What Circling is made of
Lineage · Anatomy · Among the therapies · Side by side
Every move in Circling has a precedent. At the centre is the practice, cut into its moves; around it are the earlier practices that teach the same moves. Each practice’s dot says whether Circling’s own histories name it as an influence: early, later, or not at all. Further out are the three families the practices come from, each practice joined to one.
The moves are the practice’s own, as Authentic Relating and Circling Europe publish them. A thread joins a move to an earlier practice where that practice’s own texts teach the same move; it says nothing about where Circling took it from. Each thread’s reason and source are in the lists, and the schools of thought a source ties to a move are named there too. How the links were drawn
What is Circling’s own
On our reading, little in Circling is new except the combination. Even the commitment to the connection itself has a precedent, in dialogic Gestalt, where it binds the therapist; what Circling adds is that it binds everyone, and that nobody is the patient. The nearest precedents for the practice as a whole are encounter groups and T-groups, which the Circling Guide likens Circling to; what exactly sets Circling apart is still an open question.
The moves10
- Welcome all
Whatever comes up is welcome; nothing needs fixing.
Gestalt therapy · Change comes from becoming what you are, not from trying to change. (Beisser, 1970)
Encounter groups · The facilitator accepts the group exactly where it is. (Rogers, 1970) Behind it: Humanistic psychology.
Vipassana · Equanimity: not reacting to what arises. (dhamma.org) Behind it: Buddhism.
Focusing · Meeting whatever arises with friendliness. (Gendlin, 1996) The same move; no influence recorded.
Circles of Trust · No fixing, saving, advising or correcting each other. (Center for Courage & Renewal, Touchstones) The same move; no influence recorded.
- Curiosity
Be genuinely interested in the other person, and in yourself.
Diamond Approach · Open-ended, curious inquiry into immediate experience. (the Diamond Approach’s own pages)
Circles of Trust · When judgement comes up, turn to wonder about the other person. (Center for Courage & Renewal, Touchstones) The same move; no influence recorded.
- Assume nothing
Notice assumptions and check them, instead of treating a story as fact.
Gestalt therapy · Its phenomenological method: telling what you perceive apart from how you interpret it. (Yontef & Simkin, 1989)
NVC · Observing without evaluating. (Rosenberg, 1999)
Zen · Beginner’s mind: open, without an expert’s fixed ideas. (Suzuki, 1970) Behind it: Buddhism.
est and Landmark · Telling what happened apart from the story told about it, as the Forum’s syllabus puts it. (Landmark Forum syllabus)
- Connection
Stay with the connection itself, whatever it brings.
Gestalt therapy · Commitment to dialogue: letting contact happen between people instead of steering it. (Yontef & Simkin, 1989)
- Own it
Speak for yourself, and don’t make others answerable for what you feel.
Gestalt therapy · Saying “I” instead of “it”, and the “I take responsibility” game. (Levitsky & Perls, 1970)
NVC · Feelings and needs stated as one’s own. (Rosenberg, 1999)
Getting Real · Truth skill six, Taking Back Projections: what you see in another person is often your own. (Campbell, 2001)
Circles of Trust · Speak your own truth in “I” statements, and let others speak theirs. (Center for Courage & Renewal, Touchstones) The same move; no influence recorded.
- Reveal
Say what is really going on for you as it happens, including what you would usually keep hidden.
T-groups · Learning centres on the here and now of the group. (Bradford, Gibb & Benne, 1964) The same move; no influence recorded.
Gestalt therapy · The principle of the now. (Levitsky & Perls, 1970)
Radical Honesty · Saying out loud what you notice, as it happens. (Blanton, 1996)
Getting Real · Truth skills one and two: Experiencing What Is, Being Transparent. (Campbell, 2001)
- Their world
Explore with the person what it is like to be them, right now.
Gestalt therapy · Inclusion: entering the other’s experience without judging or interpreting it. (Yontef & Simkin, 1989)
Encounter groups · The facilitator listens closely to each person, to understand what they mean. (Rogers, 1970) Behind it: Humanistic psychology.
NVC · Receiving empathically: being present to what the other person feels and needs. (Rosenberg, 1999)
Focusing · The listener reflects the speaker’s meaning back, point by point. (Gendlin, 1978) The same move; no influence recorded.
- Sensation
Keep close to what the body is feeling.
Gestalt therapy · The awareness continuum, down to bodily experience. (Levitsky & Perls, 1970)
Vipassana · Observing bodily sensation moment to moment. (dhamma.org) Behind it: Buddhism.
Focusing · The felt sense: the body’s own sense of a situation. (Gendlin, 1978) The same move; no influence recorded.
Radical Honesty · Noticing what happens in your body. (Blanton, 1996)
- Impact
Tell the person how what they say and do lands with you.
T-groups · Members give each other feedback on how each affects the others. (Bradford, Gibb & Benne, 1964) The same move; no influence recorded.
