Co-author of a 2022 Lund University psychology thesis evaluating an Authentic Relating weekend course.
39 people
Researching Circling and Authentic Relating4
- Cinna Gärdenfors
- Adrian Jönsson
Co-author of a 2022 Lund University psychology thesis evaluating an Authentic Relating weekend course.
- Andreea Nica
Sociologist of emotions, religion and family whose ethnography is the only peer-reviewed study of Authentic Relating and Circling communities.
- Tiia Silvennoinen
Author of a 2025 guide for facilitators of Authentic Relating connection games, written as a thesis at Häme University of Applied Sciences.
Using it in other fields8
- Jem Bendell
Originator of the Deep Adaptation concept and founder of the Deep Adaptation Forum; co-author of the account of Deep Relating.
- Katie Carr
A founding member of the Deep Adaptation Forum’s core team and co-author of the account of Deep Relating.
- Aaron Finbloom
Philosopher and performance artist who studies conversation as a medium for inquiry; a co-founder of The School of Making Thinking, trained in Circling and Authentic Relating.
- Laura Gottlieb
Design researcher who studies relational sensitivity in participatory design; PhD from Mälardalen University (2023).
- Margo Greenwood
Participatory-research specialist who brought Circling principles into the training of peer researchers in disability research.
- Rick Repetti
Philosopher who lists Circling and Authentic Relating among the tools of philosophical counselling.
- John Vervaeke
Cognitive scientist who has developed dialogue practices with Guy Sengstock and uses authentic relating exercises in teaching.
- Benjamin Whitehurst
Dreamwork practitioner, certified in Integral Circling, who developed Dream Circling.
Related science6
- Arthur Aron
Social psychologist of close relationships, known for the self-expansion model and the closeness procedure behind the “36 questions”.
- Elaine N. Aron
Research psychologist known for work on sensory-processing sensitivity; co-author of the closeness-generating procedure.
- Bethany E. Kok
Social psychologist and first author of the ReSource Project’s study of contemplative dyads.
- Lasse Lychnell
Management researcher who studies how managers carry meditation into their working lives, and designs contemplative exercises for teaching self-awareness and empathy.
- Hannah Matthaeus
First author of the 2024 randomised trial of online partner practice and loneliness, run at the Max Planck Society’s Social Neuroscience Lab.
- Tania Singer
Social neuroscientist who founded and led the ReSource Project, where contemplative dyads were developed and tested.
Philosophy10
- David Bohm
Theoretical physicist who, late in life, developed a group practice of dialogue built on suspending assumptions so a group can examine them together.
- Martin Buber
Austrian-born Jewish philosopher of dialogue. His distinction between I–It and I–Thou is the clearest account of what it means to meet another person.
- Hanne De Jaegher
Philosopher and cognitive scientist who developed participatory sense-making with Ezequiel Di Paolo: an account of how people understand one another through their bodies and the dynamics of their interaction.
- Ezequiel Di Paolo
Cognitive scientist and philosopher of enaction who developed participatory sense-making with Hanne De Jaegher.
- Hubert L. Dreyfus
American philosopher at the University of California, Berkeley, whose commentary made Heidegger’s account of everyday life readable.
- Eugene T. Gendlin
Philosopher and psychotherapist who worked with Carl Rogers at the University of Chicago and developed Focusing, a practice of attending to the felt sense.
- Martin Heidegger
German philosopher whose accounts of being-with, solicitude and attunement offer a vocabulary for what happens between people in a circle.
- Emmanuel Levinas
Lithuanian-born French philosopher for whom the encounter with another person, who always exceeds our understanding, is the origin of ethics.
- Maurice Merleau-Ponty
French phenomenologist who placed the lived body at the centre of perception, and of our understanding of other people.
- Iris Murdoch
Irish-born British philosopher and novelist who made attention, the patient and just looking at another person, central to ethics.
Practice and lineage11
- Bryan Bayer
Co-founder of the early San Francisco community Soul2Soul, the Authentic Man Program and The Integral Center.
- Jerry Candelaria
Co-creator of Circling with Guy Sengstock; together they led the first Circling weekends, the Arete Experience, from 1998.
- Decker Cunov
Co-founder of Authentic World and The Integral Center in Boulder, where the Integral Circling approach and its trainer programme were developed.
- Jason Digges
Co-founder of Authentic Relating Training International and author of a short history of the practice.
- Ryel Kestano
Co-founder of Authentic Relating Training International and author of a practitioner guide to Authentic Relating (2022).
- Robert MacNaughton
Co-founder of The Integral Center in Boulder in 2011, home of the Integral Circling approach.
- Sara Ness
Founder of Authentic Revolution and creator of the Authentic Relating Games Manual.
- Frederick S. Perls
German-born psychoanalyst who developed Gestalt therapy and, at Esalen in the 1960s, its “hot seat” workshops. Circling’s own histories name Gestalt among the practice’s roots.
- Guy Sengstock
Co-creator of Circling with Jerry Candelaria in San Francisco in the late 1990s, and founder of The Circling Institute.
- John Thompson
Co-founder of Circling Europe, now Transformational Connection; credited with Circling’s five principles and with Surrendered Leadership.
- Sean Wilkinson
Co-founder of Circling Europe, now Transformational Connection.
Listed for their public work only.