We want the IIT to be a deep learning and personal growth experience for participants and to create a space likely to meet needs for community, trust, and emotional safety. Because of the emotional depth and intensity at an IIT and the range of issues that arise that may not be suitable for children, our policy at this point is to have only registered adult participants at these events (i.e. not children or non-registered partners/family members).
If children and family member(s) are with you while you are at the IIT, it is our request that they reside off-site unless the venue is a public facility with other guests present. We support parents of young children to participate and if you bring your children, we ask you to have a full-time caregiver(s) available throughout the duration of the training to ensure that you are free to participate fully.
If you would like to share NVC retreat experiences with your children, there are opportunities in our network, such as family camps, in which you can participate together as a family.
A couple from Europe that had their children with them while they were at an IIT and took turns attending IIT sessions and taking care of their children who were staying offsite at a nearby hotel shared the following about their experience:
“I came to appreciate why children being on the sessions could disturb the connecting processes, because the emotional work involved was indeed very delicate many times. Just minor disturbances may be a hindrance to one's ‘listening’ to one’s own and others' emotional processes, I believe. But it became less of a problem in that the whole event was structured as a kind of smorgasbord of offerings, making it easy for me and my husband to take turns. But I do regret my not being able to participate more totally and fully during the nine days.”