Pat Bevan

Want to go?

• What: Speaking Peace, a workshop on nonviolent communication
• When: 7 to 9:30 p.m. Thursdays, March 20 to April 10
• Where: Good Shepherd Church of the Brethren, 950 Heather Drive, Blacksburg
• Information: Pat Bevan, 552-8681

For years, Pat Bevan has wanted to share the new language she learned, a language created by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg and introduced in his 2003 book, "Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life."

Now, Bevan thinks the time has come.

"I've been interested in nonviolent communication for about six years," the Blacksburg woman said. "After the Virginia Tech shootings, I wanted to offer an alternative way for people to communicate with each other ... as a way to prevent this kind of violence."

So Bevan -- with the support of Blacksburg's Good Shepherd Church of the Brethren -- is offering a series of workshops based on Rosenberg's extensive work in peacemaking that emerged in the early 1960s from his civil rights activism. During that time, he provided mediation and communication training to communities wrestling with desegregation.

While the workshops were planned in response to the April 16 shootings, Bevan said her hope is to get people thinking about how to prevent future violence rather than reacting to it when it happens.

"Very few things I have seen address how we deal with each other on a day-to-day basis," she said, explaining that Rosenberg's teachings challenge the traditional social norms that people use in conflict resolution.

"I have to be right. I have to win. That's the way almost everyone is brought up to communicate," Bevan noted. "Rosenberg believes there's another way to do it besides judging and classifying people."

In fact, Rosenberg, who founded and continues to direct educational services for the nonprofit international Center for Nonviolent Communication in Albuquerque, N.M., has been compared to Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in his vision for world peace. After growing up in what he described as "a turbulent Detroit neighborhood," Rosenberg's interest in conflict resolution was aroused. Holding a doctorate in clinical psychology in 1961, he began to focus on how new forms of communication could provide peaceful alternatives to the kind of violence he encountered in his youth.

Empathy -- a quality Rosenberg defines as "emptying the mind and listening with the whole being" -- is a key part of the psychologist's method.

"In relating to others," he wrote, "empathy occurs only when we have successfully shed all preconceived ideas and judgments about them."

Bevan, who said she was energized after reading Rosenberg's work, went on to complete an audio training program available on nine compact discs.

Bevan plans to draw from practical exercises and role-playing activities Rosenberg has outlined in his texts. The goal is to help people learn how to practice compassionate and empathetic speaking and listening.

While Good Shepherd Church of the Brethren is sponsoring the event, Bevan said it is open to all.

"We don't want anybody to think you have to be Christian or even religious to come to this," she said. "If enough of the community is interested, we want to continue to provide it."

Bevan said the training begins Thursday and continues each Thursday through April 10. There is no cost to participate and registration is not required.

"We know this is just a start. Blacksburg is a big place," Bevan said. "We have no idea how many people are going to come. Even if people can't come for all four weeks, they can come as often as they like."

"We want anyone to feel welcome," she added. "We're very excited about it."