Living NVC Camp – 7 day camp

Update 26/6/22 – the camp is now fully booked. However you can still submit a booking form and we will keep a waiting list in case we have any last minute cancellations.

Are you looking for deeper connections with others, a chance to be in community, to begin or to deepen your NVC learning in a real-life but still supported situation, to have time away from your everyday life to breathe, explore and grow? This camp can be a space for all this and more.
Celebrating flexibility and diversity, we offer three options – something to suit everyone, we hope!
1. a 7-day camp, from Friday evening July 15th to Friday noon July 22nd (booking form below)
2. a 5-day camp for people with previous experience of NVC who cannot attend the whole week, from Sunday evening July 17th to Friday noon July 22nd
3. a weekend camp (Friday evening July 15th to Sunday evening July 17th) for those with limited time, with the option of joining a residential NVC Foundation training. This training, led by CNVC certified trainer Clare Palmer, will give you all the basic tools and principles of NVC.

Starting with an introductory weekend will offer the chance for those of us staying for the whole week to refresh and deepen our awareness of feelings and needs, which we think will be a bonus for the rest of the camp. However, other activities will also be provided for week-campers who do not want to join the introduction programme.
To foster community integration and cohesion, we aim to avoid any coming and going at other points in the week: so we welcome you to join on Friday evening or Sunday evening, and to leave on Sunday evening or Friday.

This camp is not just about creating and maintaining structures designed to promote connection, learning and growth. Nor do we present NVC as an ‘add-on’ to a conventional camping holiday. Rather, we want to hold an awareness of feelings and needs in our consciousness throughout our time together, as constantly and as deeply as we are able. Supporting that awareness is an intention to be fully present, to see and to think clearly, free from assumptions and pre-judgments and grounded in compassion.

Arising from that awareness is an ability to more consistently choose actions which resonate with our higher or deeper selves and harmonise with the needs of others. Those needs are not separate from the needs of all other beings we share this life with, nor of our precious Earth itself.

Our conviction is that everything changes when we choose this perspective, whether personal difficulties or global conflicts.

Gatherings as a community, empathy groups, workshop sessions, shared care around our meals and the space, and social times around the fire will all be opportunities to learn, grow and have fun.

Our venue is The Clophill Centre ( www.clophillcentre.co.uk) which is a 14 acre private site with fields, gardens, orchard, woodland, and lots of room to breathe. Indoor facilities include a meeting room, a breakfast/ tea room, and a cosy yurt; semi-outdoor spaces include a roundhouse and a large awning, both with firepits. It’s centrally placed half an hour north of Luton airport and east of Milton Keynes.
You need to bring your own tent or camper van, and bedding. If you don’t have a tent, we may have some to hire, please ask. If you don’t like camping, you can even stay in a nearby B&B and still be part of the camp!

Not just the workshop sessions but the whole camp will be ‘open space’ in the sense that everyone is invited to contribute of their gifts, whether in offering to share learnings and processes or baking cakes or singing songs. The uniqueness of what each of us brings is the substance from which a rich camp experience is created.

Workshops offer a range of opportunities for different participants. Trainers can share both established and newly evolved processes and ideas with a willing audience unconstrained by the normal levels of fees; new and aspiring facilitators can hone their skills in a forgiving and supportive environment; and everyone has the chance to taste a diversity of offerings, including some only indirectly related to mainstream NVC.

Lead trainers on this camp are Clare Palmer, Magiari Diaz Diaz, and Graham Timmins. We have also invited guest presentations by a number of experienced trainers who will visit for an evening or afternoon. So far these include Jo McHale, Alice Sheldon, Ruth Cohen-Rose and Bridget Belgrave (tbc).

All are welcome with or without previous experience of NVC / NbC (Needs-based Communication). The camp is designed to serve the needs both of total newcomers to NVC and of old hands who are ready to dive deeper. We intend to offer a space where people of all backgrounds and life experiences are accepted, have a voice and take part – this includes differences of race, sex,
gender identity, disability, sexuality, educational background and more.

Prices include 7 nights’ camping, all meals, hot drinks, snacks, workshops and gatherings.
Children are welcome to join the camp, but for insurance and liability reasons, no children’s activities or supervised childcare are included as part of the camp framework.

Contact / Any questions:
Clare Palmer clareconnecttolife@gmail.com 07954 385 847 and What’s App
Graham Timmins nbc@therightword.info 0796 792 1311 and Signal or Telegram

Update 4/5/22: We’re very happy with bookings at this stage; we could take a few more participants, but only a few, as we think that a smaller size camp (about 35 people) makes it easier to create community in a short time and to provide the more consistent focus on connection, learning and growth that we’re looking for. At the same time we have realized how helpful it would be for our planning to know at least a month ahead exactly how many are coming. So, both to encourage possible late bookers to make up their minds sooner rather than later and to compensate for the extra adjustments they necessitate, we will increase prices as from June 5th, if we are not sold out by then.
So, for bookings made and paid before June 5th, the 7 day camp is £260, while after that date the price will be £290. (As always, if it would bring you joy to give more, please do so, so that we can offer concessions!)