Gestalt therapy · After hot-seat work, the group tells the person how it was affected. (Yontef & Simkin, 1989)
Encounter groups · Feedback on specific behaviour, given only as a feeling the speaker owns. (Rogers, 1970)
Radical Honesty · Telling people your resentments and appreciations. (Blanton, 1996)
Getting Real · Saying how what the other person just said lands: “Hearing you say that, I feel…”. (Campbell, 2005)
- Takes part
The leader holds the structure and is a participant too.
Gestalt therapy · In dialogic Gestalt the therapist shares observations and feelings. (Yontef & Simkin, 1989) Behind it: Dialogical philosophy.
Encounter groups · The facilitator takes part and says what they feel as it arises in the group. (Rogers, 1970)
Earlier practices12
- 1947T-groups
Not named as an influence in Circling’s histories. Circling’s histories don’t name them. Digges traces Authentic Relating’s roots to T-groups Susan Campbell led, which her own biography doesn’t mention; the Circling Guide likens Circling to them.
Family · Group trainings Begun by Lewin’s colleagues at the National Training Laboratories (NTL’s own history).
Grew out of Kurt Lewin’s group dynamics; Lewin trained among the Gestalt psychologists in Berlin.
- 1951Gestalt therapy
Named as an early influence (Coutts; the Circling Guide).
Moves Reveal, Own it, Sensation, Assume nothing, Welcome all, Impact, Their world, Connection, Takes part
Family · Humanistic psychology Counted as a humanistic approach (Britannica), though it helped found the field rather than growing out of it; its own roots are psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology and phenomenology.
Grew out of Psychoanalysis, in which Fritz Perls trained; Gestalt psychology; phenomenology and existentialism, much of it through Laura Perls. Fritz Perls taught at Esalen in the 1960s.
- 1960sEncounter groups
Named as an early influence (Coutts; the Circling Guide). Sengstock has warned against mixing encounter-group methods into Circling.
Moves Their world, Welcome all, Takes part, Impact
Family · Group trainings Rogers traces the group movement to Lewin’s T-groups and to his own Chicago Counseling Center (Rogers, 1970); humanistic psychology would be the other honest home.
Grew out of Humanistic psychology; the human potential movement at Esalen.
- 1960sNVC
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts; the Circling Guide’s NVC page calls it a possible precursor).
Moves Assume nothing, Own it, Their world
Family · Humanistic psychology Rosenberg studied under Carl Rogers (his author’s note).
Grew out of Rosenberg studied under Carl Rogers.
- 1962Zen
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts).
Moves Assume nothing
Family · Contemplative traditions Sōtō Zen as Shunryu Suzuki taught it (San Francisco Zen Center).
- 1969Vipassana
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts). Practised in silence and alone.
Moves Sensation, Welcome all
Family · Contemplative traditions Theravada insight meditation, traced to the Buddha (dhamma.org; Britannica).
- 1971est and Landmark
Named as an early influence (Coutts; the Circling Guide; Sengstock, writing about Candelaria). Coutts remembers the first Circling course as like a Landmark course, only warmer.
Moves Assume nothing
Family · Group trainings A large-group awareness training, as the research literature calls it (Finkelstein, Wenegrat and Yalom, 1982); est names Zen, Scientology and Mind Dynamics first among its sources, and encounter and Rogers too (Bartley, 1978).
- 1976Diamond Approach
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts, as Sengstock’s influence; the Circling Guide counts it early).
Moves Curiosity
Family · Contemplative traditions Draws on Sufism, the Gurdjieff Work and Buddhism, and equally on depth psychology (Almaas, in a 1992 interview); a judgement call.
- 1978Focusing
Not named as an influence in Circling’s histories. Not named in Circling’s histories; Deep Relating, an offshoot, cites it.
Moves Sensation, Welcome all, Their world
Family · Humanistic psychology Gendlin developed it under Rogers’s guidance (the Focusing Institute’s history).
Grew out of Carl Rogers’s client-centred therapy; phenomenology and pragmatism.
- 1994Radical Honesty
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts). Its institute dropped coercive practices in 2021.
Moves Reveal, Sensation, Impact
Family · Humanistic psychology Blanton trained in Gestalt therapy with Fritz Perls (his author’s note).
Grew out of Blanton trained in Gestalt therapy with Fritz Perls.
- 2001Getting Real
Named as a later influence, as Circling grew (Coutts; Digges says the first Circling schools all assigned it).
Family · Humanistic psychology Campbell trained in Gestalt therapy and psychosynthesis, among seven trainings her biography lists, and teaches Radical Honesty; a judgement call.
Grew out of Campbell trained in group dynamics, Gestalt therapy, psychosynthesis and more; her biography lists seven trainings.
- 2004Circles of Trust
Not named as an influence in Circling’s histories. Circling Europe’s lineage page lists Quaker circles, and Palmer’s development of them, among Circling’s antecedents.
Moves Own it, Welcome all, Curiosity
Family · Contemplative traditions Developed at Pendle Hill, a Quaker community (Palmer, 2004); “contemplative” is our word for Quaker practice.
