Headline news:
- Circling Europe resigns the Circling trademark and rebrands (see below).
- Jason Digges and I launch sliding-scale Authentic Relating courses.
What’s happening in the community?
- The Global Eco-Village Network (GEN) is sponsoring a sliding-scale AR course, Authentic Relating in Community, led by Jason Digges and targeted to community builders and eco-villages. And my beloved wife (!) Sophie and I will be running another cohort of Practical Relational Leadership in Community. Both courses start March 4, with free introduction webinars on February 11 and February 25.
- Relateful Camp is back this year, April 2-6 in Olympia, Texas (near Houston). Cost is $1400 and includes everything. I heard that last year’s event was so successful that half the tickets for next year sold-out immediately!
- This year’s Transformational Connection Festival (previously the Circling™ Festival) will take place 16-20 August a few hours out of Amsterdam. The price is just €1.080 for a double-room. which includes everything. I am doing my best to be there with Sophie!
- Jordan Allen has been quietly working on a startup called UpTrust, which is a technology company committed to civilizational alignment through improved internet dialogue. Details in this email, part of his monthly newsletter 3 Things Thursday which I always enjoy reading.
- The Connection Institute is offering Relational Games with David This Tuesday, Feb. 11th. Alter Ego circle is Feb. 19th, and Relational Leadership Academy is ongoing.
- Circling Institute are doing a residential retreat Reconnecting with the Real with Guy Sengstock, John Vervaeke and Kyle from Evolve Move Play. The date is March 17-20, and the location Mount Mitchell NC.
- Authentic Revolution is in full swing. Offers include The Authentic Facilitator Level 3, along with several Level 2 cohorts beginning on April 24. They are also helping out with SeekHealing’s Social Health Facilitation Training (SHFT). There are also regular Level 1’s happening. Yay Sara and team!
- Connection Playground are offering a Free Introduction to Transformational Connection (Thursday, 13 February, online), and other events as well.
- Sara Ness is doing some great writing on her very interesting substack. This includes the very humorous How to Share a Withhold and a series on creating women’s groups.
Circling Europe resigns the Circling trademark
On October 25, Circling Europe announced that it was resigning the Circling Trademark and re-branding as Transformational Connection. Details in this email. I quote:
“The silver lining in this is that we’ve found it a rich opportunity to start to bring more clarity to what we offer, how it can be communicated more clearly and even to potentially create new evolutions of the practice. The last months we’ve been exploring leading more with the name transformational connection, not as a direct swap for the Circling name but more as the pointer to what is possible and the amazing possibility within Circling/the practices. It also gives us a chance to lead more with Surrendered Leadership, so, as a team we’re in a creative process working with these two names and seeing what that leads to, without us needing to change anything we do. We hope these coming months will lead to a deepening in our own understanding and experiences within the various practices that we offer for all of us.”
“The trademark also actually changes the landscape of what Circling is. It is trademarked as a brand/service rather than a practice (because you can’t trademark a practice) and is now more centralized. Our passion for Circling being known primarily as a practice was one of the reasons that had us step away from the trademark.”
My own opinion on the matter (as if anyone cares, lol) is that I give full credit to Guy Sengstock, Decker Cunov and the dozens of people who have put Authentic Relating on the world map as a powerful, open-source, peer-created and ever-evolving transformational technology. And that 25 years after Circling was invented, it has grown into such a massive movement. As such, it seems timely that the global community abandon Circling™ as a trademark brand and diversify.
People I like: Damien Bohler
What I love about what Damien Bohler and friends are doing with Evolve Relating in Australia, is that it’s an amazing resource of depth and breadth covering so many topics in communication, attachment style, trauma and nervous system regulation, self-mastery, and [drum roll…] polarity and eros. What Damien is doing is, IMHO, taking AR into the places where it needs to go (where it always needed to go): and that’s into real-world problems of human connection, with a special focus on attachment and sexuality. The stuff that we all want, in other words.
Most of the content appears to be recorded and is available via membership, but there are also live (in person) events and workshops. The membership does include monthly live coaching sessions and workshops in all time zones. Damien also has some great writing and podcasts.
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