Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025, 19 August | Event in San Francisco | AllEvents

Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025

Newt Bailey & Leeza Pesenson

Highlights

Tue, 19 Aug, 2025 at 07:00 pm

2 hours

Zen Center Conference Room

Starting at USD 25

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Date & Location

Tue, 19 Aug, 2025 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm (GMT-07:00)

Zen Center Conference Room

308 Page St, San Francisco, United States

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About the event

Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025
Please join us for a fun and interactive drop-in class at the Communication Dojo to improve your communication skills!

About this Event
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When?

​​

​​Tuesday, Sept 2nd 2025, 7pm - 9pm (Pacific Time)

Weekly drop-in class


Cost

$40 - $25 sliding scale.

​This means we'd love to receive $40 for the sustainability of Communication Dojo. We've also provided an early bird price $25 if you register a day in advance. We use Eventbrite for registration, so there is an small admin fee.

​If the price is an obstacle for you please let us know as we can sometimes offer discounts.


Where?

SF Zen Center Conference Rooms

308 Page Street, San Francisco


Today's Topic

Aug 19th 2025 - Inner Critic & Inner Conflict - Your inner critic is a friend with a communication problem. It's wise not to take what it says as literal truth, but it's important that you get the useful message it's trying to give. If you don't get the message the inner critic tends to persist, and even to ramp up the signal, leading to a state of internal conflict. Internal conflict often leads to more external conflict with others, and that can lead to even more inner criticism. Let's all get out of that destructive cycle, and replace it with the new, constructive cycle of "Mourn, Celebrate, Learn."



Upcoming Topics

​Registration through Eventbrite for:

Aug 26th 2025 - Connected Conversation Process -

This process is:- An immediately useful process for tough conversations with another person who's also willing to give the process a try- A tool for instantly building listening skill- A communication "container" that gives you a place to practice your new skills and awareness as you learn- A "touchstone" class in our 14-week rotation at the Communication Dojo drop-ins - a chance to practice skills from other weeks you've attended.

Sep 2nd 2025 - Listening with Empathy compared with other Common Communication Choices - There are many ways we respond that do not give the person speaking the experience of being heard. We'll look at these common communication choices and discuss when they're useful, when they're not, and how to respond to others when they do things like giving advice, telling their own story or expressing their opinions when all you want is to be heard and understood.

A Participant Shares

"Nonviolent communication (or Connected Communication) has helped me and my partner speak in a much more conscious and effective way. It was a perfect transition and supplement to our prior couples therapy. It helps in every way, at work, with friends, with family, etc. I can't recommend these classes and Newt as a teacher enough. I wish we all had to take NVC classes in school, it would change the world." ~ Elise H., San Francisco



Class Description

JOIN US AT THE COMMUNICATION DOJO FOR THIS WEEKLY OPPORTUNITY TO IMMERSE YOURSELF IN NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION AND TO WORK ON REAL CHALLENGES FROM YOUR LIFE

Changing how you communicate means changing habits, developing new skills, strengthening existing skills, and finding new ways to understand your thoughts and actions, and those of the other people in your life. As you gain greater proficiency and mastery you find that situations that used to trouble you greatly now seem surprisingly easy to navigate, and situations you would previously have avoided completely now fall within your capacity to handle.


The Communication Dojo provides an excellent environment to bring about this change with a combination of:- Study- Practice- Community- Your commitment to a more joyful life

We don't just want you to understand the skills, we want you to be able to access them when you most need them...

Whether you’re already a student of Nonviolent Communication or not, we all know that in moments of anger, upset, sadness, fear or frustration there's a much increased chance of us falling back on what Marshall Rosenberg called "Jackal" communication - the kind of communication that leads to disconnection and conflict - communication that takes your time and energy but does not give much in return.

Your body probably tries to give you instant feedback when this happens - even before you get to the bigger signals like hot face, tight stomach, tensed muscles, increasing loudness of speech. The momentum of defense and counter-attack, shut down or flee, can easily take over - but what if you get more quickly tuned in to the signals your body is giving. What if you start listening more to what your body is saying, and including your body, its signals and its movement in a kinesthetic approach to Nonviolent Communication?

You'll discover how play, movement and bodily gestures can all accelerate the sense of "getting NVC in your bones." Our aim is that you'll develop greater bodily awareness, and respond more quickly to steer yourself in the direction of connected communication any time you start to veer in a less useful direction.

As soon as you concern yourself with the 'good' and 'bad' of your fellows, you create an opening in your heart for maliciousness to enter. Testing, competing with, and criticizing others weaken and defeat you.--- Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido

Some features of the Communication Dojo practice environment:

  • Chances to use your real-life situations to guide experiential learning
  • Efficient use of group time to maximize learning
  • High proportion of time used for small group discussion and practice in pairs - learning communication by communicating.
  • Minimal "jargon" i.e. language that might be confusing or alienating for those not familiar with NVC.
  • Little likelihood of people developing any sense of "Doing it wrong" or "Trying to do it right."
  • Mixture of experience levels deepens practice and learning

Bring your real situations to the dojo



Who’s it for?

​Experienced with NVC? - Do you sometimes find that your attempts to use NVC do not lead to the connection you want? Perhaps they even lead to greater disconnection? Or are you looking for a different kind of NVC learning environment for friends, family members, or colleagues you really want to introduce to the power and potential of NVC.

New to NVC? - Come try out the Communication Dojo. You'll find that whatever your current approach to communication, you can start from that point and expand your range of options from there at a rate that suits you.



Topic Rotation

We rotate through 14 topics, and add a bonus topic every 8 weeks.

Every class is a drop-in, so there's no beginning point or end point to the topic rotation.

You can drop in any week. Each class is designed to stand alone.

​If you'd like to know which topic is coming next, and the dates of the following 4 to 8 weeks of classes, please subscribe to the weekly reminder email. This will simultaneously subscribe you to our monthly newsletter.



Extra Resources to Support Learning and Integration

​Here you'll find links to handouts, videos and other resources:

https://www.communicationdojo.com/resource-page


Also check out other Workshops in San Francisco, Business events in San Francisco, Conferences in San Francisco.

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Ticket Info

Tickets for Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025 can be booked here.

Ticket type Ticket price
Early Bird 25 USD
General Admission $30 30 USD
General Admission $35 35 USD
General Admission $40 40 USD
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Zen Center Conference Room, 308 Page St, San Francisco, United States
Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025, 19 August | Event in San Francisco | AllEvents
Communication Dojo IN-PERSON Tuesday Drop-In Class - Aug 19th, 2025
Tue, 19 Aug, 2025 at 07:00 pm
USD 25