A Guided Global Journey Into Living Compassion
The
Compassion
Course
OnlineTM
with Thom BondChanging Lives for 15 years, in over 120 countries, in 20 languages. Check out our interactive community member globe.
Drag to explore our global community
Your Compassion Journey
Registration opens March 1, 2026. Mark your calendar!
Why The Compassion Course Matters
It Has Been Proven to Work
The course provides the practical “how to” of creating more understanding, empathy, and compassion in our daily lives. The course starts with foundational concepts and practices that help us understand what engenders compassion and what blocks it, and as the year progresses, we work with more advanced practices that help us effectively bring more compassion into our everyday lives.
Be Part of a Growing, Global Community
What began as a weekly email to share the tools of compassionate communication has grown into a vibrant community of tens of thousands around the world. Today, The Compassion Course is available in almost every major populated area on earth, on every side of every conflict, in native languages — a single, universal learning and teaching community.
What You'll Learn
Sample the Course
Get a feel for how each weekly lesson works. Every message includes a concept, a real story, and a practice you can try right away.
What Empathy Is… and What It’s Not
Discover how empathy differs from common listening habits like advising, fixing, or sympathizing. Learn to create space for genuine connection instead of filling it with automatic responses.
A late-night cab ride to retrieve a borrowed car becomes an unexpected lesson in presence — when a simple empathic reflection opens a Vietnam veteran’s long-held grief.
Notice your own non-empathic patterns this week. When you catch yourself advising or fixing, pause and try: “Are you feeling ___ because you need more ___?”
The Power of Appreciation
Explore the difference between praise (designed to control) and genuine appreciation (designed to connect). Learn to express gratitude by naming what someone did and the needs it met.
A small act of kindness for a frightened child on a bookstore escalator turns into one of the most heartfelt “thank you” moments the author has ever experienced.
Write ten things currently happening that meet your needs right now. Then share an appreciation with someone: describe what they did, how it made you feel, and which needs it met.
The Course Includes
Everything you need for a full year of guided learning, practice, and community support.
52 Weekly Messages
A new lesson every Wednesday at noon ET — each one with a concept to learn, a real story that illustrates it, and a practice to integrate into daily life. Over 50 concepts and differentiations covering self-empathy, empathy, anger, beliefs, dialogue, appreciation, and more.
See the first 10 weeks12 Monthly Live Conferences with Thom Bond
Thom, along with guest trainers from around the globe, hosts 12 monthly 90-minute conferences followed by an optional 30-minute practice session via Zoom on the second Monday of each month (120 minutes total). Each session includes review, deeper exploration of the material, and interactive Q&A. Conferences are also hosted in other languages by affiliated course leaders. All sessions are recorded and may be accessed through the Global Compassion Network (our private course community platform).
Meet Thom BondGlobal Compassion Network
The multilingual, multi-cultural connected community where participants connect worldwide — discussion groups, empathy buddies, practice partners, mentors, empathy cafés, and more.
See community options11 monthly Deep-Dive Sessions — Guided by our global leadership
On the fourth Monday of every month, our featured guest trainer offers a specialized deep-dive session on one of the four weekly topics. Participants experience how a single NVC distinction can be applied in radically different contexts — learning moves from "understanding the idea" to "seeing how it lives in the world." This creates consistency of core principles with diversity of lived expression.
What makes this differentOptions & Extras
Practice groups led by CCO facilitators, an optional Certificate of Completion, one-on-one mentoring with alumni, and an Empathy Program, including Empathy Cafes, Empathy Buddyships and Empathy Circles for year-round support.
Explore options & extrasLeadership Opportunities
Alumni can join the Leadership Community to lead practice groups worldwide, or join the Mentor Community to guide newer participants — deepening their own practice while giving back.
Learn about the Leadership TrackAvailable in 20 Languages
The Compassion Course is translated and facilitated by dedicated teams around the world, each with their own monthly conferences in their native language.
Registration Opens March 1st, 2026
The next Compassion Course begins June 24th, 2026. Join 50,000+ people who have taken this journey toward more compassionate living.