(The term “Circling” also got recently trademarked so if you want to try it, it’s also being done under other names like “relatefulness” and “transformational connection” these days.)
Why did this happen? I feel like people who already know about circling probably know the answer to this, but that people who don’t probably don’t (I’m in the latter group).
I don’t know the details. The official explanation is this:
When individuals with little training attempt to facilitate Circling, or teach/train others their arbitrarily altered versions and still call it Circling, then consumers and students – at best – receive a sub-standard experience and the reputation of Circling suffers greatly, along with its impact in the world.
Between the three schools there are hundreds of accounts of:
People taking one or two 3-hour workshops, or merely experiencing Circling at a drop in event or festival, and then advertising that they are leading their own Circling workshops
People coming to a few drop in events & turning around and offer “Circling” to large corporations for corporate culture training.
People claiming they were emotionally abused by facilitators at an event that advertised itself as “Circling” but had no ties to any of the 3 Certified Circling Schools
In order to protect the public consumer and the legacy of Circling, we need to use the term “Circling” consistently and limit the use of the term to those who are actually using and teaching the authentic communication and relating tools taught by the Certified Circling Schools.
… but then I also heard it claimed that Circling Europe, previously one of the main Circling schools in very good standing, ended up not having a permission to use the trademark because the licensing fees for it would have been so exorbitant that CE found it better to use a different name than to pay them. So maybe it was more of a cash grab? (Or just a combination of several different motives.)
Why did this happen? I feel like people who already know about circling probably know the answer to this, but that people who don’t probably don’t (I’m in the latter group).
I don’t know the details. The official explanation is this:
… but then I also heard it claimed that Circling Europe, previously one of the main Circling schools in very good standing, ended up not having a permission to use the trademark because the licensing fees for it would have been so exorbitant that CE found it better to use a different name than to pay them. So maybe it was more of a cash grab? (Or just a combination of several different motives.)