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 participants will be in small groups, co-creating here-and-now structures for the large group to try. After each structure we will engage in a “There-and-Then” practice to discuss the experiment. 

Rough Schedule (Subject to Change) Friday April 12th, 6-9pm: Opening Circle, Agreements, Warmups, First Full Group Circle Saturday April 13th, 10am-6:30pm: Deepening into Circling modalities. Saturday April 14th, 10am-6:30pm: Co-Designing Circling. [Lunch breaks will take place on both Saturday and Sunday from 1-2pm]

Price: Price is tiered based on 3 income levels. Please see chart. All prices are in USD. Tier 1 $240 / Tier 2 $180 / Tier 3 $120 BIPOC: Tier 3 

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 [thedeepplayinstitute@gmail.com]. We are committed to covering our basic costs, while also making this possible for everyone who wants it. 

Please see chart. (better quality image here)

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: We will follow CDC protocol regarding covid isolation and engagement (i.e. "If you test positive for COVID-19, stay home for at least 5 days and isolate from others in your home."). If anyone tests positive for covid, they must wait to attend until 5 days after the first day of developing symptoms (and in this situation, if they are still testing positive at this point, they can attend, but with a mask). 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 you cannot attend the workshop. If you test negative, and you are sick, we ask you to still wear a mask (as tests can deliver false negatives). For everyone else, masks are optional.

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: This weekend intensive is intended for participants who reside in Philadelphia. 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.

About the facilitators: 

 Aaron Finbloom is a philosopher, artist, pedagogue and counselor. He is also the founder and director of the Deep Play Institute. Finbloom's work (and play) involves expanding and deepening transformative inquiry through games, performance, and structured play. After an initial 40-hour psychodrama training in 2018, Finbloom co-led a psychodrama group in Montreal, and has directed dozens of psychodrama sessions in the forthcoming years. His facilitation style is informed by training in Circling, Authentic Relating, Vipassana Meditation and profoundly inspired by Internal Family Systems Therapy both in theory and practice. Finbloom has been seeing individual clients for over two years using transformative deep play techniques derived from these aforementioned practices. He holds a PhD in relational practice from Concordia University's Interdisciplinary Humanities & Fine Arts program, and teaches philosophy at the City College of New York and The University of Portland.

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. ​