Toronto Open Relating Community

Do you ever find yourself looking for more from your relationships? Or finding that relating with others is challenging, and wish you could have help?

This event may be for you. We’re having an afternoon of organized discussion about what it means to be human and to relate with others, followed by some connection exercises to practice skills and techniques.

The discussion salon will include opportunities to share feelings in groups of different sizes. It’s a chance to feel heard and connected, and to practice openness and compassion and empathy.

The connection exercises, following the discussion, will provide an opportunity to learn and practice skills that are helpful for open relating. These exercises may include opportunities for gentle, non-sexual touch and may tenderly touch on challenging edges for some people, including the possibility of some clothing optional exercises towards the end. Participants are always at choice, including choosing to observe the exercise or leave this part of the program.

This month's theme is conflict & repair - this theme will inform some of the exercises and the discussion. But the overall format is similar from month to month. (Previous themes have included authenticity & vulnerability, and empathy & compassion)

After the salon there will be a small casual gathering with snacks and a chance to connect informally. The duration of the event is about 3 hours.

There is a suggested donation of $15 to cover the cost of snacks and materials. A donation jar will be available at the event.

Note that this event is being run twice, once on Saturday May 16, and again the next day, because the last two events we ran were full and we had to turn people away. The content of the event will be identical, but the participants will be different. The Sunday event is already full but there is a wait list, and there's a decent chance that spaces will open up before it happens. The Saturday event has space. Each day there will be up to 12 participants; some are coming from the open relating community via Facebook or other contacts, while others are new to the community and are coming via Meetup.

I will be asking registered participants and people wanting to be on the wait list for contact information other than Meetup, either a phone # for texting or a Facebook contact for messaging. This is because often things change at the last minute (e.g. spaces open up for the waitlist, people have questions about parking, etc., etc.) and I want to be able to contact you quickly, and experience has shown that most people don't check Meetup messages frequently enough to communicate quickly enough.

I will send information about address and logistics to registered participants a few days before the event.

Do you ever find yourself looking for more from your relationships? Or finding that relating with others is challenging, and wish you could have help?

This event may be for you. We’re having an afternoon of organized discussion about what it means to be human and to relate with others, followed by some connection exercises to practice skills and techniques.

The discussion salon will include opportunities to share feelings in groups of different sizes. It’s a chance to feel heard and connected, and to practice openness and compassion and empathy.

The connection exercises, following the discussion, will provide an opportunity to learn and practice skills that are helpful for open relating. These exercises may include opportunities for gentle, non-sexual touch and may tenderly touch on challenging edges for some people, including the possibility of some clothing optional exercises towards the end. Participants are always at choice, including choosing to observe the exercise or leave this part of the program.

This month's theme is conflict & repair - this theme will inform some of the exercises and the discussion. But the overall format is similar from month to month. (Previous themes have included authenticity & vulnerability, and empathy & compassion)

After the salon there will be a small casual gathering with snacks and a chance to connect informally. The duration of the event is about 3 hours.

There is a suggested donation of $15 to cover the cost of snacks and materials. A donation jar will be available at the event.

Note that this event is being run twice, once on Saturday May 16, and again the next day, because the last two events we ran were full and we had to turn people away. The content of the event will be identical, but the participants will be different. The Sunday event is already full but there is a wait list, and there's a decent chance that spaces will open up before it happens. The Saturday event has space. Each day there will be up to 12 participants; some are coming from the open relating community via Facebook or other contacts, while others are new to the community and are coming via Meetup.

I will be asking registered participants and people wanting to be on the wait list for contact information other than Meetup, either a phone # for texting or a Facebook contact for messaging. This is because often things change at the last minute (e.g. spaces open up for the waitlist, people have questions about parking, etc., etc.) and I want to be able to contact you quickly, and experience has shown that most people don't check Meetup messages frequently enough to communicate quickly enough.

I will send information about address and logistics to registered participants a few days before the event.