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International Intensive Trainings

IMMERSE YOURSELF IN THE LANGUAGE OF NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION (NVC)

Residential retreat open to all levels — beginner to advanced.

You'll be immersed in a community of people learning, practicing, and applying Nonviolent Communication from the moment you sign up.

Each of our IITs are hosted in different countries and languages in effort to expand our reach for all who wish to experience the depth of NVC and connect with a growing community of passionate learners and practitioners.

DESTINATION: NVC IMMERSION

Since 1994, CNVC has sponsored more than 240 intensive trainings. More than 13,000 people have already experienced the profound change that our retreats offer.

CNVC‘s signature International Intensive Trainings, also known as IITs, allow you to participate in a living, learning laboratory. Like learning and practicing a new language, fully immersing yourself is a great way to gain new skills that you can apply right away in your relationships, workplace, and in your community. Beautiful locations and camaraderie — a retreat sure to inspire!

UPCOMING trainings

See all trainings on a map

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BEING PLANNED

  • India
    (Begins 06-Feb-2025)
  • United States (CA)
    (Begins 28-Feb-2025)
  • Germany (North)
    (Begins 23-May-2025)
  • Canada
    (Begins 20-Jun-2025)
  • Vietnam
    (Begins 30-Aug-2025)
  • Germany (South)
    (Begins 12-Sep-2025)
Past IITs

THE 3 MAIN GOALS OF CNVC'S INTERNATIONAL INTENSIVE TRAINING (IIT)

The purpose of this intensive training is to give you the opportunity to live the process of Nonviolent Communication in community over an extended period of time, in order to develop the mindsets and practical tools to help you in three areas:

  • Personal and Professional Relationships

    • Increase connection and closeness with the people you love.
    • Speak in a way that inspires compassion and understanding.
    • Initiate difficult conversations with more ease and confidence.
    • Remain centered and peaceful when receiving difficult messages.
    • Express and receive anger fully, safely and respectfully... yet powerfully.
    • Resolve long-standing conflicts and heal painful relationships.
    • Parent children from the heart and move beyond power struggles into cooperation.
    • Translate criticism, judgments and blame into life-serving messages.

  • Inner Transformation

    • Shift patterns of thinking that lead to depression, guilt and shame and that perpetuate pain.
    • Transform anger into self-understanding, thereby increasing inner peace.
    • Enliven yourself by expressing and receiving gratitude.
    • Learn to embody unconditional love.

  • Contribution to others and Social Change

    • Share NVC in ways that transmit and model its power to transform and inspire others.
    • Create educational systems where students love learning and teachers love teaching.
    • Learn to engage in effective, lasting nonviolent social change in the tradition of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • Facilitate meetings and support group decision making in a power-sharing, collaborative, and consensus-based ways.
    • Support holistic and human-based workplaces.
    • Engage with others at work and in the community to foster openness, trust and authenticity.
    • Support mutual understanding and connection when working in colonized countries.
    • Foster restoration and harmony by mediating conflicts and helping to resolve differences among others.
While we will prioritize these three areas in the curriculum, there is also room for co-creation. There will be opportunities for you to request specific topics and applications to support you in living and sharing NVC at work, home, and in the community as well as internally in how you relate to yourself.

Are you interested, but have some more questions? Visit our FAQ Page for more information about our Intensive Trainings. If you would like to see an approximate daily schedule, click here.

Visit our FAQ Page

Testimonials of IIT participants

  • I learned so much and loved the people and location. I feel so much more grounded than before I left. To be with people who cared about my needs and feelings for 9 days was very healing for me. I made incredible friendships and understand my own feelings and needs now. As a result, I can understand another person's feelings and needs as well. I learned valuable information all of the trainers and did a lot of grounding exercises.

