Testimonials
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We collate feedback for our own learning and development. We also enjoy Testimonials, If you have been to an event please add your thoughts here so we can add them to this page.
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Feedback from past events
Attending for development as a Certified Trainer.
I have attended three assessment events. The first as an eager observer, then as a cocky candidate and most recently as a "certified" observer. My own certification in April 2019 took an unexpected path for me. I was asked to do some more work which was a wonderful exercise in humility and this initially unwanted gift put me in touch with my NVC blindspots which were in fact the size of elephants. My assessor, Gina, asked me to consider how I would support myself following my recommendation. Attending the March 2020 assessment in Kasteel de Berckt in Baarlo, Netherlands met many needs: supporting candidates many of whom were also friends, re-connecting with my Dutch NVC friends but I didn't realise how much I would learn. That was unexpected.
My NVC journey really started at the Baarlo IIT in 2016. Many friends were made, I made my decision to go for certification there, I met my assessor, Gina and the Caravan was born there on the final night with an Italian lawyer and a Dutch policeman. I was really amazed how much I learned attending the assessment event. Our relationships with assessment, evaluation, power, hierarchy and authority are so complex and often are hiding in plain sight. As an observer I was able to gain so much from the work of the candidates, the assessors in their assessing and the wider group.
There was an opportunity to notice aspects of assessment that just went over my head at my own assessment. The role plays still gave me goosebumps until I reminded myself that I wasn't in the hot seat! I was able to appreciate the care, attention and dedication of the assessors. There wasn't a presentation that didn't give me some inspiration, idea or a different perspective. There is probably huge relief and celebration once you receive that email from CNVC inviting you to complete those final pieces of administration before you are officially certified. As part of your continual development, I would strongly recommend attending another assessment event.
~ Glenn Treacy, Ireland
Attending as a Candidate Community Member
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A few days have passed and the amazement is still inside me! Also, lots of gratitude and satisfaction. As the time passes by, what becomes more and more clear for me is the amount and quality of support I got from all the people who were present there: the assessors team, the candidates team, the community members. This support and care helped me a lot in exploring and playing with my learning edges. The pre-assessment and the assessment were evaluation experiences completely different than what I was used to from the traditional school system. And my mind expected it to be different, but the effect it had on my whole system is huge and I am still very surprised by it. It is like somehow the assessment process changed me on a deeper level. My amount of confidence, willingness to offer support to others and willingness to contribute in general almost doubled after this event; or at least this is my perception.
I am especially grateful to the team of assessors for designing this type of event and to hold it. I can only guess that designing such an evaluation environment that is based on the principles behind NVC is not at all a trivial task. Also, holding the space during the whole event and during some sessions; especially the fact that I perceived the support from them being exactly as much as I needed to stay in my learning zone but not moving into my panic zone, where learning would not happen so much. And my guess is that this environment encouraged us all, on a subconscious level, to hold and nurture each other, becoming a community in just a few days. If I hadn't been going through this process, probably I would have never have known what I have missed 🙂
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~ Octavian 6th of November 2018, Lasi, Romania Participated in the Assessment between 31st of October to 3rd of November 2018
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I have been recently (March 2018) through the final assessment process for NVC certification, in Europe.
I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my assessor Gina Lawrie and to the whole European English Speaking Assessment team (Towe Widstrand, Gina Lawrie, Deborah Bellamy, Shona Cameron and Thera Belvers), and that tracks back to the CNVC. I am aware that my words cannot reflect the value of this particular assessment process in a way that it would be easy for others who were not there to grasp exactly what I am appreciating and why I find it globally meaningful. However, I would like to know how my sharing lands with you, and if you find it valuable for others, please share it.
I am deeply amazed with ways how the assessor’s team cooperates and how they have worked out repeatable steps for the whole assessment process, from the first contact to the final community assessment gathering. I appreciate the built-in self-improvement model for the assessors themselves, and how they have already incorporated 360 degree feedback for the candidates. As I attended as a community member before, I could notice how they had constantly integrated feedback from participants in the assessment process to embrace even more diversity and to serve more efficiently to their purpose as the nvc integrity fire keepers.
There is a particular quality of this process that I value most. I have experienced/received extraordinary amount of safety, support and care – “we want you to succeed”, incomparably more than ever before in my life, for sure I had none of this in correlation to my education. I had no idea that we humans are capable of providing such nurturing experience for each other. I had no idea about ease and speed of growth for a person/community in such environment, where people got together to caringly serve each other by sharing, being vulnerable and giving honest, thorough feedback – not to evaluate the other, but to precisely shed light on learning edges and to set guiding stones for one’s reference in the future. For me this experience itself models how I want to live and share nvc.
I hope this practice will be a basis for the new future plans, built upon rather than replaced. I truly hope that their kind of assessment process will continue to serve as the basic "walk the talk" model for living and sharing nonviolence.
Warmly, Svetlana (Slovenia)
I was fortunate enough to attend the assessment in England this October 2018. Though I have participated to several IIT’s and other trainings, I can say from the bottom of my heart how my needs for intensity, exchange, knowledge, support, connection, exploration and many more have been met in only four days. I look back with a lot of gratitude to this assessment as a community member and I truly hope and plan to be present at many more to come.
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After my participation to the assessment in October 2018, I just want to say Thank you again for this beautiful space of encouraging people to spread the work of Marshall Rosenberg around the world.
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~ Pierre Vigneron, France
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Attending as a Community Member
Field Report: Visiting an ESEAT Assessment Event as part of NVC-UK Community.
December 23, 2021
This is written for anyone who is considering attending a certification assessment event. The event was held in the UK, I identify as Neurodiverse and am considering registering as a Certification Candidate. I was supported to attend by the UK-NVC community, and this document in written in support of expressing my gratitude for that. This is a wee snippet from 11 juicy pages, the full document is here.
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Background
A member of the English Speaking European Assessment Team (ESEAT) team posted to the UK-NVC Rise-Up email list expressing concern about viability for an upcoming event, especially within the post COVID, post Brexit situation and requesting UK community support. One respondent responding in way that I resonated with, empathising with the need for sustainability for ESEAT and finding the cost ’very high’. A wish for a ’longer conversation around how to manage all this’, was named.
Two actions were taken, the community was invited to contribute to a fund in support of a community member attending, and a meeting was called to explore the issues. At the meeting the ESEAT member expressed uncertainty around whether the event would be viable and they observed different cultures in other European countries where the NVC communities were more active in supporting the assessment team. It was agreed that it would be more likely that the event would go ahead if one person signed up within the next couple of hours and others signed up after that. I was then asked if I would be able to go if the community fund was offered to me, and I decided in that moment to accept.
I would like to name the feelings that came up for me at that time but it would be hard, I was excited and overwhelmed, grateful. Many needs were met, not least ’to matter’ and ’to contribute’.
Attending this event is a very worthwhile thing, if you are considering certification. It is also worthwhile as part of the NVC community, because your learning will be accelerated by the immersion. It is also worthwhile, if you wish to contribute to the UK’s NVC community, because you will be supporting the ESEAT team at a time when community support is welcome to ensure the expertise and resource that it brings continues to be as readily available as it is.
This is a snippet, the full document is here.
--Em- UK
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