| Foreword | p. xiii |
| Acknowledgments | p. xvii |
| Giving From the Heart | p. 1 |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| A Way to Focus Attention | p. 3 |
| The NVC Process | p. 6 |
| Applying NVC in Our Lives and the World | p. 8 |
| NVC in Action: "Murderer, Assassin, Child-Killer!" | p. 13 |
| Communication That Blocks Compassion | p. 15 |
| Moralistic Judgments | p. 15 |
| Making Comparisons | p. 18 |
| Denial of Responsibility | p. 19 |
| Other Forms of Life-Alienating Communication | p. 22 |
| Observing Without Evaluating | p. 25 |
| The Highest Form of Human Intelligence | p. 28 |
| Distinguishing Observations From Evaluations | p. 30 |
| NVC in Action: "The Most Arrogant Speaker We've Ever Had!" | p. 32 |
| Observation or Evaluation? | p. 34 |
| Identifying and Expressing Feelings | p. 37 |
| The Heavy Cost of Unexpressed Feelings | p. 37 |
| Feelings versus Non-Feelings | p. 41 |
| Building a Vocabulary for Feelings | p. 43 |
| Expressing Feelings | p. 47 |
| Taking Responsibility for Our Feelings | p. 49 |
| Hearing a Negative Message: Four Options | p. 49 |
| The Needs at the Roots of Feelings | p. 52 |
| The Pain of Expressing Our Needs versus the Pain of Not Expressing Our Needs | p. 55 |
| From Emotional Slavery to Emotional Liberation | p. 57 |
| NVC in Action: "Bring Back the Stigma of Illegitimacy!" | p. 61 |
| Acknowledging Needs | p. 65 |
| Requesting That Which Would Enrich Life | p. 67 |
| Using Positive Action Language | p. 67 |
| Making Requests Consciously | p. 72 |
| Asking for a Reflection | p. 74 |
| Requesting Honesty | p. 76 |
| Making Requests of a Group | p. 77 |
| Requests versus Demands | p. 79 |
| Denning Our Objective When Making Requests | p. 81 |
| NVC in Action: Sharing Fears About a Best Friend's Smoking | p. 85 |
| Expressing Requests | p. 88 |
| Receiving Empathically | p. 91 |
| Presence: Don't Just Do Something, Stand There | p. 91 |
| Listening for Feelings and Needs | p. 94 |
| Paraphrasing | p. 96 |
| Sustaining Empathy | p. 101 |
| When Pain Blocks Our Ability to Empathize | p. 103 |
| NVC in Action: A Wife Connects With Her Dying Husband | p. 105 |
| Receiving Empathically versus Non-Empathically | p. 109 |
| The Power of Empathy | p. 113 |
| Empathy That Heals | p. 113 |
| Empathy and the Ability to Be Vulnerable | p. 115 |
| Using Empathy to Defuse Danger | p. 117 |
| Empathy in Hearing Someone's "No!" | p. 120 |
| Empathy to Revive a Lifeless Conversation | p. 121 |
| Empathy for Silence | p. 123 |
| Connecting Compassionately With Ourselves | p. 129 |
| Remembering the Specialness of What We Are | p. 129 |
| Evaluating Ourselves When We've Been Less Than Perfect | p. 130 |
| Translating Self-Judgments and Inner Demands | p. 132 |
| NVC Mourning | p. 132 |
| Self-Forgiveness | p. 133 |
| The Lesson of the Polka-Dotted Suit | p. 134 |
| Don't Do Anything That Isn't Play! | p. 135 |
| Translating "Have to" to "Choose to" | p. 136 |
| Cultivating Awareness of the Energy Behind Our Actions | p. 138 |
| Expressing Anger Fully | p. 141 |
| Distinguishing Stimulus From Cause | p. 141 |
| All Anger Has a Life-Serving Core | p. 144 |
| Stimulus versus Cause: Practical Implications | p. 145 |
| Four Steps to Expressing Anger | p. 148 |
| Offering Empathy First | p. 149 |
| Taking Our Time | p. 152 |
| NVC in Action: Parent and Teen Dialogue A Life-Threatening Issue | p. 154 |
| Conflict Resolution and Mediation | p. 161 |
| Human Connection | p. 161 |
| NVC Conflict Resolution versus Traditional Mediation | p. 162 |
| NVC Conflict Resolution Steps-A Quick Overview | p. 164 |
| On Needs, Strategies, and Analysis | p. 165 |
| Empathy to Ease the Pain That Prevents Hearing | p. 170 |
| Using Present and Positive Action Language to Resolve Conflict | p. 172 |
| Using Action Verbs | p. 173 |
| Translating "No" | p. 174 |
| NVC and the Mediator Role | p. 175 |
| When People Say "No" to Meeting Face to Face | p. 181 |
| Informal Mediation: Sticking Our Nose in Other People's Business | p. 182 |
| The Protective Use of Force | p. 185 |
| When the Use of Force Is Unavoidable | p. 185 |
| The Thinking Behind the Use of Force | p. 185 |
| Types of Punitive Force | p. 186 |
| The Costs of Punishment | p. 188 |
| Two Questions That Reveal the Limitations of Punishment | p. 189 |
| The Protective Use of Force in Schools | p. 190 |
| Liberating Ourselves and Counseling Others | p. 195 |
| Freeing Ourselves From Old Programming | p. 195 |
| Resolving Internal Conflicts | p. 196 |
| Caring for Our Inner Environment | p. 197 |
| Replacing Diagnosis With NVC | p. 199 |
| NVC in Action: Dealing With Resentment and Self-Judgment | p. 204 |
| Expressing Appreciation in Nonviolent Communication | p. 209 |
| The Intention Behind the Appreciation | p. 209 |
| The Three Components of Appreciation | p. 210 |
| Receiving Appreciation | p. 212 |
| The Hunger for Appreciation | p. 214 |
| Overcoming the Reluctance to Express Appreciation | p. 215 |
| Epilogue | p. 217 |
| Bibliography | p. 220 |
| Index | p. 223 |
| The Four-Part Nonviolent Communication Process | p. 231 |
| Some Basic Feelings and Needs We All Have | p. 232 |
| About Nonviolent Communication | p. 233 |
| About PuddleDancer Press | p. 234 |
| About the Center for Nonviolent Communication | p. 235 |
| Trade Books From PuddleDancer Press | p. 236 |
| Trade Booklets From PuddleDancer Press | p. 242 |
| About the Author | p. 244 |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
