Marshall Rosenberg said, 'You can use humour as long as you're willing to tidy up the mess afterwards.' That sums up the power and the potential pain of humour in connection. How do you experience humour in conflict? What can you do differently to support the connection when you notice humour bri...

Have you ever found that when using Nonviolent Communication (NVC), it can sometimes come across as formulaic jargon, causing you to lose the connection you’re trying to build?

Would you like to use the language of NVC with more authenticity and integrity, ensuring it sounds natural and colloqu...

We all know how to escalate an argument. But do we know how to de-escalate arguments even before they become arguments?

Watch Shantigarbha share some tips.

Are you puzzled how often other people hear what you are saying as judgement, blame and criticism? Pseudo-feelings such as 'misunderstood', 'betrayed' or 'ignored' imply that someone is doing something to you and are likely to be heard as blame. How do you distinguish between pseudo-feelings and ...

Finding your voice, and speaking from your heart means standing up for yourself. It's empowering and self-valuing. However, there's also this longing to take care of the connection, which can make it difficult to find the courage to speak up and be fully authentic.

So how can you express yourse...

In today’s Life Hack, Gesine will share with you how to identify core beliefs that might have been helpful at one time but are now limiting you. She will also help you to see these core beliefs for what they are – artefacts from the past rather than the truth about your present.

When you are listening to someone and you notice that you are feeling resentful, or you want to act protectively before you explode, how do you express that?

Screaming in Giraffe – NVC is not about being 'nice'!

Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed and helpless when you notice that you got triggered by someone's behavior?

Do you feel fearful when you notice that anger is rising in you, and could come out as uncontrolled intensity?

Are you longing to find a way to express feelings with authenticity so yo...

In this Life Hack, we explore ways of creating space for self-empathy when your emotional fuel tanks are low. We suggest practising negotiating a time out with your loved ones so that they know what's going on before things get out of hand.

Shantigarbha explores how couples can experience connection without needing to agree with each other, distinguishing acknowledgement and understanding from agreement or disagreement. Through a playful example, he demonstrates how listening for the needs and impact behind a partner’s words can cre...

We do couples mediation and one thing that we've noticed with couples is that sometimes they really struggle with receiving love in the way that they want to receive it. And asking, 'Do you love me?' can be a risky way of doing this.

Join Shantigarbha and Gesine in a holiday mood as they explor...

In the Needs Cafe, Gesina and Shantigarbha explore a playful, practical way to become more familiar with needs and expand the language available for expressing them. Through a series of exercises using needs disks, they practice different ways of speaking about needs, including “I love,” “I thriv...

Gesine and Shantigarbha introduce the jackal and giraffe puppets as a playful way to explore two different ways of communicating in NVC. Through a role play between a parent and teenager, they contrast jackal language—labels, blame, judgments, demands, and “deserve” thinking—with giraffe language...

In this first of three lessons, Gesine and Shantigarbha introduce the “Tree of Compassionate Connection,” a big-picture map of NVC that illustrates its purpose and learnable skills. They explore compassionate connection as the heart of NVC, with self-empathy and self-connection as the roots and e...

We live in turbulent times where clickbait headlines abound and strong opinions are held and fought for. So what happens when we disagree with someone we care for on a potentially controversial subject?

NVC offers a fresh perspective on how to approach these difficult conversations while keepin...

It's easy to view sadness, mourning and grief as something to avoid or maybe even as a waste of time. However, in NVC we learn that these things are actually human needs. And not only are they human needs, they're also close relatives to joy and happiness. In this month's Life Hack, we explore ho...

We live in a very transactional world. You can probably list off a number of subscriptions you might pay for on a monthly basis. This comes down to how we view money. The way many of us relate to money in the west takes away a special thing that can happen. Simply viewing money as a means to buy ...

Gesine Schrader and Shantigarbha Warren explore the difference between compromise and an NVC approach that seeks to honor everyone’s needs. Through a role-play, Gesine demonstrates how empathy, listening, and understanding can shift a conflict from disappointment and resentment toward connection,...