Circling drop in evenings

Circling is a 'present moment relating' practice, sometimes described as relational meditation. It’s done in a group or with another person and invites feeling into the subtleties of one’s present experience in connection with others, often using words to share that experience.

Both those new to Circling and those with more experience are very welcome.

To reserve your place, please select a date and transfer £18.

Any questions, please message me here or authenticrelating@yahoo.com

My place is opposite Elephant & Castle tube (Bakerloo and Northern lines) and Thameslink train station.

The practices of Circling and Authentic Relating are often linked or spoken about together. Authentic Relating emerged from Circling and tends to be more structured, with “games” and sentence stems acting like guide rails for connection. Circling in its purest form is an interpersonal meditation and encourages self leadership, and is less facilitated. Both elicit intimacy and you may find quickly creating deep appreciation of the people you’re with and surprisingly meaningful connections. Always hard to define though and much better, in my opinion, to experience them a few times to really get a sense of the difference/overlaps.

There is a beauty and power in the practice of circling and it is not for everyone. The practice may touch on some uncomfortable places, states, sensations or emotions. Circling invites a level of self responsibility and a willingness to set appropriate boundaries.

More about Circling and Terms of Service

Circling is a practice that involves looking at and being intimate with the structures of one’s personal reality, which includes how we make sense of experience, individually and collectively. We find these practices to consistently deliver deeply meaningful experiences, and believe a few clarifications now will likely make this more accessible to you.

Because Circling is unique, carrying over assumptions from other practices can lead to misunderstandings about who we are, what we do, and how you are invited to engage. It is our intention to make it as clear as we can what Circling is and isn’t.

Responsibility

We see you as a free agent capable of honest self-assessment and responsible choice

This is an invitation to take responsibility for:

- yourself and your experience

- choices you’re making about what you’re accepting as true and significant

- how you’re participating in and helping to sustain your situation

- the beliefs and choices you’re bringing to the situation (wittingly or unwittingly) that are informing your experience.

We refer generally to the willingness to take responsibility in these terms as “owning your experience.”

Not Psychotherapy

Circling as we practice it leads to transformational growth, but we do this through surrender, self-leadership, and interconnection rather than aiming for healing outcomes directly (like many modalities do). While honouring a wide variety of wisdom and psychological discernments from many schools of thought, we do not follow a therapeutic model of diagnosis and treatment. Our method is educational. Our emphasis is connection.

We are guides in a journey of presence, connection, and aliveness. We do not prescribe choices or actions. We do not see you as being in a therapeutic relationship with me. We work in the present moment, assuming wholeness that can include greater wholeness, exploring connection, staying mindful to notice the cost of reality choices and labels that too easily lead to misunderstanding or pathologizing. We bring a fresh set of eyes to what is happening, with the aim of understanding how updating our beliefs about what is happening can update our reality.

Circling is a practice of connection and meditation

- Focus on the present moment.

- Maintain a non-goal orientation that is encapsulated in the principle of “being with the other in their world."

Is this Right for You?

Our workshops can be intense. People encounter places, states, emotions, beliefs, and sensations in themselves and others that are sometimes unfamiliar. We explore the unknown, the volatile, the ambiguous, as well as welcome emotions many deem as “negative” or “inappropriate” such as feelings of inadequacy, anger, sexuality, and joy. We refer to the willingness to feel difficult and uncomfortable truths as the “commitment to connection,” which of course includes a willingness to set appropriate boundaries, and speak a desire for space, distance, and non-contact. By attending our events you take responsibility for choosing to leave the practice or participate in any given moment—which might include getting intimate with these kinds of experiences.

We will often explore multiple sides of seeming opposites at once, such as independence and interdependence, chaos and order, agreement and disagreement. We believe this can reveal an underlying unity of the immediacy of experience.

If the above description of our workshops sounds potentially overwhelming or destabilizing for you, if you have mental illness or significant emotional challenges that you feel may be exacerbated by this type of transformational environment, or if you are not sure that you can be self-directed in taking care of your needs during the event, then we advise you not to enrol.

By registering you acknowledge that you have read and agree to abide by these Terms of Service.