Circling Guide

Learn the group conversation practice that will transform all of your relationships and bring you the love, friendship and community that you want

Practical Relational Leadership through Authentic Relating, Level 2

Enrolling now for a PRL2 to begin November 2024. See below for registration information

What is the PRL Level 2?

PRL2 is the next-level training of the Practical Relational Leadership Course. It is open to graduates of the regular PRL, and to people with a minimum of 6 months experience in Circling™ in any school (Circling Europe, Circling Institute or Relateful Company).

PRL2 is a 6-week program for up to 8 people. It has a 15/85% mix of context-setting versus experiential practice. It’s more expensive than the PRL as it has two leaders and lasts 6 weeks, but still relatively affordable compared to similar trainings at $300. Some scholarship assistance is available. As an added bonus, you will receive lifetime membership in the PRL graduates community, currently a group of about 30 people exploring peer-led relational intelligence practices and business models for successful AR leadership. 

A PRL2 is, like the regular PRL, a leadership training course. It’s like is a “crash course” for building AR community, either on-the-ground or online, using models that I have created and tested in Mexico, and models that I have been running online for the last 7 years.

Of course, the training is not “exhaustive” given that Relational Meditation is a lifelong game (very much like love). However, we will directly address the relational and business challenges of creating AR community and explore various income models for so doing. The goal here is to get you out into the street leading AR in your community, either formally or informally, and ideally making money at it. 

What you will experience and learn in this course

  • We will attempt to create “family” among us, that would be the AR family you never had. Results here cannot be guaranteed, as family is challenging, as you know. However, the attempt is a glorious one, and will likely be hugely developmental to you whatever the outcome.
  • You will learn the PRL style of Relational Meditation (similar to Circling™). This format is especially powerful and applicable to private circles, Intentional communities, or any group wanting to operate a joint project with more love and effectiveness. I have been running private circles for my friends for 7 years, representing hundreds or maybe thousands of hours of practice, and almost all of them have been spectacular. A few of them were spectacular shit-shows, but this is in the nature of the practice and part of the learning journey.
  • You will learn to skillfully lead both organic circles (or topic circles) in my style, and focus circles. The focus circle is the core of this work and you can, if you wish, be given practice opportunities to lead focus circles within the group.
  • I may teach you some basic Authentic relating games (hot seats in particular) that you can use to lead connection-focused events for meetups, churches, or community organizations that you belong to.
  • In partnership with my friend David Garrison in Austin, we may teach you an AR event format called Open Mic Playground that is a kind of Authentic relating creativity / self-expression workshop that you can bring to your community.
  • You will be invited to the free Monthly check-in and Circle of the PRL Community. The PRL graduates community is a group of about 30 people exploring peer-led relational intelligence practices and business models for successful AR leadership. There is no cost to be a part of the community and it could offer you leadership opportunities.
  • There may be income opportunities by running a city franchise for the Authentic Singles project. Authentic Singles is a startup designed to disrupt the $7B dollar a year online dating industry, which is not effective and is financially incentivized to keep you single.

Expectation setting

Please read the Expectation setting for the PRL course. The PRL2 expectation setting is the same, only stronger. Please do not join a group if you are not confident of your ability to stay in connection through anger, if you can’t tolerate your perspectives being challenged, or insist on being spoken to in a certain way. Meaning that: to be effective as an AR leader you will need to learn to deal with the assholes of the world, and/or people with vastly different world-views and relational styles than you. Sometimes (and maybe often depending on your characterology) the asshole will be you.

Registration and logistics

The next PRL2 will begin the second week of August 2024 and will run for 6weeks. The cost is $300, paid via a $50 refundable deposit and a $250 balance before starting. A limited number of scholarships are available.

The enrollment / registration process is the following:

  1. Write to me at [email protected], telling a bit about you and your interest in the course.
  2. I manage contacts through Whatsapp, so also send me a note to whatsapp at +1 603 631 4271 saying that you have written to me and naming your time zone.
  3. The  scheduling process for the PRL2 will start in the first week of August 2024 so that we can get a start date at the second week of August. When I receive your inquiry and verbally accept you into the course, I will need asap a $50 refundable deposit via Paypal to [email protected] using “friends and family”. This starts the enrollment process. You can also Venmo me to @marcbeneteau or (603) 631 4271
  4. The scheduling process consists of my sending a Doodle poll to the group. It will be the same time every week for 6 weeks. If the times don’t work for you, you have the option to get your deposit refunded or to stay in the queue for the next course.
  5. I announce your group’s time and start date, normally about a week out. At that point your $250 balance is due promptly. When I receive your final payment I create and add you to a whatsapp group for the course.
  6. Attendance is requested at all 6 sessions, in principle. If you can’t make a session, we’ll consider whether its best for you to join another group, or miss a session.

Leaders

Marco Beneteau (course leader) is the author of the Circling Guide, the most popular book on the practice of Circling within the Authentic Relating tradition, along with its draft sequel Relational Power. Both books are offered on the gift economy. He has been running these groups for 7 years, representing about 1500 hours of practice to date. Many of these groups were ongoing, including a weekly men’s group that has been running continuously for 6 years. Marco is also the author of a love and sex manual for men entitled As Lovers Do, and a memoir entitled Broke, Single, Crazy and Old: the Redemption of a Sex and Love Addict. Marco is also the founder of Authentic Singles, a startup designed to disrupt the $7B dollar a year online dating industry.

Sophie Nicole Lemperle-McGrath (co-leader) is the founder of Connecting circle (in German), a Gestalt facilitator, mediator and “Getting Real” Coach.

All of her life Sophie has been fascinated by interpersonal dynamics and the question of what constitutes a strong foundation in all kinds of relationships – private or professional. Can we learn to love? How do we use conflicts as learning opportunities and convert the conflict energy into more connection?

​Her work is deeply influenced by the teaching and love of Martin and Annette Rubeau. She has also learned from and with Susan Campbell PhD, and through her work: “Getting Real”.

Next steps

Read “Registration and logistics” above. You may inquire about scholarships at the time you send in your interest statement.