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Alanja Forsberg’s “Avalon Community”, Circling, and Authentic Relating

The Avalon Community is a quite recent (founded by Alanja Forsberg in 2015) extension of Circling into related modalities that include psycho-drama and some form of somatic experiencing, i.e. body-centered processing and working through early trauma experiences, which would include physical touch.  Their flagship offer is a retreat called “Avalon” that is 6-day, deep dive into community and, if needed, the trauma that many of us carry.

The fact of early, somatic-based trauma is, as of this year (2017) rapidly gaining weight in the circling community.  There are important conversations happening, partly based of many people’s experience that circling doesn’t actually work for recovering from early trauma (or if it does, it is too slow).  There are a number of hypotheses being offered there, one being that physical touch is essential (and is not something that normally happens during Circling, and not at all for online circling), and the second idea being that since Circling is primarily a verbal process, and since “the wounds received from relationship can only be healed in relationship”, then attempting to recover from traumas inflicted at a pre-verbal age through a verbal process such as Circling may not work.  As such, in an Avalon retreat, a skilled facilitator will work with a circlee, but not assume that the circlee is at a verbal age or can fully identify or express feelings, thoughts and needs.  Rather, the facilitator might attempt to get into the “child’s” world by asking questions such as: how old are you?  Are you angry, are you sad?  Do you know what you want? Do you want me to come closer? Etc.

I find what is currently going on in the Avalon Community intensely exciting, almost like “next-generation circling”.

For more information about Avalon, look them up on Facebook under “Avalon Community” and check the website www.AvalonDharma.com

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Circling Reflections

  • How to be authentic and loving in an emotionally illiterate culture
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Clickable Communities map

authentic-revolution-communities-map

Authentic Relating Organizations

  • Circling Institute (San Francisco and Global)
  • Circle Anywhere (Global)
  • Circling Europe (Europe and North America)
  • ART International (Global)
  • Authentic Relating Go (Global)
  • Connection Institute (Boston & Global)
  • The Connection Movement (New York City)
  • Austin Circling Studio (Austin, TX)
  • Evolutionary Relating (Australia)
  • Circling Cornwall (UK)
  • Let’s Be Authentic (Philadelphia, PA)
  • Realness Project (Prison work)
  • The Awkward Leadership School (Toronto)
  • Integral Centered Leadership (Boulder, CO)

Local communities can be found on Meetup.com and on the Authentic Revolution communities map

Free Circling Video Course

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Recommended Books

Quotes

  • “There is no place to get to but more here” — Decker Cunov, co-founder of Circling
  • “You will always outlive my concept of you. And I will always have a concept for you to outlive” — Guy Sengstock, founder of Circling
  • “Pain is not a punishment, pleasure is not a reward… good and bad, happy and sad, all thoughts vanish into emptiness” — Pema Chodron
  • “If we were all to sit in a circle and confess our sins, we would laugh at each other for lack of originality” — Kahlil Gibran
  • “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care” — Theodore Roosevelt
  • “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. They listen with the intent to reply” — Stephen Covey
  • “Trust that people move towards wholeness, and we just have to follow” — Alexis Shepperd, co-founder of the Authentic Woman Experience
  • “Depression is the reward we get for being ‘good’ ” — Marshall Rosenberg
  • When we are angry, killing people is too superficial — Marshall Rosenberg
  • “You don’t need to get what you want if you can express what you want” — Strephon Kaplan-Williams

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Marco’s Books and Blogs


Relational Power: Win Friends, Influence Others, and End Loneliness Through the Practice of Authentic Relating

RSS Marc "Marco" Beneteau's Author Blog

  • Relational Power: Call for engagement
  • Quick check-in from “the land of enchanment”
  • Moving to New Mexico; two new books!
  • On the road again; life in the political cult; new book

RSS Manifesting Community Blog

  • Moved to Albuquerque, NM. New book!
  • Winter has arrived at Solidarity Collective! Plus exciting plans
  • New digs, new book, new life
  • New groups forming now; and other news
  • Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage (Rutledge, Missouri) — Visitor Program Review
  • On the road, in search of utopia

 


Broke, Single, Crazy and Old: The Redemption of a Sex and Love Addict

RSS Healthy Bipolar

  • Happy all the time with a low-grade CFS — is it possible?
  • Moving to New Mexico! New book!
  • Final days at Hridaya Yoga, Mazunte, Mexico
  • My Social Security disability hearing; a visit to the doctor and the dentist; and life in the communist commune in Wyoming

 


As Lovers Do: a Manual for Men

RSS The Man/Woman Game Archives – Authentic Singles

  • Online Dating and the Man/Woman Game: My Story
  • What Women Want: Towards a New Psychology of Love, Sex and Gender Relations
  • I have a Dream: the social-political context of love and sex

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