Empowerment Therapy Program

Upon completion of Level 1 you will know how to:

• cultivate trust in the relationship with your clients.

• transform judgments of clients, when they arise, into unconditional acceptance.

• express yourself more carefully to create safety for your client.

• maintain a full presence during sessions.

• listen empathically to your clients' feelings, needs, and meanings, thus creating a connection.

• forge a partnership with your clients to create something better.

You will be able to help your clients:

• recognize interpretations that exacerbate their suffering.

• connect with, and honor the longing of their hearts.

• connect with natural compassion.

• identify life-alienating systems, their impact on their well-being, and ways to protect themselves.

• ask for what they want in a way that’s more likely to elicit cooperation.

• reduce reactivity and impulsivity and promote self-regulation and self-control and increase equanimity and resilience.

Yes, ET offers us the following tools to enhance emotional well-being and increase satisfaction in relationships:

STABILITY AND EQUILIBRIUM

• The Inner Silence Meditation - A practice to help reduce reactivity and impulsivity, enhance self-regulation, increase self-control, and foster calmness when faced with challenges.

• The Surprising Purpose of Anger - A process to transform anger and meet one’s needs powerfully while protecting relationships (and one’s job!).

• Calm at Last! - A process to transform fear into self-understanding and calmness.

SELF-LOVE

• A process to transform self-judgment into empathy, tenderness and appreciation for self.

• From Guilt and Shame to Self-Understanding and Growth - When your clients do something that is not in harmony with their values, share a process to transform guilt and shame into self-understanding and growth.

SELF-CONFIDENCE

• Understand the origins of self-judgment.

• Recognize the ways in which self-doubt and self-judgment constrain clients’ lives.

• Increase self-understanding and trust in themselves.

• Ask for what they want.

INNER-CONFLICT RESOLUTION

• Integrative Intuitive Choices - When hesitant about what to do in a given situation, use a process to help clients identify solutions that incorporate all of their needs and values.

AUTONOMY

• Increase autonomy and self-determination; learn to break free from demands and say no while protecting connection.

• Identify domination systems; recognize the impact these can have on clients’ mental and physical health; develop strategies to protect their well-being.

MORE SATISFYING RELATIONSHIPS

• Resolve disagreements and conflicts without fighting.

• Find mutually satisfying, long-lasting solutions.

• Express regret in ways that restore trust.

• Increase understanding and connection in clients’ most important relationships.

A MORE FULFILLING LIFE

• Assess and understand difficult situations in the family, at work, and other areas of life based on longings and values, and increase the ability to create better conditions.

View the client’s testimonials here.

Each week, we alternate between conceptual learning and practice.

1) CHECK-IN — We begin each session with a few words from each person sharing how they feel at the moment and the needs that are met or not met.

2) INNER SILENCE MEDITATION — Next, we do a practice designed to promote self-connection—contact with our physical sensations, feelings, needs and natural compassion.

3) COLLABORATIVE LEARNING GROUPS — In these interactive sessions we discuss Empowerment Therapy concepts and applications. You will learn from your peers and contribute to their learning; listen to real life stories; and likely gain new insights.

4) COACHED PRACTICE GROUPS — During these sessions you will be able to do Empowerment work and receive coaching from Myra Walden and other seasoned practitioners. You will discover your strengths and learning edges; and you will witness, and likely be inspired by the power of this work.

5) ANNOUNCEMENTS AND CHECK-OUT — At the end we share matters that pertain to the group and say how we feel and the needs of ours that are met or not met.

There is a maximum of 20 students per group. This allows for all the participants, facilitators, and a tech support person to be visible in one Zoom screen.

We meet on Thursdays at 9:00—10:30 am Central Time.

Find your local time here.

To receive a certificate of completion of Level 1 we require attendance to 50 sessions. Keep track of your attendance including date and topic; once you have fulfilled the requirement, submit a report to the program leaders.

Certified Nonviolent Communication trainers may apply for advanced placement. They could receive a certificate of completion of Level 1 after attending 25 sessions and demonstrating proficiency of the concepts and embodiment of the therapeutic attitudes upon assessment.

