Summary
Practical Relational Leadership in Community (or “PRLC”) is a 6 sessions x 2 1/2 hours course to introduce people to the powerful practices of Authentic Relating and Circling (or “AR”). More information on Authentic Relating and the thriving global AR community below. We are also offering a related course called Authentic Relating in Community that can accommodate up to 16 people (the PRLC is limited to 8 people).
PRLC courses very reliably drop a group of up to 8 people into deep connection spaces over 6 sessions. And from there, magic happens. The course is designed for people without prior experience in Authentic Relating or Circling, and is particularly useful and impactful for people already living in an intentional community or eco-village (i.e. people with pre-existing relationships), anyone starting an IC, and/or any group who wants to operate a joint project with more love and more effectiveness. The potential here is to solve the major problem faced by IC’s and eco-villages, which is how can people get along better and collaborate more effectively.
There are two ways of running this course: once a week for 6 weeks, and twice a week for three weeks. We can offer the course either online through zoom (this is the most economical) or onsite at your community. All courses have two leaders.
History of the PRLC courses
The PRLC course is an expansion of an earlier course called Practical Relational Leadership through Authentic Relating. Marco has been running these courses informally for groups of friends for 7 years, and/or leading a related practice which we called “Circling Masterminds”. Many of these groups were ongoing, including a weekly men’s group that has been running continuously for 5 years.
After running dozens of groups over the years, representing many hundreds of meetings (1000 hours at last count), Marco launched the offer commercially to the global AR community in early 2024. The offer has been very well received and there is now a small community of about 30 PRL graduates who meet monthly to circle, and who are helping to deepen and develop the model. PRL and PRLC graduates automatically become members of the global PRL community and are invited to the free monthly circles.
Simultaneously to the first commercial PRL offer in early 2024, Marco started running the course in intentional communities in Ajijic Mexico where he now resides. That experiment also was very successful. You can read about this in the article Authentic Relating in Intentional Community: A case study in Ajijic, Mexico. Marco then founded an intentional community called Authentic Relating Village in which AR is the core practice and started running local groups as well.
Now, for the first time, we are offering a special version of the PRL course, the “PRLC”, to the global IC and eco-village community. The PRLC is a version of the PRL course which is specifically oriented to the problems faced by people either starting IC’s, or already living in IC. Also the PRCL is longer (6 weeks vs. 4 weeks) than the PRL, which enables us to go deeper.
What is Authentic Relating?
Authentic Relating is many things: a deep relational practice called “Circling™” which is about “getting each other’s worlds” and showing up with more truth and care in all the contexts of your life. It’s a thriving global practice community, with four major schools and 50+ local, peer-led communities, mostly in North America and Western Europe. And finally, AR is an open-source, global movement for social transformation based on the idea of prioritizing connection, showing up powerfully for other people, and injecting more love into the world.
Circling within the Authentic Relating tradition is difficult to explain because it is, ultimately, a presence practice. “Presence” is a way of being and an attitude towards life and towards other people. “Presence” is non-verbal (it’s the act and the felt-experience of being emotionally available to another person) and it cannot be faked; however it is rendered much more powerful by learning and applying the structures of effective emotional communication. Circling cannot be taught, exactly, it can only be modeled. Some people will “get it” immediately, while others will take more time. Circling fundamentally challenges social norms and social conditioning of how people do relationships. As such, it can be initially confusing, terrifying, and/or exhilarating all at once.
Circling well is a lifelong game (very much like love). Our experience, however, is that 6 sessions of 2 1/2 hours is enough to provide a powerful experience from which people will continue to practice, learn and grow. Authentic Relating can be done formally in a group, or it can be done invisibly with the people in your environment. The latter is called “Authentic Relating on the street” and is about showing up for people so that they feel more seen, understood, valued and cared for.
Authentic Relating has powerful applications to all spheres of life including family, business, education, and social change leadership; but it has shown itself to be especially useful to teams running a joint project, such as an intentional community. The PRLC is the first course in the world that directly addresses the problem of doing Authentic Relating in intentional community.
The PRLC format is derived from (or similar to) Circling™, so if you have done Circling before this is an advantage. To understand the difference between Circling and the PRLC format, see How the PRL format differs from other styles of Relational Meditation and Circling™.
Enrollment process
Currently, the PRLC Course is only offered through our partners which include the the Global Eco-Village network and their North American regional group, GENNA. Please follow those link for more information about enrollment, and/or contact us directly by emailing to [email protected].
In the meantime, however: the enrollment process for a PRLC course starts with a 25% deposit on the course fee, after which you need to schedule a 15-20 minute interview with one of the leaders. PRLC’s can be intellectually and emotionally intense, and we want to get to know you first to make sure that we can deliver the best transformational experience possible for you. The interview is also an opportunity to practice AR together and to give you a feeling for what the work is about. It’s like an “Authentic Relating date” and it is designed to be fun for both you and the course leader(s). If after the interview either you or the course leader decides you are not a fit, your deposit will be refunded.
Certification process / Graduation diploma
We expect that roughly 70- 80% of students in the PRLCs will be offered a graduation certificate for the PRLC process, which will authorize them to lead PRLC courses inside their communities, under the PRLC brand or another brand of their choosing. Of the 20-30% who fail the certification, we will offer very precise feedback of what they need to do / embody to pass, and offer them an additional PRLC course at 50% discount as an opportunity to pass.
About Marco Beneteau
Marco is an Authentic Relating leader with additional 20 years of experience in the intentional community movement. He has founded two intentional communities, including his latest, Authentic Relating Village in Chapala Mexico. He is the author of the Circling Guide, the most popular book on the practice of Circling within the Authentic Relating tradition, which he is offering on the gift economy. The Circling Guide has now been replaced by the draft book Relational Power, also offered on the gift economy, so if you have not read the Circling Guide, start with Relational Power.
Contact Marco by email at [email protected] or Whatsapp +1 603 631 4271.
For more information, read Relational Power
Relational Power is Marco’s draft book (the sequel to the Circling Guide), containing the most recent information about the practice, the AR movement, along with Marco’s turbulent journey. The book is currently being crowd-sourced and is offered on the gift economy.