For Anyone Representing the The Relateful Company (formerly CircleAnywhere), Relateful Austin (formerly Austin Circling Studio) Brand & ecosystem

These boundaries are here to bring more awareness, truth, and love; we recognize that unexamined sexual energy—both repressed and unchecked—can lead to consequences antithetical to the mission of our practice and purpose of the organization.

1. No sexual contact between Facilitators and Participants during an event or up to six months after the last event's end.
• Standard sexual and romantic boundaries, eg: contact to genitals, kissing, etc., 
• As well as the energetic level ← If you’re really honest with yourself and coming from an adult mindset what this points to will be super obvious
• Excluding existing relationships
2. If a Facilitator wants to explore sexual energy with a Participant before the end of six months, the Facilitator can request to go through the “Let’s Get Really Honest and Save Everyone a Boatload of Hassle” Process.
   • The “Let’s Get Really Honest and Save Everyone a Boatload of Hassle” Process entails the Facilitator having a private conversation with at minimum one person higher up in the Facilitation hierarchy (someone with more believability—more experience and authority in this domain). 
   • Get advice from other peer Facilitators before invoking the LGRHaSEaBoH Process.
   • We focus specifically on:
     • Deeper themes that might be expressing through sexuality and attraction, such as repeating historical patterns, eroticized wounds, acting in or acting out, using sex and attraction to get non-sexual needs met, various projections, introjections, and golden shadows, and any other contradictions, hidden assumptions, false opinions or untruths.
     • Ecosystem awareness and impacts, how the power dynamic might be influencing the attraction (are they really meeting as equals?), how open and honest the power dynamic is in the attraction, etc.
   • Before proceeding with sexual contact, the Facilitator and Participant must sign and date a written statement that says something like “I am aware that it is extremely likely that there are unconscious motivations and transferences in our relationship directly related to our meeting in a situation of unequal power in the environment of personal and spiritual growth (in addition to all the normal relational dynamics). I accept full responsibility for my individual choice to move forward with this relationship and hereby indemnify and hold harmless The Relateful Company from any negative consequences which may arise.”
3. Non-Compliance: 
   • Violating this policy results in a minimum one year suspension from facilitating in a Relateful Company event. 
   • If the severity of the infraction warrants it, a leader’s Relateful Company certification may be revoked.
   • The Violator can request a review with at least two Certifying Facilitators, (currently: Jordan, Val, Blas, Shara Philip, Liz) to determine if that person now understands and is committed to complying with the Facilitator-Participant Sexuality Policy.
     • They are expected to compensate both facilitator’s time at a their regular coaching rate, unless otherwise determined.

If any Facilitator does not feel a connection to the underlying purpose, spirit, and potential for greater embodiment and leadership in this policy, they are not authorized to lead under the Relateful Company brand.

This structure is open to evolution, a powerful boundary that will continue to update along with us and our society. The Relateful Company contractors can engage the Advice Process, Certified Facilitators are welcome to email [email protected] with suggestions, questions, and improvements.

Notes / Clarifications from Discussions:

Mission-Centered:

There are almost always more powerful ways to work with that very same sexual energy and attraction that have less negative side effects. 

A full integrity includes care for the practice itself, attunement to our culture, and awareness that our individual actions impact our team, the practice itself, and the evolution of consciousness.

On budgeting for the time:

This should only occur when a Facilitator is seriously wanting to build a long-term relationship and has already been in a personal process with it. Use your common sense and it'll be relatively rare. 

More on the intention:

We’ve found this supports Leaders and Participants with respect to clean, clear, context appropriate and beautiful expressions of sexuality and sexual energy. 

Sexual energy holds a lot of potential transformative power when skillfully worked with. It has a place in Relatefulness, just not to be acted out between Facilitators and Participants without due caution. We’ve seen that extreme prohibition of sexuality consistently leads to abuse—when not given a healthy outlet, they’ll find a more nefarious, less conscious way to be lived and known. The willingness to feel and admit these things is a huge part of the transformative power of Relatefulness—allowing us to see and transform unconscious patterns driving us such as acting out our eroticized wounds, hiding our deeper selves behind blind submission and/or deferring responsibility to rules, using sexual energies to get other needs met, and a bunch of other stuff. So this policy attempts to create a safe container for healthy expressions of what’s really going on.

We also acknowledge that cannot protect anyone from all dangers (and attempts to do so usually backfire, as classic and contemporary myths like Sleeping Beauty and Disney’s film Frozen show so masterfully), so our best effort is to nurture the inner resources, strengths, and capacities that each human already has.

Notes on Non-Compliance

This is an inclusive policy that asks only that the process be followed with a sincere, inquisitive  desire for the deeper truth; its intent is not to erect walls against thoughtful, considered, responsible connection. 

A leader who chooses to ignore this policy and proceed with an act or relationship with a participant within the six months during or after an event and without going through the LGRHaSEaBoH Process is in violation of the trust that we have placed in that leader. We take this violation quite seriously as it will impact the ability of the larger community to trust us as an organization.