    - Michelle Livote,  L.A. IIT, June 2022

  • I love that at the heart, this was about self-work. Did I get strategies to bring to my students and family? Yes, of course. But as we all know, the real work starts within, and parts of me burst open and allowed healing, with the most loving support from teachers and peers that I could ever ask for. It was truly an instant beloved community. And as a relative newbie, it has cemented the understanding that this community and these values and practices are needed in my life moving forward. 

    - Kailyn Fullerton from Canada/Indonesia, Bali IIT October 2023

  • The well conceived design of the IIT - from morning remembering to post dinner impromptu sessions...  leaves us with a deep sense of our needs for human connection and love for humanity. It leaves us feeling empowered and joyful to practice the learning in real life.

    - Rajiv Thanawala from India, India IIT February 2024

  • There's a lot to learn in specific training sessions, but I realized what I love the most about IIT is the context for learning it created. I value the diversity of the community with so many people that I can learn from, not just trainers. The format of a residential training created a flexible context for learning outside classrooms. The NVC consciousness was highlighted and reminded consistently every day, which kept the focus on observing and gently welcoming new experiences and learnings, instead of stucking in habitual reaction patterns. 

    - Van Trang Nguyen from Vietnam, India IIT February 2024

  • The IIT content was relevant to everyday life and relationships and the role playing/interactive portions were powerful. Overall, this event was deeply awakening, connecting, and transformational.

    - Dawn Deguire from Canada after Bali IIT in October 2023

    Cancellation Policy

    You wanted to attend this event, paid for it, and then something changed in your situation. That is when this Cancellation and Refund Policy becomes important!
    We value flexibility and understand that “life happens” and sometimes people need to change their plans. At the same time, we want to acknowledge the financial commitments and other plans made by CNVC, the Organizer, and the venue.

    We have established the below policy to take into account all of these needs:


    A. If we cancel:

    You receive a 100% refund of all tuition and/or room and board payments (alternatively, if you wish, you can apply your money to another CNVC intensive training within 2 years).

    B. If you cancel:

    Tuition

    30 days or more before the start date, you have two options:

    1. Transfer 100% of your payment to a future CNVC intensive training within 2 years (starting the date you canceled); or
    2. Receive a refund on tuition fee minus a nonrefundable 10% cancellation fee

    Between 30 days and 4 days before the IIT start date you have two options:

    1. Transfer 75% of your tuition payment to a future CNVC training within 2 years (starting the date you canceled) - we retain 25%; or
    2. Receive a 50% refund of your tuition (we retain 50%).

    From 3 days before the IIT start date, no refunds and transfers are available.

    You will notice that the closer to the start date, the lower your refund.  This is to acknowledge the financial commitments that CNVC makes in the planning process. E.g. We are often required to pay for a venue, whether or not you show up. We also put considerable human resources into the organization of an IIT and some of these costs are not recoverable.

    Since last minute cancellations are mostly because of an injury or a health issue, we recommend that participants take their own insurance to cover these cases.

    Refunds will be issued within 10 business days after you cancel.

    Room and Board

    Refund of the hotel costs for food and lodging is dependent upon the unique contractual factors with the venue. Please contact the Local Organizer for details.

    Discount Policy

    Note: these discounts only apply to tuition payments (not to room & board or other expenses)

    10% if you participated in (and paid tuition for) a previous Intensive Training with the Center for Nonviolent Communication 

    10% if you have been, or will have been, a Supporting Member of CNVC for 6 months or more before the first day of the IIT

    15% if you are a Certification Candidate registered with CNVC. The discount applies only to people who are officially registered candidates.

    If you are not sure if you are officially registered as a Certification Candidate, email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you're not registered yet, ask your Assessor if it might be possible for you to become registered before the IIT.

    If you are not registered as a candidate at the time of payment, you can pay the full price without this discount, and if you become a registered certification candidate by the start date of the IIT, we will refund you the difference (the 15% discount amount).

