Get Assertive!

Learn specific techniques to become more assertive in all types of situations, with all types of people, and in all aspects of your life. This course will empower you to be more assertive and includes specific techniques for dealing with people who intimidate or disrespect you.

6 Weeks / 24 Course Hrs

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Self-Guided

$165

No instructor. Study on your own schedule

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Instructor-Moderated

$150

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Starting March 12 | April 16

Details + Objectives

Course code: att

Are you tired of being intimidated and treated badly by others? Learn specific techniques to become more assertive in all parts of your life. Discover how people manipulate you and how you submit to being a victim. Understand the difference between passive, aggressive, and assertive behaviors, and see how inner dialogues keep people acting in passive ways. Explore ways to change your inner dialogue, such as using affirmations and visualization, creating new labels for yourself and others, and keeping a journal.

Do you think you speak non-assertively? If so, master the skills that will empower you to talk in an assertive manner, including specific verbal techniques and phrases for a variety of situations. Anger and criticism from others are difficult to deal with, so you will get many tips on how to handle these. Because your body can reflect an inner uncertainty, you will learn how to use facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, and your voice to reinforce the assertive statements you're making.

You teach people how to treat you through your behaviors as well as your words, and this course will help you understand which behaviors to use with others so they perceive you as being assertive. When you begin to exhibit your new confidence in relationships, people will counter in various ways. You will learn how to stand firm in the face of this resistance.

Get the assertiveness training you need in order to be more confident and powerful with family members, friends, bosses, co-workers, professionals, service people, and even total strangers. It's your turn to speak up!

What you will learn

Understand the difference between passive, aggressive and assertive attitudes, gestures and phrases
Learn to recognize ways you lose power and discover simple adjustments to the way you say things.
Learn to deal assertively with people who criticize or try to manipulate you
Discover the importance of eye contact, facial expressions, voice, body posture, gait, and clothes to project a more assertive personality
Learn ways to be assertive in all types of situations whether it is family, social, or everyday life situations.
Learn how to give and receive compliments and discover times when it is best not to be assertive

How you will benefit

Gain insight in learning about how not being assertive can have surprising consequences in all areas of your life
Deal effectively with people who are angry or criticizing you
Create an assertive body language
Learn to treat people in an assertive but loving manner
Gain respect and a positive self image

How the course is taught

Instructor-Moderated or Self-Guided online course
6 Weeks or 3 Months access
24 course hours

Outline

This first lesson will mark a turning point in your life. You will begin by measuring your assertiveness quotient, you will learn about the many surprising consequences of not being assertive, and you will learn to recognize the different behaviors of passive, aggressive, and assertive people.

Before you can begin to act assertively, you need to be able to identify your self-canceling thoughts and change your inner script. In this lesson, you will learn why you have negative thoughts about yourself and what those could be. You will learn several techniques for replacing them with a positive inner script, including visualization, affirmations, storytelling, writing a journal, and creating a collage.

One of the ways non-assertive people lose power is through the use of certain types of language to either gain approval or avoid opposition, criticism or disagreement. In this lesson, you will learn how to recognize when you're doing this, and you will discover some simple and painless adjustments to the way you say things that can help you avoid this problem.

Now that you have learned what takes your verbal power away, it's time to learn how to be verbally assertive. In this lesson, you will learn how to make the four types of "I" statements to tell others about yourself, respond to others' requests, ask for cooperation and support, and confront another person. You will also learn about techniques you can use to deal assertively with people who are angry with you or criticizing you.

Just as an actor perfects the nonverbal aspects of a role, you need to pay attention to the nonverbal nuances in your new assertiveness role. What you will learn in this lesson is how to use eye contact, facial expressions, voice, body posture, gait and clothes to create an assertive image.

In order for you to be most effective, you need to be able to adjust your assertive message to the personality of the person with whom you're communicating and to deal with resistance. In this lesson, you will study four behavior types and five sensory types to help you understand which assertive approach works best. You will also find out how to identify resistance in others by observing verbal and nonverbal clues and various methods you can use to handle the resistance you may encounter.

Most people find it extremely challenging to be assertive with close family members. In this lesson, you will learn about a variety of statements family members use to manipulate you, and you will discover the most effective ways to respond to each of them. You will learn how to act assertively with your parents, siblings, and children to build more positive relationships.

In this lesson, you will discover the four different emotional types of people and how they come together as mates. You will explore the relationships these types have with each other, what problems tend to arise, and how the partners can treat each other differently in order to resolve any problems they may have. You will also learn guidelines for working out issues with your partner in an assertive but loving manner.

Do you find it difficult to say no to a friend who asks a favor that you don't really want to do? Do you have difficulty having conversations in social situations? If so, you will really learn a lot from this lesson, including how to use the assertiveness techniques to deal with your friends. Next, you will learn techniques you can use to open up to other people and carry on interesting conversations.

You may approach the thought of being assertive at work with trepidation. However, when supervisors and employees treat each other with respect and act assertively with each other, both happiness on the job and productivity increase. In this lesson, you will learn how to be assertive during job interviews as well as with your boss and subordinates, what to look for to see if your workplace encourages or discourages assertiveness, and how to advance assertiveness where you work.

Often, you encounter situations in which you deal with people as a consumer. In this lesson, you will learn how to be assertive with waiters, salespeople, government clerks, doctors, hospital employees, lawyers, and IRS agents. This lesson also discusses how to be assertive in everyday situations, such as when a restaurant or movie theater is unbearably cold.