Grew out of Quaker meeting practice, by Palmer’s own account.
See Gestalt therapy and Focusing beside Circling, question by question
Families and schools of thought7
- Buddhism
Zen · Assume nothing: A Zen Buddhist teaching. (Suzuki, 1970)
Vipassana · Sensation: A technique traced to the Buddha. (dhamma.org)
Vipassana · Welcome all: A technique traced to the Buddha. (dhamma.org)
- Contemplative traditions
A grouping by origin, not a school of thought. Buddhism, within it, is one: the Vipassana and Zen claims name it.
Practices · Zen, Vipassana, Diamond Approach, Circles of Trust
- Phenomenology
Circling directly · Sengstock quotes Heidegger on his blog and billed a 2020 talk on Heidegger’s influence on Circling. (Sengstock’s blog; Embodiment Conference, 2020)
- Dialogical philosophy
Gestalt therapy · Takes part: Dialogic Gestalt works with Buber’s I–Thou (Woldt & Toman). (Yontef & Simkin, 1989)
Circling directly · A 2026 post on the Circling Institute’s blog says Buber’s I–Thou underpins its work. (Circling Institute blog, 2026)
- Group trainings
A grouping by format and descent, not a school of thought: practices run as trained groups. Encounter groups also drew on Rogers’s own work, and est names encounter and Rogers among its many sources.
Practices · T-groups, Encounter groups, est and Landmark
- Humanistic psychology
Also the family that five of the practices grew out of or belong to.
Practices · Gestalt therapy, NVC, Focusing, Radical Honesty, Getting Real
Encounter groups · Their world: Empathy is central to the psychology Rogers helped found. (Rogers, 1970)
Encounter groups · Welcome all: Unconditional acceptance is a humanistic tenet Rogers set out. (Rogers, 1970)
- Integral theory
Circling directly · Integral Circling grew at the Boulder Integral Center, which Wilber names; Circling Europe’s lineage page says the integral world gave Circling a home. (Wilber, 2017; Circling Europe’s lineage page)
How the links were drawn
The moves. Each piece is one of the practice’s published principles, shortened, or a named part of one: Authentic Relating’s five practices as ART International publishes them, and Circling Europe’s five principles as the International Circling Federation lists them, merged where the two overlap. Two pieces, Impact and Takes part, are not among the published principles; they come from the Federation’s descriptions of a circle, and their entries say so.
The links. A thread from a piece to an earlier practice means that practice’s own texts teach the same move. It doesn’t mean Circling took the move from there. Whether Circling’s histories name the practice as an influence is shown by its dot: filled for the early influences, half filled for those that arrived as Circling grew, open for none. The histories are Adam Coutts’s history of Circling, the Circling Guide and, where an entry says so, Jason Digges’s history of Authentic Relating and Guy Sengstock’s writing. A school of thought is not drawn: where a source ties one to a move, the claim line names it; history that bears on no move is told in each practice’s “Grew out of” line. Where a Circling teacher or school names a school of thought directly, its entry says so, with the source.
The families. Each earlier practice is joined to one family on the outer ring: the body of practice it grew out of or belongs to, by its own account or a reference work. There are three: humanistic psychology, group trainings and the contemplative traditions. A family is a grouping, not a claim about Circling. Where the placement is a judgement call, as for Gestalt therapy, est and Landmark, Getting Real and the Diamond Approach, the entry says so and names the alternative. A family is also a school of thought only where a source ties it to a move: humanistic psychology through Rogers, and Buddhism, within the contemplative traditions, through Vipassana and Zen. Pointing at a family lights its practices and every move they teach; that is the group, not a claim about any one move.
What the figure doesn’t show. How much each source contributed: every claim is one thread. When anything was borrowed: the years are first publication or founding. That Circling’s founders read any of these, unless an entry says so. Completeness: a practice that isn’t here may teach the same move. Position around the circle means nothing; it is computed to keep threads short, and a thread that runs round the disc rather than across it is only taking the long way. And the founders’ view runs the other way: Sengstock writes that the practice came before any theory, and the Circling Guide says more than one group found it independently.
Also named as early influences, with no move traced here: Stanislav Grof’s holotropic breathwork, David Deida’s teaching, Justin Sterling’s weekends, Vic Baranco’s Lafayette Morehouse, Burning Man, and rave culture and psychedelics. Named as a later influence, with no move traced: Tarthang Tulku’s Time, Space and Knowledge teaching.
Not listed as families or schools of thought, because no source ties them to a move: psychoanalysis, Gestalt psychology, existentialism, pragmatism, Quaker practice and the human potential movement. They appear in the practices’ “Grew out of” lines.
35 links, each checked against the source named · Checked 1 November 2026
From the centre outwards
- Circling, cut into its moves10
- Earlier practices12
- Families3
- Named an early influence in Circling’s histories
- Named a later influence
- Not named; the same move only
Point at a move, an earlier practice or a family