What is Authentic Relating?

Authentic Relating (AR) is a transformative practice centred on being truly yourself. It involves being real, honest, revealed, and transparent, allowing others to see, hear, and understand your inner world. You will engage in AR exercises specifically designed to deepen your connection with yourself and others. In a supportive environment, you are encouraged to express your genuine feelings and thoughts, fostering a profound sense of understanding and closeness among participants. Authentic Relating is more than just a practice—it’s a growing movement with vibrant communities worldwide. People are gathering to connect authentically and enrich the human experience, fostering a sense of belonging and deeper interpersonal connections.

What is Circling?

If AR is practicing the punching and kicking moves, Circling is the sparring match where all these skills come together. Circling is a relational meditation in which participants share their authentic present-moment experiences—sensations, emotions, and thoughts—while connecting with each other. Participants express their sensations, emotions, thoughts, judgments, assumptions, stories, desires, attractions, observations about each other’s demeanour or way of being, the group's dynamics, moments of dissociation, boredom, and more, all in an exploration of consciousness through the present moment. Two common types of Circles are “focus circles,” where one person is the centre of attention for up to an hour, revealing their present-moment experience to a group exploring their world, and “organic circles,” where there is no focus person and attention moves organically as people reveal themselves and follow their curiosity.

For more information about Circling, you can download the West Coast Handbook here.

In this level 1 immersion you will:

• Learn fundamental ground rules, principles, and teachings for Authentic Relating & Circling.

• Connect deeply with other seekers on a path of personal development and evolution of consciousness.

• Learn the language of intimacy that creates the opportunity for deeper connection through understanding and practicing the three levels of conversation.

• Learn powerful empathetic listening tools such as the art of reflective listening, sharing impact, and art of asking presence-deepening-questions.

• Experience your first Focus Circle which is 20-40 minutes of a small group focusing on exploring your present moment experience in connection with the group. You’ll be transparently revealing your thoughts and feelings, while the group explores your world and shares their experience in connection with you.

• Become more relationally aware by getting lots of present moment honest feedback about how others feel in connection with you moment by moment, when they feel most/least connected with you, how your way of being impacts others, how you seem, and stories/assumptions others have of you. This practice reveals your relational blindspots that are unconscious behaviours or patterns that push away potential connection and intimacy.

• Sharpen your intuition about interpersonal dynamics by developing a ninja level X-RAY vision for what others are truly feeling or thinking, and for noticing what is happening in interpersonally between people.

• Learn and practice the art of revealing withholds to build more transparent and honest relationships.

• Take steps towards mastering conscious communication skills like owning your experience, reflective listening, sharing impact, getting someone else’s world, and empathetic listening. You get better at articulating how you feel in the present moment through deeper somatic awareness (awareness of body sensations and feelings you’re experiencing in the moment) and improving emotional literacy (having access to a wider vocabulary of emotion words to describe how you feel).