NVC IN A NUTSHELL

The process of Nonviolent Communication - CNV was idealized and developed by the clinical psychologist of the United States Marshall B. Rosenberg in the 1960s. Raised in a violent neighborhood of Detroit, he was interested in new forms of communication that would enable peaceful means to the violence he faced.

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Two questions motivated him: (1) He wanted to better understand what is in human beings that leads some of us to behave in a violent and abusive way; (2) He wanted to better understand what kind of education is useful to our attempts to remain compassionate.

Contrary to the theory that has been established for many centuries, in which it was believed that violence and exploitation occur because people are evil, selfish or violent, Marshall believed in the compassionate nature of the human being. For him, three factors are decisive for us to understand why, in identical situations, some of us react with violence and others react with compassion:

• The language we were taught to use

• How did they teach us to think and communicate?

• The specific strategies we learn to influence others and ourselves

The NVC process includes the type of language, the type of thought and the forms of communication that help us to have the ability to contribute to the well-being of others and ourselves. The key to this point of view is the effect of compassion to act and not fear, guilt, shame, censorship, coercion or the threat of punishment. There are four parts of the CNV process: observation (what I observe that contributes or not to well-being), feelings(how I feel about what I observe), needs (what I need or value and which is the cause of my feelings) requests and not demands (concrete actions that I would like to be taken - would you be willing to...?). Marshall created the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC) international peace promotion entity (www.cnvc.org). He started programs for peace in war-torn areas, such as Rwanda, Nigeria, the Middle East, Serbia, Croatia and Ireland.