Lebanon

Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is an approach to communication and conflict transformation that offers powerful methods to increase our understanding of ourselves and others.

In Lebanon, forumZFD offers activities around NVC to help communities and individuals overcome divisions and conflicts. It provides tools that can be used in daily life to improve our relationships and overcome barriers of communication like judgement, fear, mistrust or hate.

In 2019, forumZFD brought together some of the trailblazers of Nonviolent Communication (NVC) in Lebanon. The team organized trainings and workshops on NVC which helped participants to better understand their own feelings and needs and those of others. Participants further developed their listening skills, increased their understanding of needs (what we really long for), strategies (the ways in which we try to meet those needs) and learned tools to connect more deeply to themselves and others. Due to the success of these initial trainings and workshops forumZFD decided to launch a new project focused entirely on NVC.

 Since 2020 forumZFD has been offering more workshops for beginners and for advanced practitioners and facilitators. During the pandemic forumZFD offered most of the workshops online favouring to reach a wider audience. Based on those experiences, in 2022 and 2023 forumZFD continues to offer online workshops to all interested audience in Lebanon while it provides opportunities to go deeper through in-person sessions. Additionally, the team has started producing informative videos and booklets in Arabic using different social media channels to deliver more resources for all those interested in improving their communication skills and abilities to deal with conflicts.

forumZFD is also eager to tailor workshops for interested groups and to accompany groups who want to address conflicts. If you are interested to learn more, feel free to contact us anytime at froehlich@forumZFD.de.

© forumZFD

More information about NVC:

NVC assumes that all human beings have the capacity to behave with compassion and empathy. All human behaviour supposedly stems from attempts to meet universal human needs, which are never in conflict. People will only resort to violence or behaviour harmful to others when strategies for meeting these needs clash.

In the case of tensions or conflict, NVC proposes to identify the needs of the conflicting parties by inquiring into thoughts and feelings. Once the needs are clear, the parties involved come up with potential strategies and finally choose one which best meets the needs of all involved.

Apart from being applied in conflict transformation, reconciliation, and violence prevention, NVC has also been used in schools, companies, psychotherapy, communities, NGOs, public institutions, and other settings to:

• Increase compassion and understanding for oneself and others,
• Heal wounds of past violence, increase trust and create safe spaces to share experiences,
• Create connections, community and a sense of interconnectedness,
• Become more confident and skilful to address conflicts and a positive attitude towards conflict (including seeing benefits of conflicts),
• Understand feelings, needs and reasons for tensions and conflicts, as well as uniting needs underneath diverging or counterproductive strategies,
• Become aware of choices and gain a sense of self-efficacy and responsibility;
• Liberate and empower oneself and free oneself from judgements and social pressure.