More than ever, the world needs your aliveness. Spend 7 weeks learning how to relate with skill, compassion and effectiveness.
*Note: There are sliding scale and scholarship options, details below.*
We want to know that our collective efforts to bring about needed changes and work toward Just Transition will be fruitful. When we pour ourselves into the things we care about, we want to know it matters. Especially in times such as these, how exhausting to see our hard work melt away as conflict slows down, stalls out, or, worse yet, dissolves our collaborations.
The legacies of a domination paradigm (capitalism, patriarchy, white supremacy, to name a few) have left us without the skills we need to lean into interdependence. This makes it incredibly hard to collaborate effectively. It makes it harder still to find generativity in conflict.
But it doesn’t have to be this way! Nonviolent or “Compassionate” Communication (NVC) offers us a toolkit to deepen our own embodied self-connection, build our capacity to reach out for support, and relate to ourselves and one another with empathy so that we can show up more fully to our work in the world. And as we begin to unpack the way that domination culture has shaped our very language, we can learn new/old ways of communicating that bring us more deeply into alignment with our values, our purpose, and into connection with one another.
During this 7-week, online course, we will explore practical strategies for undoing domination in ourselves, our communication, our relationships, and our collaborations. Each two-hour session will include interactive content and practices to engage with real-time examples from your life. You will have the opportunity to be paired up with another participant for practice in between sessions. This course will support you to:
Identify patterns of domination culture and develop a needs-based orientation that can enable you to undo domination
Explore NVC as an embodied mindfulness practice and grow your capacity to tune into body sensations as valuable feedback from your nervous system pointing you towards what matters to you
Grow your awareness of and vocabulary for resonant language - including “feelings” and “needs” - and your understanding of the brain science behind why this kind of language works
Develop an empathetic listening practice with a buddy between sessions as a foundational tool for resourcing yourself to show up better in conflict and collaboration
DATES
Wednesdays from 3:30-5:30 PM EST, from September 22 to November 23
FACILITATORS
This offering will be facilitated by Nicole Bauman with the support of GWI workers
Nicole Bauman (they/she) is a midwest-based queer parent steeped in the sacred work of facilitation, transformative justice, somatics and Nonviolent Communication. They see building conflict resiliency as an essential part of living into the world to come, and are passionate about creating space where personal and collective liberation feel possible. As the descendant of white Western European peasant farmers who carried their trauma with them to the Americas, Nicole is committed to centering racial justice and ancestral healing in their work. Nicole’s background in farming, yoga, doula work and natural building grounds their work in connection to the earth and the body. Nicole is an ICF-certified Professional and Community Healing-Centered Coach and a student of Somatics with the Strozzi Institute and in the lineage of generative somatics. Nicole finds rootedness in growing food, daily walks to the river, sewing ancestral quilts and through being a part of the Prairie Wolf Collective co-housing community in the Rust Belt city of Elkhart, Indiana (occupied Potawatomi territory). You can learn more about Nicole’s work at nicolebauman.com.
REGISTRATION
Deadline:
We are opening registration to the first 20 participants and closing it by or before September 15th. Register early to save your spot! Spots are reserved for people identifying as BIPOC.
Fee:
Your registration fee covers online workshop facilitation and materials.
Amount requested: $210 The registration fee reflects discounts made possible by the generous support of our donors. The full cost of the workshop is $300.
Sliding scale: $120 - $300 If your current access to financial resources is limited, please consider paying less than the registration fee. If your current access to financial resources is ample, please consider paying more toward the full cost of the workshop and helping underwrite costs for fellow participants.
Scholarships: If the low end of the sliding scale is still out of reach, we have a limited number of scholarships available. Apply here or email Micah (micah@goodworkinstitute.org) if you would like to speak to someone first.
Donations: We welcome donations to help underwrite the cost of offering free programs. Please email Hélène Lesterlin (helene@goodworkinstitute.org) if you would like more information before considering a donation.