CIRCLING INTENSIVE
A weekend intensive of Here-&-Now practice in NYC
Brooklyn Art Exchange 421 5th Ave, Brooklyn NY
Friday Nov 14 - Sunday Nov 16th, 2025
Sliding Scale: $350 - $300 - $250 - BIPOC $250
Friday Nov 14 - Sunday Nov 16th, 2025
Sliding Scale: $350 - $300 - $250 - BIPOC $250
Join The Deep Play Institute for a weekend intensive of Circling: a here-and-now practice of deepening connection, authenticity and presence. Circling, developed by Guy Sengstock in the 1990s, is one of many practices aimed at exploring the here-and-now in a group. Other such practices include Group Therapy, T-Group, Group Relations Conferences, Process Work. Please find more info about Circling here.
The aim of our weekend is twofold. The first is to deepen into the practice of Circling, which involves bringing more connection and authenticity in relation to each other within our group. This deepening will involve practicing multiple Circling modalities including: Large Group Circles, Small Group Circles, Dyads, Circles that focus on one person’s experience (called Birthday Circles), Circles with predefined roles such as mother, empathetic listener, clown (called Kabuki Circles), and Circles with explicit representation of shadowy/challenging aspects of the group (called Coyote Circling).
The second aim of our weekend intensive is for participants to try co-creating new Circling modalities. As facilitators we are riveted by playing with the structures of play. We think this meta-play brings a heightened awareness to the impermanence of rules and the magical process of designing towards depth, connection, and awareness. On the last day of the weekend intensive we will co-create and iterate on a new here-and-now structure based on our emergent interests as a group.
NOTE ON EMOTIONAL REGULATION: This intensive is designed for highlighting and exploring the emotional landscape that unfolds within the group, and not well designed for majorly flooded emotion from outside the group. If at this moment in your life you find you are highly activated by something you cannot set down, it's best not to participate at this time. We understand that therapy can be very expensive and trusted therapists are hard to find, and there might be some temptation to come to this group for that kind of care, but it is not designed for that kind of individual attention, and the ask is that you have some settledness and calm available to you so we can play deeply together.
Rough Schedule (Subject to Change)
Friday Nov 14th, 7-9pm: Opening Circle, Agreements, Warmups, First Full Group Circle
Saturday Nov 15th, 10am-6:00pm: Deepening into Circling modalities.
Sunday Nov 16th, 10am-6:00pm: Co-Creating New Structure.
[We will have a 1-hour Lunch break on both Saturday and Sunday]
Price: Price is tiered sliding scale based on 3 income levels. All prices are in USD.
Tier 1 $350 / Tier 2 $300 / Tier 3 $250 BIPOC: Tier 250
Sliding Scale: Please try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch [[email protected]]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who wants it.
Maximum Participants: 10
Emotional Safety: The practices on offer are designed to cultivate vulnerability, with its pleasures and its hardships. The practices tend to surface conflict and hurt that might conventionally be quieted or minimized. It is common to experience triggers of past psychological wounds within this practice, and this should be accounted for as a possibility. The intimacy of these practices might be compared to the way one's deepest romantic relationships sometimes surface one's most challenging psychological material. The facilitators will use techniques to contain and care for what arises, but will not be able to provide ongoing care for emotional fallout. The invitation is to be watchful of one's own safety and opt out in little and big ways as needed, and to have emotional processing methods in place (such as therapy, meditation, journaling, processing with friends, etc) that can help you learn with and from what happens at the intensive.
Covid Policy: If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask you to please take a home-test and if you test positive and still have fever you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, or if you test positive and 1) Your symptoms are getting better overall, and 2) You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication) for 3 days, then we still require you to wear a mask. For everyone else, masks are optional. We may update these policies in accordance with evolving public health guidance.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis.
Partial Attendance: All participants are required to attend the Opening Circle on Day 1 of the Intensive. Given the intimacy and trust building inherent to the program, we highly recommend that all participants plan to stay for the entire weekend.
