5-day retreat in NVC Mediation with Ike Lasater & John Kinyon

This retreat is the first of a 9 month training program in NVC Conflict Resolution. It is also open to anyone who want to deepen their NVC practice in a five-day immersion experience with NVC Conflict Resolution. Many participants in John and Ike’s NVC Conflict Resolution classes and workshops have reported accelerated development in their NVC skills, their capacity for presence, and growth and healing in their relationships. The training is based in the Mediation model developed by NVC founder Marshall Rosenberg, Ph.D. and provides skill building towards applying NVC to conflict in all types of situations -- from legal to business/organizational to personal and family relationships – and in four main contexts – internal, interpersonal, informal, and formal.

This residential retreat provides an intensive experience with the basic elements of the formal NVC Conflict Resolution process, including
-the self-preparation work,
-the the five-step model,
-the eight skills,
-the learning cycle.

An emphasis will be on mediating from presence, whereby the mediator's actions flow from mindful awareness; and practicing the skills increases the capacity for presence. Daily practices for learning and skill building will be offered that can extend the learning from the retreat into everyday life. There will be ample opportunity for participants to bring in their own experiences of conflict to work with and their questions about Conflict Resolution to explore with the group.

At the heart of the training is the triad learning process. You will learn by doing and by receiving in-the-moment coaching and real time feedback from multiple perspectives. You will have the chance to play mediator and disputant in conflict situation role plays. Roles rotate for optimal learning: Sitting in the mediator’s chair you’ll practice staying present and connected with yourself moment by moment and get real time coaching from Ike and John as well as feedback from those in the disputant roles and from those observing. As disputant or observer, you then have the opportunity to move into the mediator’s chair and put into practice what you have just learned. There is a back and forth flow between experiential doing and stopping to “harvest” together what is learned from the role plays. There is also the flow between being in the whole group and breaking into small groups. Ike and John actively coach, facilitate, and share their perspectives and experiences throughout.

John and Ike have been developing and evolving their approach over the past 6 years, beginning with a journey together to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border to work with Afghan tribal elders in early 2002, shortly after the bombings following 9/11. From this experience they saw first hand that despite at least eight languages being used and layers of cobbled-together, ad hoc translation, connection to universal human needs and the NVC Conflict Resolution approach worked even with a real dispute that came alive in the room during the training.