A controlled trial of Circling
Does a Circling programme reduce loneliness or build closeness more than an active control?
Open questions
Open questions a credible research programme could take on, each with what it builds on and a possible design.
They are starting points, written so that a student, a lab or a practitioner-researcher could pick one up.
Active ingredients
Which parts of the practice do the work: present-moment attention, disclosure, or hearing how you affect others?
Authenticity as a social script
How do relational communities develop shared scripts for being authentic, and what does that do to the practice?
Bodies in synchrony
Do participants’ physiology and movement synchronise during a circle, and does synchrony track felt connection?
Safety, facilitation and harm
What makes a circle safe, and what goes wrong when it isn’t?
Transfer beyond the room
Does closeness built in a circle carry into people’s existing relationships?
What being met is like
What do people actually experience in the moments they describe as being seen or met?