The course runs from January to December of every year. However, the program is designed in such a way that you can join at any time.

You will need the book Empowerment Therapy by Myra Walden. Please read Chapters 2-5 —Observations, Feelings, Needs and Requests— when you begin the course. These foundational concepts will help you understand and participate in the discussions.

Yes! You will meet people interested in helping others. As you get to know your colleagues, you can reach out to those you connect with to get together for mutual empathy, companionship, and learning. We are a close-knit community which we hope will help meet your need for belonging.

The program is designed for people who want to help others. If you’re seeking healing and personal growth we recommend the NVC Academy where you will find a myriad of programs for personal and relational development.

The following is our sliding-fee scale.

$40—$20 USD per month

The monthly subscription gives you access to all the weekly sessions.

In order to support our work, please choose the highest amount you can contribute comfortably.

Our fees are low compared to other certification programs of this kind because we want to help develop practitioners whom we hope will bring this powerful work to people who cannot afford support services.

Prior to your first session, write to Myra Walden to schedule a ½ hour orientation meeting: empowermenttherapymw@gmail.com

To help us assess goodness of fit, please answer these questions in your email:

• What attracts you to the program?

• How would you like to use the skills?

• What is your current occupation?

To promote safety and protect flow and cohesiveness, we request the following:

• Arrive promptly. The doors close 10 minutes after the start time.

• Keep your camera on throughout the session.

• Join the breakout groups.

• Stay until the end.

• Let Myra know when you’re going to miss more than two consecutive sessions.

• Remain fully present and engaged throughout the session.

If these requests don’t meet your needs, you will be able to engage in a dialogue with Myra during the orientation meeting.

Yes. There are five foundational concepts that will recur at every session. Understanding them will make your learning experience easier, and you will be able to follow and participate in the discussions. 

1. Observations vs. Evaluations

2. Feelings vs. Thoughts

3. Needs vs. Strategies

4. Requests vs. Demands

5. Empathy (Needs-based empathy)

If at the end of your trial month you decide to stay in the program, we recommend that you buy the book Empowerment Therapy and study the sections above. In addition, it will be helpful for you to print the Inventories and bring them to the sessions.

Fill out the registration form. You will be billed $0.00 for the first month. We invite you to attend the first month at no cost to see if the program meets your needs.

I, Myra Walden, developed the model based on my own experience in therapy with a Client Centered practitioner, Dr. Marge Witty, my never-ending study of the human psyche, and over 30 years practicing psychotherapy in community mental health centers and private practice. In 1998, I started studying Nonviolent Communication and began to incorporate the concepts into my life and therapy practice. In 2021, I codified my experience and developed a coherent therapy model. We will need research to demonstrate its effectiveness, gain credibility and broaden usage in the field.

I was 28 years old. At a gathering of friends, each of us was to answer the question, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?”

Myra: “I see myself divorced.”

Friend: “Myra, but you’re not even dating!”

No, I wasn't dating at the time, but I knew that if I were to get married, no one would put up with my temper for very long. My anger and reactivity were an aftereffect of the many years of severe lack of safety and respect I went through as a teenager that resulted in self-loathing and troubled relationships.

At age 33, I sought psychotherapy and pursued my healing in earnest. The work bore fruit. My beloved late husband of 35 years, Peter, saw me through the angry stage, and we built a relationship of Connection, Closeness, and Communion for which I am forever grateful.

No. It is for mental health professionals and anyone who wants to learn to accompany others in their journey of healing, growth and fulfillment, even if they don’t have a background in mental health.

This approach is grounded on Carl Rogers’ seminal paper The Necessary and Sufficient Conditions of Therapeutic Personality Change. In it, Rogers describes the attitudes necessary to develop a therapeutic relationship. And, as we understand from the research, the most important aspect of therapy is the relationship between the therapist and the client. ET offers comprehensive guidelines to build the therapeutic alliance. At the same time, we are clear about cases when it is important to refer clients to mental health professionals.