So far in this course, you have gained a wealth of knowledge about how to be assertive. These skills and techniques can be used with family and friends, as a consumer, in the workplace, and in everyday situations. In this closing lesson, you will learn some situations in which it's better to not be assertive, how to give and receive compliments, and how to be assertive in all parts of your life.

Instructors & Support

Vivian Harte

Vivian Harte has been teaching people how to be more assertive for almost 20 years. In addition to her online course, she taught a "Women in Society" class for a large college, and she also helped students at a major university learn how to express themselves assertively in the classroom and in the workplace.

Instructor Interaction: The instructor looks forward to interacting with learners in the online moderated discussion area to share their expertise and answer any questions you may have on the course content.

Requirements

Prerequisites:

There are no prerequisites to take this course.

Requirements:

Hardware Requirements:

This course can be taken on either a PC, Mac, or Chromebook.

Software Requirements:

PC: Windows 8 or later.
Mac: macOS 10.6 or later.
Browser: The latest version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox are preferred. Microsoft Edge and Safari are also compatible.
Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins.

Other:

Email capabilities and access to a personal email account.

Instructional Material Requirements:

The instructional materials required for this course are included in enrollment and will be available online.

FAQ

Instructor-Moderated: A new session of each course begins each month. Please refer to the session start dates for scheduling.

Self-Guided: Your course begins immediately after you enroll.

Instructor-Moderated: Once a course session starts, two lessons will be released each week for the 6 week duration of your course. You will have access to all previously released lessons until the course ends. You will interact with the instructor through the online discussion area. There are no live sessions or online meetings with the instructor.

Self-Guided: You have 3 months of access to the course. After enrolling, you can learn and complete the course at your own pace, within the allotted access period. You will have the opportunity to interact with other students in the online discussion area.

Instructor-Moderated: The interactive discussion area for each lesson automatically closes two weeks after each lesson is released, so you're encouraged to complete each lesson within two weeks of its release. However, you will have access to all lessons from the time they are released until the course ends.

Self-Guided: There is no time limit to complete each lesson, other than completing all lessons within the allotted access period. Discussion areas for each lesson are open for the entire duration of the course.

Instructor-Moderated: Students enrolled in a six-week online class benefit from a one-time, 10-day extension for each course. No further extensions can be provided beyond these 10 days.

Self-Guided: Because this course is self-guided, no extensions will be granted after the start of your enrollment.

Reviews

Great course. I really learned a lot about myself, family and others. I learned many life lessons about becoming assertive with family, friends,and on the job. I really appreciate the information and I am applying it with great success to my life. I strongly recommend this class to anyone but especially to women of all ages. It's never too late to learn new tricks.

I found it very interesting of what type of person I was and definitely found this course very helpful and will help me to use this information to be an assertive person.

I have learned a lot from taking this course. I find myself becoming more assertive in my daily life. Thanks to this course, I feel that I am on the way to becoming a more confident person!

I have used assertive behavior on two occasions within the past couple of weeks. Before this class began, I would not have spoken up for fear I was letting someone down, or maybe I was the one that was wrong about the situation. I have really enjoyed the class and will use the assertive techniques often.....Thanks!

I've learned so much in the few weeks during this course that my performance review on the job was above average! My manager's boss noticed, as well as my manager, that I handle my responsibilities in a direct way with clear communication. Thanks, Vivian, for your lessons that are detailed. They make me realize some things that I've never thought about. I will refer to the lessons often.

Thanks! This was a great course for me. I have made improvements already, especially with family members.

Thank you for this course! I feel that it's given me a new lease on life! I can now say what I mean and mean what I say without feeling guilty or wrong. By doing this, I can relieve a lot of the frustrations I've had from holding things in and making them my problem when they should have been someone else's problem all along. Thanks for teaching me to stand up for myself instead of always being so passive and taking the heat for things that I did not do. You've helped me learn how let go of a lot of my resentment and bitterness about things that I felt I had no control over. I DO have control over how I'm treated and I have a right to speak my opinions without feeling threatened or wrong. Thank you!

This course gave me renewed confidence and provided great resources and knowledge. The assignments and information gained will be useful now and in the future. I am very glad I took this course from this instructor, who was very insightful and helpful.

This course was very helpful to me in my passive life with my work, husband, and children. I hope I will be more assertive with them in the future, now that I know how.

What an intense course! Everytime I reread the different lessons I end up highlighting something I missed before. I have made the determination to use what I have learned from Get Assertive in my everyday life. I wish I had had the opportunity to have taken this course forty years ago when I was in my twenties. It would have made positive changes in my relationships with family and friends. Vivian, thank you for showing me how to get more enjoyment out of life.

I found it very interesting of what type of person I was and definitely found this course very helpful and will help me to use this information to be an assertive person.

I have learned a lot from taking this course. I find myself becoming more assertive in my daily life. Thanks to this course, I feel that I am on the way to becoming a more confident person!

Thanks! This was a great course for me. I have made improvements already, especially with family members.

This course was very helpful to me in my passive life with my work, husband, and children. I hope I will be more assertive with them in the future, now that I know how.

Get Assertive!

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Get Assertive!

Details + Objectives

Course code: att

Outline

Instructors & Support

Requirements

FAQ

Reviews

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