Apprenticeship for Authentic Relating & Circling Facilitator Certification
9-weeks | 6 spots | Fall cohort dates coming soon (likely Oct-Nov)
This may be for you if…
You want to become a skillful Authentic Relating & Circling facilitator
You already have a decent amount of Circling experience
You get excited goosebumps by the idea of stepping into the fire with a radically authentic and ambitious leadership team
You have already been on the journey of personal development and healing for a long time
You have evidence in your life of receiving and integrating tough feedback with humility and vulnerability
You enjoy being with depth, realness, shadow AND fun, silly, playfulness
Criteria for complete the certification:
The following must be completed within the duration of the 9-week apprenticeship…
Read The Art of Circling by Bryan Bayer and submit written reflections on the Circling concepts.
Read Conflict = Energy by Jason Digges and submit written reflections on the Authentic Relating concepts.
Attend the first level 1 Authentic Relating & Circling Immersion of the season, plus a day early and later. This is to prepare and reflect with the apprenticeship team, Friday-Monday (fall dates TBA).
Practice as an Apprentice Facilitator in at least two additional level 1 Authentic Relating & Circling Immersions. There will be 5-6 level 1 immersions per season that you can choose from.
Attend the level 2 Authentic Relating & Circling Immersion, plus a day early and later, Wednesday-Monday (fall dates TBA)
Write minimum two posts (150-250 words) related to a group discussion topic each week in our apprenticeship team Facebook group.
Attend at least 7/9 weekly group apprenticeship calls via Zoom (Wednesdays 6-8:30pm PST), the fifth will be without Garrett. If you arrive more than 10 minutes late or leave 10 minutes early, it does not count.
Submit 5 case studies to reflect on learnings from Circles you facilitated.
Receive three 1:1 support sessions with Garrett to coach your Circling leadership, debrief what’s coming up for you in the apprenticeship, receiving compassionate inquiry, or help planning/promoting Circling events in your community.
The following must be completed within one year following the apprenticeship…
Participate in a Circling Immersion Level 2 (free for apprentices).
Practice as an Apprentice Facilitator at three (total) level 1 Authentic Relating & Circling Immersions.
Facilitate a minimum of 20 Circles (local circling nights and circles you facilitate at immersions count towards this).
Lead a minimum of 3 local Authentic Relating and/or Circling nights. Also submit a report of your agenda flow and personal feedback.
Complete an evaluation Circle, witnessed and graded by the mentor.
Complete an integrity cleanse protocol that includes thorough self reflection on your shadows, addictions, leaky sexual energy, and low integrity behaviour, plus includes making amends with key people in your life. This is similar to step 4, 5, 8, and 9 work in recovery processes.
Expectations of You
You are committed to pushing your edge of realness, honesty, revealing yourself, and self disclosure with our leadership team.
You are committed to staying in relationship with our team, at least for the duration of the apprenticeship. Inevitably, conflict will arise, we will all get triggered (a lot), and you may want to leave. It’s ok to take a break or some space, but the commitment is to always return to connection.
You are accountable to doing personal development and healing work on the side.
You are committed to being mindful of how your wounds in relationship with parents or authority figures come up with the mentor (me). This being said, you are totally welcome to be triggered by me and encouraged to call me out on my shit too.
You agree to not sexually or romantically advance with students or participants of any Authentic Relating or Circling related events that you are a part of leading for at least 3-months after the event. If something does arise with someone after the 3-month boundary, you must check in with someone on our leadership team beforehand for feedback and reflection.
Garrett’s Commitments
I will do everything in my power to development your skillfulness as a leader and facilitator of AR and Circling.
I will pay for regular coaching from top international Circling leaders to guide and anchor me in the intention of delivering a world class apprenticeship program.
I will model self-disclosure and reveal withholds in relationship with you.
I will model taking honest critical feedback from you and be accountable to working on my shit that comes up. One way we will practice this is through scheduled leader shadow feedback and accountability.
I will lean into my edge with supporting, challenging, and loving you.
Schedule
[Date TBA] (Start of weekly calls) - First 2-hour group apprenticeship call (every Tuesday 6-8:30pm PST).
[Date TBA] (First Immersion) - Arrive one day early and stay one day later for the first Salt Spring Island level 1 immersion. We will use these extra days to train, circle, and debrief.
[Date TBA] (End of weekly calls) - Last 2-hour group apprenticeship call.
[Date TBA] (Final Immersion) - Arrive one day early and stay one day later for the Salt Spring Island level 2 immersion that happens at the end of the circuit. We will use these extra days to train, circle, and debrief.
Afterwards - you have 12-months to complete the remaining criteria for certification if you did not complete it all during the apprenticeship program.
Pricing
The fee is $2,900. To register, you can pay the full amount or a $1,000 deposit with the rest due one week before the start date. There are no payment plan options.
About the Mentor
Garrett Rokosh he/him
Garrett’s authentic relating journey started in 2018 when feeling depressed, numb and lonely at the end of business school he found his way into a AR games night. He left that night completely blown open, glowing, with a cathartic sense that those people had gotten to know him deeper than any of his closest friends. He was hooked.
He devoured an online training with the author of the authentic relating games manual, Sara Ness, then flew to Austin, TX to take her advanced facilitator training, which was the most impactful week of his life. He then moved to Austin for six months to deep-dive into these practices and serve as an apprentice instructor on her training team. Soon after, his focus turned to Circling and completed a Circling Facilitator Certification with The Connection Institute. He led circling trainings with mentorship from top leaders including Peter Benjamin, Jason Diggs, and Mark Boughton. He led the first Circling immersion in Western Canada, has led 23 weekend immersions since then, and mentored several leaders in facilitating Circling.
Aside from AR and Circling, he completed a two year deep nature connection and cultural repair immersion with Wisdom of the Earth Wilderness School, a psychotheraputic training in Compassionate Inquiry with Dr. Gabor Mate, and is currently completing a Masters of Counselling Psychology at Yorkville University. His weekly jobs include mentoring youth at Thriving Roots Wilderness School and integrating authentic relating into the corporate world with his company, Social Architect. Some of his corporate clients have included Masterclass, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Burning Man and Mindvalley.
For a deeper dive into Garrett, check out his life vision.
A note from Garrett:
Over the past six years, I have casually mentored several people into facilitating Authentic Relating and Circling via getting them to read some content, talking through deeper concepts, co-facilitating immersions, and debriefing afterwards. I’ve loved this. Personally, the journey of learning and practicing facilitation has helped me grow way more than just participating and it’s more fun. I’ve found that people interested in leading Circling are often down to go deeper, to truly embody the principles, and integrate them into their lives. I’m stoked to now offer this mentorship professionally.
The core part of this apprenticeship is being a part of the leadership team in our weekend immersions. A lot is learned through participating in the facilitator meetings and debriefing learnings throughout the weekends. You will lead exercises, teachings, and breakout circles throughout the immersions. Plus you’ll receive theoretical learning through assigned readings and written reflections. Apprentices will all be challenged and supported to step into leading Circling in their communities.
I have designed this apprenticeship with the help of my mentor, Peter Benjamin who in my opinion is one of the world’s best Circling teachers and an alumni of the original T3 circling leadership training in the Integral Circling lineage.
