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Our Relational Coaching Circles are growing! 🌱
Since our community began on 1 March 2026, it has grown to 57 members, with more joining.
My deepest gratitude and thanks to you all for your trust, openness, vulnerability, and generous sharing of yourselves! Without you, there would be no community. ☀️
One poem, many different experiences
📗 In yesterday’s circle, we explored a poem, simply staying with the words and noticing their impact on each of us.
It always amazes me how the exact same words and images can touch us in such different, at times opposite, ways. Mind you, I shouldn’t be surprised: through my Gestalt lens, those differences make total sense. We each bring different experiences, histories, and contexts—different Ground and Fields. What becomes a figure of interest, how we interpret it, and the meanings we make will inevitably also be different…
We didn’t try to arrive at a shared interpretation or understanding. We simply stayed curious about what emerged for each of us, witnessing it with open hearts and ears.
💬 Those who wanted to had space to work in pairs, receiving peer coaching or exploring a client case on their mind.
As always, I forgot to ask the 11 wonderful participants if I could take a picture of their beautiful smiles 🙈. Hopefully, I’ll remember when we meet next time.
📌 If you’d like to explore the poem for yourself, you’ll find it in a dedicated section below, together with some reflection prompts. I’d love to hear what the experience is like for you. 🌻
An invitation to our next circle
📆 Our next Relational Circle—and our last of 2026—is on 16 December.
I’d love to see as many of you as possible! There’ll be no 12-participant limit that day. The more, the merrier! 🎉
The 2027 dates are also already set, and I’ll share them soon.
📌 Want to join our community? Click here to find out more.
📌 Want to spend some time with the poem? Scroll down 👇🏽.
With love,
Dina 🫶🏽
📗 Your turn: “The Door”—poem and reflection
The Door
Go and open the door.
Maybe outside there’s
a tree, or a wood,
a garden,
or a magic city.
Go and open the door.
Maybe a dog’s rummaging.
Maybe you’ll see a face,
or an eye,
or the picture
of a picture.
Go and open the door.
If there’s a fog
it will clear.
Go and open the door.
Even if there’s only
the darkness ticking,
even if there’s only
the hollow wind,
even if
nothing
is there,
go and open the door.
At least
there’ll be
a draught.
—Miroslav Holub
from Poems Before & After: Collected English translations
(Bloodaxe Books, 2006)
📌 Reflection prompts: noticing what emerges
There’s no need to work out what the poem means or find something useful in it. These prompts are an invitation to stay with your own experience. Take your time, and have a pen and paper nearby to capture whatever emerges without overthinking it or censoring yourself.
1. Read the poem aloud
- Simply savour the words and notice their impact as you speak them.
- What do you notice in yourself? What was that experience like?
2. Read it aloud a second time
- Which part of the poem stays with you—a word? an image? a sensation? Write it down.
- As you stay with that word, image, or sensation: what voices, images, or thoughts come up for you? Write those down as well.
- Pause and look at what you’ve written. What’s impact do your own words have on you in this very moment?
- Now read your words aloud. What do you notice as you hear yourself say them?
3. Read it aloud a third time
- Is there a word or an image you feel some resistance towards?
- Write it down, then note the qualities (positive or negative) that you associate with it.
- If you’re willing, and ideally with someone else by your side, try expressing each quality as an “I am…” statement. Say each one slowly, noticing its impact on you.
- You don’t need to agree with the statement or decide that it’s true. Simply notice what happens as you try it on.
4. Let someone witness your reflections
If you can, share your reflections with someone you trust—someone who can listen fully, without needing to interpret or solve anything.
For me, something magical happens when we allow our thoughts and emotions to be witnessed by another human being.
And if you’d like that person to be me, you know where to find me. ❤️
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