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Circling and the “We-Space” Movement

The Circling and Authentic Relating movement is only the latest instantiation – although one of the larger and fastest-growing ones – of a number of schools and practice communities which share similar goals and philosophy, although different practices. These communities could be considered as going under the general umbrella group of what has come to be known as “we-space”.  I am listing some of these schools below, in rough historical sequence of creation. Most of these schools evolved separately (or earlier) than Circling. A few are direct applications (or derivations) of Circling and Authentic Relating into real-world problems. Some of these are covered more extensively on the website, www.CirclingGuide.com in the Resources section.

Here is my curated list of “we-space” schools and communities. There are many more, of course, but these are some of the most popular ones (the ones covered on the website are marked with a triple-Asterisk ***). The movements that are most similar or relevant to Circling are also bolded.

  • Teilhard de Chardin and the “Noosphere” (1922)
  • Martin Buber’s book I and Thou (1923)
  • Attachment Theory – John Bowlby and others (1958) ***
  • T-Group, or Encounter Group (~1960)
  • Non-Violent Communication – Marshall Rosenberg (~1972) ***
  • Integral Theory – Ken Wilber (~1977), with contributions by Sri Aurobindo, Jean Gebser, Haridas Chaudhuri, Don Beck and others ***
  • Sociocracy – John Buck and others (~1978) ***
  • Focusing – Eugene Gendlin (1982) ***
  • Bohm Dialogue – David Bohm (~1983)
  • Heart Circle – Tej Steiner (1985)
  • Hakomi – Ron Kurtz (~1990)
  • Restorative Justice – Howard Zehr (1990)
  • Network For a New Culture (US-based) and ZEGG in Germany (1991) ***
  • HeartMath – Doc Childre (1991)
  • Waking Down in Mutuality – Saniel Bonder (1995) ***
  • Somatic Experiencing – Peter Levine (~1997) ***
  • Inner-Relationship Focusing – Ann Weiser Cornell (~1997) ***
  • Circling – Guy Sengstock, Jerry Candelaria, and others (~1998). “Authentic Relating” came a few years later
  • The Art of Hosting – Toke Møller and Ria Baeck (~ 2000)
  • Pacific Integral’s Generate Transformative Change Program (~2004)
  • Authentic Man Program – Decker Cunov and Brian Bayer (2004), and later Authentic Woman Experience ***
  • Thomas Hübl’s teachings on awakening in relationships (~2004)
  • Collective Presencing – Ria Baeck (~2006)
  • Mutual Awakening and the Evolutionary Collective – Patricia Albere (2007) ***
  • A Small Group – Peter Block (~2008)
  • Heart IQ – Christian Pankhurst’s (~2009)
  • Sacred Ground Community – Stephen Marcus (2011)***
  • Ten Directions Integral Facilitator Training – Diane Hamilton and Rob McNamara (~2012)
  • One World in Dialogue – Elizabeth Debold and Thomas Steininger (2015)
  • Avalon Dharma – Alanja Forsberg (~2015) ***
  • The Power of 8 – Lynne McTaggart (2018)
  • Seek Healing – Addiction recovery in Asheville NC (~2018) ***
  • Awakening from the Meaning Crisis – John Vervaeke (2019) ***
  • Authentic Singles – Marc & Rebekah Beneteau (2019) ***
  • Self-Circling ***

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  • Free Webinar: Introduction to Authentic Relating in Community — Tuesday May 6, 11:30am Eastern / 5:30pm CET

RSS Authentic Relating Leader on substack

  • Marco and Sophie, v2.0
  • What happened when I fully committed to bringing Authentic Relating into all my relationships
  • Getting married and moving to Germany!
  • My discovery of Transformation at the Speed of Light (TSL) and its extension called TSL2
  • Trauma is good for you: Authentic Relating and "karma acceleration"

Upcoming Events

Upcoming events below and on our Google Calendar

Communities Map

Authentic Relating Organizations

  • Circling Institute (San Francisco and Global)
  • The Relateful Company  (previously CircleAnywhere (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

 


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

 


As Lovers Do: a Manual for Men

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