program, like all other components, is highly supportive. Starting in 2006, a sister program to LP, the Parent Peer Leadership Program, included such support materials, and the result was that even participants who had great trepidation about beginning to share NVC have done so successfully.

Additional Opportunities

In the course of the year, and beyond, we will be in ongoing contact with you about opportunities as they arise. Those will typically include the following:

1. Opportunities to organize trainings in your area, and support from us in building an NVC community around you. More information about these opportunities appears on our web site. We are particularly excited about the Building NVC Communities project, coordinated and led by François Beausoleil.
2. Opportunities to assist us in trainings we offer. These opportunities are generally more available to people who live in or near the Bay Area, but as our Building NVC Communities project matures, we are likely to have many more opportunities in the US and Canada.

Other NVC-related opportunities as they arise: information about events, opportunities to be involved with international initiatives, job announcements with other organizations that we believe will benefit from having an NVC-trained candidate, etc.

NOTE: The Leadership Program is not a certification program, and participation in the program in no way implies that you will either be certified by CNVC or that we will recommend you for certification. At the same time, this program provides 160 hours of training for certification purposes, and many of the activities within the program directly support preparation for certification. Those pursuing certification can use check-lists and processes we've created specifically to offer you support.