Allan Rohlfs has been connected with Marshall Rosenberg and Nonviolent Communication since 1972, “even before Marshall called it NVC,” he says. “As soon as I took my first workshop in March 1973, I began teaching (passing along) what I knew. Fifty plus years later, I still do.”
“I’d like all trainers to know empathic listening as I know it, and as it differs from NVC empathy,” Allan writes, “so they know when to do what, to be the most helpful. I’d also like all trainers to know the interaction between experiencing and speaking because this will influence all teaching and helping, increasing everyone’s effectiveness, I believe, whether new or experienced. What I’d like is for every trainer who’s interested to send me a recording of themselves when they are empathizing with another, along with a transcript of at least ten minutes of that recording. I’d then like to give my feedback regarding what I know as a focusing-oriented and client-centered therapist about what responses are most helpful, or give suggestions about what I believe to be more helpful — what I mean by empathic listening.”
“I’d like to pass along what I know to trainers as well as to learn what other trainers know, whether new or experienced. Such knowing is immensely valuable as Marshall himself opened many trainer meetings over my forty years with him by saying, What is this, NVC? How do you describe it? I’ve been trying to understand it and say what it is.”