Note on Out-of-Town Guests: The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.
About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.
The aim of our weekend is twofold. The first is to deepen into the practice of Circling, which involves bringing more connection and authenticity in relation to each other within our group. This deepening will involve practicing multiple Circling modalities including: Large Group Circles, Small Group Circles, Dyads, Circles that focus on one person’s experience (called Birthday Circles), Circles with predefined roles such as mother, empathetic listener, clown (called Kabuki Circles), and Circles with explicit representation of shadowy/challenging aspects of the group (called Coyote Circling).
The second aim of our weekend intensive is for participants to try co-creating new Circling modalities. As facilitators we are riveted by playing with the structures of play. We think this meta-play brings a heightened awareness to the impermanence of rules and the magical process of designing towards depth, connection, and awareness. On the last day of the weekend intensive we will co-create and iterate on a new here-and-now structure based on our emergent interests as a group.
NOTE ON EMOTIONAL REGULATION: This intensive is designed for highlighting and exploring the emotional landscape that unfolds within the group, and not well designed for majorly flooded emotion from outside the group. If at this moment in your life you find you are highly activated by something you cannot set down, it's best not to participate at this time. We understand that therapy can be very expensive and trusted therapists are hard to find, and there might be some temptation to come to this group for that kind of care, but it is not designed for that kind of individual attention, and the ask is that you have some settledness and calm available to you so we can play deeply together.
Rough Schedule (Subject to Change)
Friday Nov 14th, 7-9pm: Opening Circle, Agreements, Warmups, First Full Group Circle
Saturday Nov 15th, 10am-6:00pm: Deepening into Circling modalities.
Sunday Nov 16th, 10am-6:00pm: Co-Creating New Structure.
[We will have a 1-hour Lunch break on both Saturday and Sunday]
Price: Price is tiered sliding scale based on 3 income levels. All prices are in USD.
Tier 1 $350 / Tier 2 $300 / Tier 3 $250 BIPOC: Tier 250
Sliding Scale: Please try to reasonably and honestly select the price that reflects your economic situation. If you are unable to find a price that is suitable for you, please get in touch [[email protected]]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who wants it.
Maximum Participants: 10
Emotional Safety: The practices on offer are designed to cultivate vulnerability, with its pleasures and its hardships. The practices tend to surface conflict and hurt that might conventionally be quieted or minimized. It is common to experience triggers of past psychological wounds within this practice, and this should be accounted for as a possibility. The intimacy of these practices might be compared to the way one's deepest romantic relationships sometimes surface one's most challenging psychological material. The facilitators will use techniques to contain and care for what arises, but will not be able to provide ongoing care for emotional fallout. The invitation is to be watchful of one's own safety and opt out in little and big ways as needed, and to have emotional processing methods in place (such as therapy, meditation, journaling, processing with friends, etc) that can help you learn with and from what happens at the intensive.
Covid Policy: If any participant has symptoms of covid (i.e. cold symptoms), we ask you to please take a home-test and if you test positive and still have fever you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, or if you test positive and 1) Your symptoms are getting better overall, and 2) You have not had a fever (and are not using fever-reducing medication) for 3 days, then we still require you to wear a mask. For everyone else, masks are optional. We may update these policies in accordance with evolving public health guidance.
Cancellation Policy: Refunds are available up to 30 days before the event - minus a $20 processing fee. After this time we are unable to provide a refund for the event. Partial refunds might be given if a cancellation takes place under extenuating circumstances (e.g. a death of a 1st or 2nd degree family member, serious non-preventable illness or accident requiring hospitalization). Refunds in such cases remain at the discretion of the local organizers and will be decided on a case to case basis.
Partial Attendance: All participants are required to attend the Opening Circle on Day 1 of the Intensive. Given the intimacy and trust building inherent to the program, we highly recommend that all participants plan to stay for the entire weekend.
Note on Out-of-Town Guests: The Deep Play Institute is not able to provide accommodations for out-of-town participants. DPI is also not able to refund any travel or housing costs in the unlikely event of cancellation.
