I'm looking forward to reading about people's NVC/education
experience on this list, so wishing to start the ball rolling...

RECENT NVC- good news incidents from daily Ed Psych work.

A headteacher overheard my consultee-teacher summarising the
strategies we had developed for a behaviour concern.
Headteacher: "Is that the best you can do!"
NVC good news: I remembered for a while to give empathy first
(So ..... is really important for you, am I right?) rather than
argue with him.., even though feeling somewhat angry! This seemed to
enable later more successful communication, with a more positive
approach from the Head.

A colleague expressed her exasperation with a professional contact
who she had perceived as showboating,laying down the law etc. Over
lunch I sketched out NVC ideas, and asked What were her own unmet
needs that underlay the strength of her emotional response? What
might be the unmet needs of the other person that were behind his
presentation. My colleague went through this process and experienced
a big emotional shift, expressing surprising gratitude afterwards.
Next time she met the person, she told me that she coped much better
Then she looked up the website for the next NVC foundation course!

Interviews with teachers: a question for the list

>From a solution-focused background I had tended to move quickly over
the problem-talk, to get onto describing the preferred future. Now,
with NVC, I'm willing to spend more time in reflection and empathy,
so the person is properly understood.

However, a colleague challenged this, suggesting it's a hangover of
psychodynamic thinking...that the person has to ventilate/unbottle
their bad feelings before being able to move on to solution-building.
I wonder if that is around in Marshall's thinking. Some SF
practitioners do go quickly to the preferred future, without lots of
problem-empathy.

My preliminary thought is that this is not about ventilation, it's
about top quality communication, and about allowing movement from
their presenting (Jackal) formulations to giraffe recognition of
feelings and needs. Maybe identifying the needs would inform the way
the person goes on to describe their preferred future. I would
welcome comments about SFBT and NVC.