Non-Violent Communication (abbreviated NVC) is also called Compassionate Communication or Collaborative Communication.   It’s an approach to nonviolent living developed by Marshall Rosenberg beginning in the 1960s.   NVC is based on the assumption that all human beings have capacity for compassion and empathy and that people only resort to violence or behavior harmful to others when they do not recognize more effective strategies for meeting needs.  NVC theory supposes that all human behavior stems from attempts to meet universal human needs, and that these needs are never in conflict; rather, conflict arises when strategies for meeting needs clash.

NVC proposes that people should identify shared needs, which are revealed by the thoughts and feelings surrounding these needs, and then they should collaborate to develop strategies and make requests of each other to meet each other’s needs. The goal is interpersonal harmony and learning for future cooperation.

It is a process of interpersonal communication designed to improve compassionate connection to others. Practitioners also emphasise that it can have many beneficial “side effects” as a spiritual practice, as a set of values, as parenting best practices, as a tool for social change, as a mediation tool, as an educational orientation, and as a worldview.