An Oasis of Living Nonviolent Communication

    Our multi age, community retreat is returning to the North of England:

An Oasis for Living Nonviolent Communication:

Playing, Sharing, Learning

Saturday 24th - Wednesday 28th August 2019

Burnlaw Centre, Northumberland

The leaders being an excellent example of living and breathing NVC. I needed to see how it was done!

In our gathering , at the heart of all our togetherness,  we choose to hold each of our needs dearly and gently. Our wee gathering of precious beings gives us the opportunity  to create a place of care for one another, a place where regardless of age we can consider the needs of all, whether we are  4 or 64 …..each of us matter. What will you find at our Burnlaw Nonviolent Communication gathering? Situated on the edge of the North Pennines, the community of Burnlaw provides us with a variety of accommodation from camping to a luxury airbnb studio.  A beautiful indoor room for our eating and activities, a wonderful circular temple under canvas for workshops and singing.  There is a large camping field, children's play area, woodland copse, campfire area, outdoor pizza oven and a large river 10 mins drive away which we swam in last year! Last year participants said

Deep gratitude and appreciation for space you created...and possibility for me to be in a temporary community...to live, try out and reflect on my community edges...again...and see them from new perspectives...see and hear new perspectives....experience new and old ways of relating and choosing from different angles... and making decisions and...all of these things and more…

What will the structure of the camp be like? Our intention for the camp is that together we will decide how each day may unfold.  This means hearing the needs and requests from all of our community members including little children, teenagers, single mothers, older folk, those with disabilities …..everyone matters. There will be whole community activities, and spaces for you to create, request and decide how you want to spend your time. We may do some things together or branch off into smaller groups.  The hope is, however, that all of our community members we will be able to hold the needs of the whole group no matter what we choose. There are also ‘the facts’ of living together including community decision making and each of us open to being responsible for contributing to food preparation, cleaning, organising, caring and tending to our space. So….there maybe a move to create a game of rounders, help on a building project at Burnlaw,  to have a discussion around empathy, to play some NVC games together, to run a workshop on anger, to go for a walk, a swim in the river, to do some singing or dancing…… Each day, each moment, new life will emerge where we will be invited to respond to and thus enable us to flow with the energy of our whole community.   We invite you to come and hold our temporary community gently in your hands. Indeed here is an opportunity to live and breath NVC as much as we can in all of our interactions; at mealtimes, in our everyday comings and goings…..and of course, it goes without saying that we will be doing our NVC perfectly imperfectly…..we can all be beautifully inadequate together! But there must be someone in charge? The camp has been organised by some experienced NVCers.  Some of us have attended or been involved in NVC camps, others have held space for groups of all sizes, some are certified trainers….so within the organising team we have the ability to hold the space, help create the support that may be needed, suggest possible ways forward and run some workshops……...however, we all bring gifts with us in so many areas just by being ourselves…..including YOU!!!! Come with an open heart, come with an open mind….come with an intention to connect with your own and the needs of others….come with all of yourself:  your fears and longings; Your anger and joy; your unknowing of what will unfold in our time together…..come to create a community of beauty in all its human guises. Who we are- Sarah Ludford and Shona Cameron both CNVC Certified Trainers and Beth Currie And Sandrine Miesch- both candidates to become Certified Trainers with CNVC- we share a vision for ourselves, our families and the world based on our natural state of giving and receiving. Food We will be paying a cook who will provide us with 3 delicious vegetarian meals per day.  We will do our best to cater for your dietary requirements and hope that we will have food that your kids will enjoy! We will need to help with washing up, setting up for meals and clearing away and sorting out our cups and drinks (thus keeping costs down). Accommodation and costs The basic price includes all food and  camping. The basic price is £230 per adult (camping).Two family members coming together £400 Additional costs for private rooms, bunkhouse etc Children aged 13 - 17  £70 (prices the same as last year) Children 8-12  £40 Children 0-7  £20 There are a handful of beds in a bunkhouse (1 room with 6 beds, 2 rooms with 2 beds, 1 room with 4 beds for £6 per person per night on the top of the basic price  or a private studio for 2 (£17 per person per night on the top of the basic price).  There will also be an opportunity to make a voluntary contribution to support the sustainability of the trainers using gift economy. Costings transparency: The costs above covers the cost of hiring the centre, paying for the food and the cook, camping, paying administration, for the trainers and organisers travel, accommodation, and materials. How we think about money is explored here. What to do now! • Book!   For booking follow the link below. • If you wish to book accommodation alternative to camping please contact Sandrine. • For general enquiries contact Beth

Booking form

We will continue to be in touch with you to start to co-create our time together- including supporting you with transport and hearing your requests