About the Deep Play Institute The Deep Play Institute is a nonprofit organization committed to exploring life’s deepest questions through transformative play. DPI’s facilitators – therapists, artists, coaches, and philosophers – aim to use play to bring people into an experiential questioning of what it means to exist. Each program that DPI runs is a unique container, creatively constructed and inspired by practices that include: Gestalt therapy, Process Work, Psychodrama, Internal Family Systems Therapy, Tavistock Group Relations, Relational Psychoanalysis, Authentic Relating, Nonviolent Communication, Circling, coaching, performance art, contact improvisation, experimental theater, LARPs, surrealism, existential games, and various schools of meditation.
TESTIMONIALS
FROM PAST CIRCLING INTENSIVES
"The Circling Intensive with Netta and Aaron left me feeling deeply satisfied with the play, creativity, and connection that we were able to co-create as a group. I'm grateful for their care and intentionality in facilitating this experience. These kind of physical and emotional experiences feel like a central part of the answer to a world that increasingly feels chaotic and fractured. I will definitely be doing more DPI events!"
"Circling with Deep Play feels like an important moment for me as my creative identity is shifting. To enter into a space and liminal community with the intentions of presence, deep connection, honesty, and growth allowed for an encounter with a sacred and invigorating group dynamic. Aaron and Netta’s hands off yet active approach really felt organic and safe, in that it allowed the group to seek its own meaning for the work."
"The workshop is a beautifully designed journey into the world of circling. The group work is intense and real. Play and imagination are nourished. And the process is held by skilled facilitation. Thank you."
FROM PAST CIRCLING INTENSIVES
"The Circling Intensive with Netta and Aaron left me feeling deeply satisfied with the play, creativity, and connection that we were able to co-create as a group. I'm grateful for their care and intentionality in facilitating this experience. These kind of physical and emotional experiences feel like a central part of the answer to a world that increasingly feels chaotic and fractured. I will definitely be doing more DPI events!"
"Circling with Deep Play feels like an important moment for me as my creative identity is shifting. To enter into a space and liminal community with the intentions of presence, deep connection, honesty, and growth allowed for an encounter with a sacred and invigorating group dynamic. Aaron and Netta’s hands off yet active approach really felt organic and safe, in that it allowed the group to seek its own meaning for the work."
"The workshop is a beautifully designed journey into the world of circling. The group work is intense and real. Play and imagination are nourished. And the process is held by skilled facilitation. Thank you."
FACILITATORS
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Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist, therapist, and educator whose work aims to expand transformative inquiry through relational games, role play, performance art, and conversation scores. He co-founded The School of Making Thinking (SMT) and is the founder and director of The Deep Play Institute (DPI). His projects have been featured internationally at venues such as the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Gallery 151 in New York, Maschinenhaus Kulturbrauerei in Berlin, UNAM in Mexico City, Performance Works Northwest in Portland, and MainLine Theatre in Montreal. Trained in Circling, Psychodrama, Buddhist Meditation, and Processwork, Aaron holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Humanities from Concordia University in Montreal and teaches philosophy at the City College of New York. Learn more at www.finblooming.com.
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Netta Sadovsky, MFA, LSW (she/they) is an artist and therapist living in Philadelphia, PA, and the Assistant Director at The Deep Play Institute. Netta leads retreats and events in their role at The Deep Play Institute, and has a passion for building community around relational mindfulness and creativity. At West Philly Therapy Center, they provide individual and relationship therapy specializing in Somatic Internal Family Systems, working with kink, polyamory, challenges of artmaking, and healing from relational trauma. Netta has a Masters in Social Work and Social Research from Bryn Mawr College, has level 1 training in Internal Family Systems Therapy, small group consultancy training in Tavistock Group Relations, and extensive training in Psychodrama and Ketamine Assisted Psychotherapy. Netta has a background in visual art, with an MFA from Tyler School of Art.
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