1. Conversational Connection: Practical Skills for Communicating Compassionately

Would you like...

• to feel the joy of being heard, known, and understood?
• to have some ease in approaching challenging conversations?
• fulfilling connections in reciprocal relationships?

This is the first In-Person session of the 10 week series, where we'll lay the foundation, including an introduction to Nonviolent Communication (NVC) concepts, starting with the key differentiation of Observations vs. Evaluations.

“Why 10 weeks?” Because that’s the average time to make a new habit.
In this 10-week online series, you will learn practical skills for connection through Nonviolent Communication. Beginning with simple scenarios that build on each other, you will end up with the ability to facilitate a conversational flow of connection, weaving between self-empathy, empathic listening and compassionate honest expression.

The general structure of the sessions:

1. a lecture supported by a PowerPoint presentation,
2. a demonstration of the process being taught,
3. breakout/group practices, followed by
4. a harvesting debrief of the practices.

Testimonials:

• "My experience in James Prieto's comprehensive introductory NVC course far surpassed my expectations. As a newcomer to NVC, I especially appreciated the design of his class -- combining instruction and a lot of practice -- to help me safely find my footing as I learn new skills and habits. The often challenging process of acquiring these new communication skills was broken down into highly organized micro-steps each week, in a way that felt "natural" -- each week's lesson built upon the knowledge and skills learned in previous sessions. The many practice sessions were essential learning pieces during this course, and James facilitated an (online) classroom environment where everyone seemed to feel supported and open enough to both express their authentic selves and to "mess up" as it were -- to learn by doing about what is -- and isn't -- empathic communication. It's transformational work, but expertly broken down into pragmatic steps that were completely approachable to this beginner (me!). I also appreciated James's abilities to guide the class dynamic in a consistently productive and positive way, to keep the class task-focused and time-aware, and to remain flexible and curious about questions and feedback. Lastly, James's Hear-Canvas tool is one of the most powerful things I accessed in this course -- it was amazing to be able to reference a visual-spatial illustration of the complex worlds of feelings, needs, values, and states of emotional intensity. It really does help me "map out" naming the key elements of any NVC interaction. The foundation of my trust in James as my introductory NVC instructor is that he seems to come from a place of having walked the walk in his own life -- having already been through a process of changing the quality of his connections with others by learning how to put empathy (and self-empathy and honesty) into everyday action. I am at the very beginning of learning to communicate effectively in this way, but I feel like I'm on the right track having taken James's course." Sarah Johnson
• Click here for more Testimonials

Learning Objectives - In this series, you will learn and practice how to:

• prepare for challenging conversations
• get clear on what you really want, how you feel about it and why (self-empathy)
• create and deliver the context for a conversation
• express yourself fully in a way that has a good change of connecting (honesty)
• listen to the heart of what others are expressing while checking in on your understanding (empathy)
• make clear, doable, present requests with an openness to outcome
• use requests to support a flow of connection
• Observations vs. Evaluations
• Needs vs. Strategies
• Developing Feelings/Needs literacy
• Empathic Listening
• Feelings vs. Thoughts vs. Evaluative Feelings
• Self-Empathy
• Responses to difficult to hear messages
• Compassionate Honesty
• Requests vs. Demands
• Clear, doable Requests
• Flow of Connection
• Expressing Appreciation

Closed/Drop-In Group: We'll close the group if at least 8 people register for the 10-week series -- otherwise, it will remain a drop-in group. Benefits of Closed Group:

• Receive slides PDF before the session
• Consistency creates community
• "opt-in" to a sliding empathy buddy schedule outside of class

Series Tuition: if interested in the full 10-wk series, please send money through Venmo @Jaime-L-Prieto-Jr, or Zelle through your bank "james.prieto@gmail.com" (phone ends in 2026) or least favorite because 3.5% fee PayPal @jamesprieto. Discounts available. No one turned away due to lack of funds.

Requested Tuition: $200
Comfortable Tuition: $300
Corporate Tuition: $500