Ethical Guidelines for Seminars & Circles
During our seminars and circles, as well as in our work in general, we do our best to create safe reconnective spaces of trust where everyone feels welcome, included, valued, respected, heard and empowered. Being vulnerable and sharing and processing inner fears, conflicts, traumas, pain or insecurities requires deep trust and openness; in oneself and others. Authentic expression, openness, connection and trust are the foundations of deep community and are very fragile.
Given the deep, sensitive and at times challenging work done during the seminars and circles, and the need for safe and trauma sensitive spaces, all participants and facilitators commit to the following ethical guidelines.
- Inclusion: Everyone is welcome, particularly irrespective of their gender, origin, faith, colour, age (18+ years), relationship style and preferences, sexual orientation or their “disability”.
- Self Responsibility and Empowerment: Every participant is invited to take responsibility for their own actions, thoughts, feelings and responses to events and should feel empowered to make conscious decisions, express needs and set boundaries at all times.
- Non-Violent Communication: During the seminar or circle we aim to communicate with loving kindness and respect, owning our own opinions, expectations, needs, convictions, beliefs and feelings without projecting them onto someone else.
- Authenticity: During the event, we feel encouraged to drop our “masks” and to reconnect to the fullness of our authentic expression and self. Intentional deception, lying, cheating, manipulation, are qualities of a dying culture and have no place in our events.
- Boundaries: Everyone should feel encouraged to be clear about and to express their own (physical/mental/emotional) boundaries and they will be respected at all times.
- Mutual Aid: We commit to supporting each other during the seminar or circle and will do our best to lend others an open ear or helping hand whenever needed.
- Not-Knowing and Non-Judgement: During the seminar or circle we encounter each other and ourselves from a place of curiosity, openness, not-knowing and non-judgement.
- Free Choice and Voluntary Participation: No one shall be forced, coerced, manipulated or otherwise pushed – physically, emotionally or verbally – to participate in any of the seminar or circle activities.
- Confidentiality: The names and identities of participants will be treated with confidentiality and no information shall be shared outside the event that would allow others to identify any participant, unless explicit consent for sharing that information has been obtained from the concerned participant. This particularly includes sharing information, photographs or audio or video recordings on social media or online.
- Consent to record images, videos and audio: No one shall have an image, video or audio recording taken of them without their prior explicit (verbal) consent.
- Consent to Touch: No one shall be intentionally touched in intimate areas or in sexualized ways without the prior explicit verbal consent of the person to be touched.
- Acceptance of Imperfection: We acknowledge that we are creating experiential reconnective spaces of inquiry, exploration and experimentation and hence we are tolerant of genuine mistakes and misunderstandings that may occur during the event, particularly in more challenging situations.
Additional Ethical Guidelines for Facilitators
- Power Awareness: Our facilitators are aware of (potential) power imbalances that exist between them and participants. No facilitator may misuse their position of power and influence to gain any advantage over participants or to manipulate their behaviour for their own ends, particularly with reference to physical or intimate touch.
- Trauma Sensitivity and Awareness: We live in a deeply traumatized culture of fear and disconnection and most, if not all, participants will have been subjected to traumatic experiences during their lives. Our facilitators are trauma aware and are conducting the seminars with sensitivity and awareness of the issues that can arise from traumatic experiences and the risks of re-traumatization.
- Openness to Constructive Criticism: Our facilitators are committed to being open to, listening to and addressing constructive criticism that is brought forward against them or the event and regard it as an opportunity for reflection, adjustment, improvement and growth.
- Connector/Mediator: Sadly, like in the rest of our culture, (psychological/emotional/physical/sexual) exploitation, abuse and violence are also present in alternative and conscious communities and are not rarely committed by seminar/retreat facilitators. In order to create safe spaces of reconnection and to hold facilitators accountable, during every seminar we appoint a Connector/Mediator whose role it is to deal with any potential issues that may arise between facilitators and participants that cannot be solved in open and direct conversation.
Should anyone be found to be (intentionally) violating these guidelines, the facilitators reserve the right to exclude that person from further participation in certain activities. Should any person violate these guidelines repeatedly or severely, the facilitators reserve the right to exclude that person from the seminar or circle and ask them to leave the venue. No refund of any kind will be made.