Communicating with Empathy and Awareness

Empathetic communication has a transformative power that can alter the course of our personal and professional lives. Join us for a virtual class series where we will explore how you can improve communication and relationships with your families, friends, and professional teams using the process of Nonviolent Communication (NVC).

The course will explore three aspects of communicating with empathy and awareness, focusing on a different aspect each week. Session one will explore listening with empathy. You will be guided on where to focus your attention and how to manage your own thoughts, questions, advice, and counterpoints as you listen so you can create a judgment-free environment in which others can express themselves. In session two, you will learn to cultivate an awareness of the feelings and needs that shape the way you communicate and explore how to express yourself with authenticity. In session three, we will examine the common barriers people face in making requests and how to overcome them. You will learn practices that help you ask for what you want and need.

This class will be experiential and will involve listening exercises in breakout rooms where you will gain and practice skills to bring to your most important relationships. Please be prepared to actively participate to get the most of the class experience.

This class will not be recorded. Attendance requirement for incentive points – at least 80% of all 3 sessions.

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Instructor: Nethra Samarawickrema, PhD, is a career and leadership coach. She brings her training in the anthropology of work, design thinking, and Nonviolent Communication to help her clients craft lives that express who they are. She coaches academics, writers, engineers, executives, and startup cofounders to deepen their self-awareness, communicate their needs and boundaries, and build careers that actualize their full potential.

Class details are subject to change.