Upcoming Trainings

Compassionate Communication

Meadville Lombard School of Theology
Course for Credit or Audit
January 21-25, 2014

This is a five day "in person" class where students who have been working with me through the fall will come together for experiential learning and practice.  To register, go here by the end of July.

Coming soon there will be a description of the course and how to register and audit. In the meantime, here is a brief overview.

Course Overview

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,

there is a field. I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language, even the phrase "each other" doesn't make any sense.

~ Rumi

Here Rumi describes poetically the First and Seventh UU Principles, emphasizing the interweaving web of worth, dignity, and interdependence that holds all life.  These same principles are key underpinnings of Compassionate Communication.  By engaging in Compassionate Communication during this course, practitioners "rewire their brains," grow their consciousness of compassion, and increase the depth and effectiveness of an embodied response to injustice and suffering in the world. Participants gain expertise so that they can themselves be trainers and facilitators of these practices. As the instructor is a Certified Trainer in Nonviolent Communication, hours here go towards meeting the requirements of certification if participants so desire.

Goals

 The goals of the course include the following:

·         Contribute to individual's UU faith development and spiritual practices, and embodiment of it in the world

·         Enhance participant's understanding of emotional, social, and spiritual intelligences, increase their skills in these areas, and guide them for future action and practices.

·         Ground the use of Compassionate Communication in these intelligences, in inter/intrapersonal neurobiology, in "biotheology," and in Unitarian Universalism.

·         Provide resources for a life-long practice and vocational use of Compassionate Communication (hence the long list of additional resources)

·         Enhance participant's ability to engage in compassionate communication, both inner and outer dialog.

·         Augment participant's leadership in organizational practices by using the consciousness and skills of Compassionate Consciousness

·         Provide confidence and ability of participant to teach and facilitate Compassionate Communication learnings and experiences in a variety of situations.