"What exactly is it, though?" -- we get that a lot.

There are some staple links-- the inaccurate wiki article for encounter groups [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-groups], or websites for more well-known Authentic Relating groups [https://www.authrev.org/], or T-groups [https://crystallindillon.com/training/]-- but combing through them can be tedious, and usually leaves the questioners unsatisfied. Here, then, is an extremely concrete description of What We Do. But before you read it, acknowledge that however scary, cheesy, or amazing you might imagine these activities to be, be open to the possibility that they are inherently unpredictable, and that that is part of their appeal:

1) We check in and do a warm-up. This often involves breaking into pairs.
I'm fond of doing exercises that involve prolonged eye contact. Other warm-ups involve completing simple sentence stems like, "My first impression of you was..." or, after some time talking, "I felt most impact by you when...." We try to mix it up each week.

2) We do one of two "heavy" games: T-group and Circling. These involve breaking into groups of 4 - 10.
T-group is an interaction sandbox where all participants allow one another to step outside the bounds of social norms, and get more real with each other-- whatever that means to them. Circling is when a larger group dedicates all of their attention to one person for about 40 minutes, trying to realize what it's like to be them.

3) We also do some lighter games: Hot Seat (rapid-fire questions from the group), Fly on the Wall (a group talks about you like you're not in the room), and a soon-to-be renamed game that involves co-creating a random experience. We also claim to have an extremely edgy game, where people's comfort zones are typically pushed to their limits, but we're revamping that one as well. Sorry (not sorry) for the mystery.

Greenville Circling