    25% if you are an active Trainer certified with CNVC

    The discount applies only to active Certified Trainers. "Active" means that in the last year, you have completed the renewal steps including filling out the Annual Trainer Survey, making an Annual Trainer Contribution, and signing the Trainer Agreement if applicable (if it has been updated).

    Note, that there is also a limited number of tuition-free spaces available for Certified Trainers, granted by a committee. For more information, visit this page.

    Financial Assistance

    Financial Assistance for International Intensive Trainings

    We realize that life situations make it difficult for some people to raise enough funds to participate in one of our intensive trainings. If this is the case for you, we strongly encourage you to to ask for financial assistance, and we will do our best to support you to participate in this IIT.

    Since money can be a loaded topic in our world, for many people asking for financial support is challenging and uncomfortable. If you are inspired to attend an IIT, we invite you to join us in a mutual process to explore possibilities.

    HOW IT WORKS:

    After applying the available discounts, if you are not able to afford the tuition, you can request financial assistance to further reduce your tuition fee.  (Note: We do not offer assistance for Room and Board, which is a direct expense for the venue). We have a limited amount of financial assistance available and we prioritize people who meet one or more of the following criteria:

    1. Actively collaborating with others in the NVC network.
    2. Can use what they learn in this training to make an impact such as in education, government, environmental sustainability, equity and inclusion, or with an NGO or community-based organization.
    3. From a region that has fewer in-person NVC trainings.
    4. Part of an economic system that offers less access to financial resources.
    5. Come from a disadvantaged group (race, ethnicity, origin, religion, gender identity, class).
    6. Willing to search for other sources of financial support such as their workplace, family, or organizations they are involved in (in order to be in partnership with us about finding the resources to host this training while including as many people as possible).

    Instructions for how to request financial assistance will be provided after you submit the IIT pre-registration form.

    Agreements

    We are happy that you will participate in a 9-day Nonviolent Communication training – the International Intensive Training (IIT) sponsored by the Center for Nonviolent Communication (CNVC).

    In order to create an environment that is supportive and that offers predictability -- and supports you in making choices for your wellbeing -- we ask you to make a series of agreements.

    1. If I complete this training, I will receive a Certificate of Completion, which is different from being authorized or certified as an official trainer of the CNVC. If I share NVC, unless I am already a Certified CNVC trainer, I agree to present myself as a student, supporter, or candidate for certification (if I am a registered candidate for certification) rather than as a CNVC Certified Trainer. Also, I agree to follow the “Guidelines for Sharing NVC for Individuals who are not Certified Trainers.”

    2. All materials that I will receive are the property of the Trainers who created them. I agree to use these materials only for my personal use -- and refrain from copying or sharing with others -- unless I receive explicit consent from the creators.

    3. I understand that while this training might be healing and therapeutic in nature, it is not a substitute for mental health therapy or psychiatric care.

    4. I am responsible for my own behavior the entire time I participate in this event. I understand that some activities could be mentally and emotionally challenging. My level of participation in the activities is entirely my choice, and I can modify or end my participation at any time.

    5. I agree to follow the COVID regulations as established by the country or municipality where this IIT will take place. I will follow these regulations and not avoid any of them, and at the same time, I will not expect any additional regulations above and beyond what is required by the country or municipality.

    6. If I contract an illness from a virus or other pathogen during this training, I am responsible for the costs of medical care and any other related costs such as changing travel arrangements. I will exercise consideration for others when it comes to contagious illnesses and reach out to the organizer to decide on any actions.

    7. Since the program is a closed event and only registered participants are allowed to participate in the sessions, I agree not to bring or invite to the sessions anyone who is not registered. If there are areas or spaces designated for participants of this event, like conference areas or dining areas, I agree not to bring or invite anyone who is not a registered participant to these spaces.

    8. I agree to the Photo & Video Agreement which ensures me choice and gives the right to CNVC to gather photos and videos, celebrate, and for YOU to have memories. 

    See the location of upcoming trainings