Connecting With Your Teen
A 6-week Nonviolent Communication (NVC) journey designed to soften conflict, nurture self-compassion, and rebuild genuine intimacy during the pre-teen years.
Behind every anger, door slam, or eye-roll, there is an unmet need longing to be heard.
Nonviolent Communication teaches us how to truly listen—to ourselves and to our teens.
Why Grades 6th – 8th Matter
The middle school transition is one of the most intense and tender periods of human development. Overnight, childhood rhythms shift toward an urgent yearning for autonomy, privacy, and identity. For parents, this can feel disorienting—a sudden wall of closed bedroom doors, one-word replies, eye-rolls, and unexpected emotional weather.
In response, we often lean instinctively on lectures, questions, or demands—only to find ourselves caught in defensive friction.
Nonviolent Communication (NVC) offers an alternative path: not a technique to "manage" your child, but a grounded, heart-centered language to understand what is stirring beneath their behavior, de-escalate tension, and stay in genuine, reciprocal connection.
Pillars of Mindful Parenting
Practical, compassionate capacities you will develop across the seven sessions.
Beyond Judgments
Notice habitual criticism and lecturing. Learn how to pause and pivot toward your own grounded presence and real inner needs.
Honest Expression
Express boundaries, values, and concerns with clean vulnerability rather than authoritarian threats or guilt.
Empathetic Listening
Decode what lies behind strong reactions, withdrawal, and mood swings without taking their behavior personally.
Conflict as Connection
Transform daily friction—around screens, homework, and routines—into unexpected portals for mutual understanding.
The Grace of "No"
Learn how to set calm, steadfast boundaries, and how to receive your teen’s resistance as an expression of their emerging autonomy.
Deep Self-Compassion
Release parental shame and self-blame. Replenish your own inner reservoir so you can respond with spaciousness.
The 6-Week Curriculum
Each 2-hour Monday session blends grounding mindfulness, live demonstration, and real-life scenario practice.
De-escalating Judgments & Reclaiming Self-Connection
Transitioning from the “Jackal” habit (blame, lectures, fixing) to “Giraffe” consciousness (compassion, connection). Understanding the universal human needs of early adolescence, shifting away from accusation, and discovering the vital difference between a core Need and a specific Strategy.
Self-Empathy: Calming the Storm Within
What does it mean to offer ourselves empathy when feeling triggered, tired, or rejected? Transforming parent guilt and shame into self-compassion, and discovering mindful anchoring tools before opening a difficult dialogue.
The 4-Step NVC Framework for Young Teens
Unpacking Marshall Rosenberg’s landmark communication model with middle school nuance: Observation (facts without evaluation), Feeling (emotions vs. thoughts), Need (universal longings vs. strategies), and Request (clear invitations vs. coercive demands).
Empathy in the Midst of Conflict
How to remain emotionally regulated and connected when our teen pushes our deepest buttons or abruptly shuts down. Cultivating curious empathy for their inner world without taking their defensiveness to heart.
Authentic Expression & Deepening Closeness
Sharing what is truly alive in us as parents—our hopes, vulnerabilities, and limits—in a way that invites our teen in rather than pushing them into rebellion or distance.
Making Actionable Requests & Navigating "No"
Formulating concrete, positive requests that honor teen agency. Learning how to hear their "no" without anxiety or anger, and how to hold firm parental boundaries with warm, unwavering connection.
Begin the Shift at Home
Give yourself and your teen the lifelong gift of feeling genuinely understood. Spaces are intentionally kept limited to ensure depth, safety, and personal guidance.
Schedule: Mondays | 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM (6 Weeks)
Audience: Parents of 6th–8th Graders togehter with the child
Format: Interactive group workshops & live practice
Have questions about the course? Reach out to Betty.keren1@gmail.com anytime.
About the Instructors
TBD: Galit Arad-Trutner is an experienced psychotherapist, Internal Family Systems (IFS) teacher with the IFS Institute, and founder of Compassionate Ways. She specializes in supporting parents and individuals in healing protective inner patterns, cultivating deep self-compassion, and developing greater clarity and connection in their relationships.
Galit is also a mother of two children. Galit brings extensive experience in teaching compassionate communication and supporting healthier connections between parents and teenagers.
Betty Keren is a mindfulness teacher (trained at Mindfulness Northwest), NVC teacher in training, and guide in compassion-based practices and inner child healing. She integrates mindfulness, self-compassion, and Nonviolent Communication to support people in cultivating greater presence, resilience, and deeper connection with themselves and others. Betty is also a mother of three children and holds both a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Engineering. She works in Microsoft as a Senior Product Manager.