Amongst other things Marshall Rosenberg is known as the creator of Non Violent Communication, also known as the giraff language. Marshall Rosenberg was born on the 6th of october 1934 in Ohio, USA. His parents, Jean and Fred, were of jewish heritage.
His family moved to Detroit in 1943, a week before the so called Racial riots in the same city. 1961 he graduated with a degree in clinical psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Centre for Non violent communication
He founded the centre were the giraff language or nonviolent communication was created in the beginning of the 1960:s. Right before this Marshall Rosenberg was working with teaching skills in meditation and communication in schools. This was done with the purpose of decreasing segregation in the schools.
Since 1968 this man has written around ten books in the field of relationships, communication and mutual understanding. He has also received a number of international awards for his work.
How Marshall Rosenberg was inspired
It is said that Marshall was inspired by his cooperation with professor Carl Rogers with amongst other things made him study people who were succesful in their communication and thus in their relationships. He found that a core quality in well functioning communication is empathy with oneself and others.
Non violent communication originally grew out of Dr Rosenbergs search for finding a way to quickly create much needed skills to promote and create peace.
The spreading of Marshall Rosenbergs work today
Non violent communication today has spread across the whole world and is now taught in for example Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Malaysia, India, United Kingdom, Holland, France and Canada, apart from in the USA. It is used both for leadership development and in many other circumstances.
Peace activists have used his work in areas of war and conflict such as Israel, Palestine, Ireland, Russia, Croatia, Serbia, Burundi, Nigeria and Rwanda.
Nowadays Marshall Rosenberg lives in Albaquerque, New Mexico, where the Centre of Non Violent Communication has also moved.
