Pique Podcast: [Practicing compassionate communication with Pat Bevan (S1 E9)]

In this episode, I chat with Pat Bevan, a certified trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication, about nonviolent communication -- NVC for short. We talk about what defines nonviolent communication and its benefit: Increasing the likelihood of others willingly contributing to our well-being. 

We discuss recognizing with compassion those who commit physical violence, the four ways that we disconnect from each other, how to use the “observation, feeling, need, request” framework in everyday communication, and the benefits of self-empathy, empathy, and radical honesty.

Quotables: 

• “I just would so much want people to approach all beings with compassion, rather than with judgment and blame.” 

• “What you say is a reflection of what’s going on inside of you.” 

• “My sense of being able to care for myself has gotten so much stronger as a result of NVC.” 

• “We are responsible for our feelings…No one makes us feel a certain way. They might stimulate a thought in us, and that thought makes us feel a certain way.” 

Resources mentioned:

• The Pique Podcast: Shame, accountability, intuition + the church with Pastor Bill Rose

• Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Tech

• The Center for Nonviolent Communication 

• NVC Academy 

• Book: Living Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg