The Circle Facilitator Training is fully online and runs across six weeks.

You’ll join six live Zoom sessions (2 hours each, except for weeks 4 and 5 which are 2.5 hours to allow for practice and feedback). Each week, you’ll also receive a pre-recorded theory module—around 60 minutes long—to watch in your own time before the next live session.

There’s space for ongoing support too: you can submit questions each week, and Nele will share bonus Q&A videos inside the learning platform.

Cohort 1: APAC & EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa)

All sessions run on Mondays at 7PM Australian Eastern Time (Morning for the EMEA region)

Cohort 2: AMERICAS & EMEA

All sessions run at 10AM PT (Evening for the EMEA region)

This training is for anyone who feels called to bring people together in a meaningful, intentional way — whether in living rooms, boardrooms, classrooms, community spaces, or under open skies.

You don’t need prior experience. Some participants arrive with years of facilitation behind them; others are stepping into this work for the very first time. What matters most is the desire to create spaces where people feel safe, seen, and connected.

Over the past three years, this training has attracted an incredibly diverse group, including:
• corporate managers and team leaders
• coaches, counsellors and mentors
• women’s circle facilitators and men’s work practitioners
• rites of passage guides and outdoor educators
• teachers, pastors and community organisers
• CEOs and founders
• retreat hosts and wellbeing practitioners
• parents who want to bring more intentional connection into family life

The beauty of this training is that it works everywhere.
Circles travel well — across cultures, across industries, and across settings.
If you’re drawn to cultivating belonging and guiding meaningful conversations, this training is for you.

All sessions run on Mondays at 7PM Australian Eastern Time (Morning for the EMEA region)

All sessions run at 10AM PT (Evening for the EMEA region)

This training is designed for all levels — complete beginners, seasoned facilitators, and everyone in between.

You don’t need prior experience to join. The curriculum is built to meet you exactly where you are in your journey, offering clear foundations for those just starting out and deeper refinement for those who have been facilitating for years.

Every cohort attracts a beautiful mix of people: first-time circle holders, experienced coaches and guides, retreat facilitators, community leaders, and organisational managers. This blend is intentional — and powerful.

In Circle, everyone contributes.
Everyone receives what they need.
And everyone gets to soak of the wisdom of the lived experience of the others.

Ideally, yes. The live sessions are where the deepest learning happens — through shared experience, witnessing others, practising facilitation, and receiving real-time feedback.

That said, life is life. If you need to miss a session, we understand.

If you know in advance that you’ll miss one of the practice sessions (weeks 4 or 5), please let us know — we do our best to make sure everyone gets the experience they need.

The more fully you can be present, the more powerful the training will be. 

Outside of the live sessions, you’ll want to allow 1–2 hours each week for watching the pre-recorded module and doing some light reflection or journalling.

Some weeks may naturally require a little more time — especially the practice weeks — but many participants find that 1–2 hours is more than enough.

The training is designed to fit into real life.
If you can commit to the weekly live sessions and set aside a small pocket of time in between, you’ll be fully equipped to absorb the material and feel confident in your facilitation.

Absolutely. That is exactly what this training is designed for.

By the end of the program, you will have:
• a proven Circle structure you can use in any setting
• the essential tools, templates, and guidelines to ensure safety and integrity
• hands-on practice facilitating in small groups
• personalised feedback to help you refine your presence and approach
• the confidence that comes from understanding not just what to do, but why it works

Like anything meaningful, you’ll get the most out of this training when you show up fully and engage with the process. 

This training gives you everything you need. 

Your learning doesn’t end when the six weeks are over. Many participants choose to stay connected as a cohort, continuing to practise, exchange ideas, and support each other. (Most past groups are still meeting months — even years — later.) 

These cohorts are meeting points and connect people from many different countries.

You’ll also have ongoing access to Nele for questions that arise as you begin facilitating your own Circles. And if you’d like more personalised guidance, graduates receive reduced 1:1 mentoring rates — perfect if you want support designing your first programme, preparing for a retreat, or navigating a specific facilitation challenge.

This training gives you the foundation.
The community, support, and growth continue long after.

You’ll need a stable internet connection and a private, undisturbed space where you can speak freely and feel fully present. This ensures confidentiality, safety, and depth in our shared work.

It's always good to have a pen and paper on hand to take notes.

If you’d like, you’re welcome to bring a candle, and a talking piece — but these are completely optional.

If you have any accessibility needs or specific requirements, please reach out. 

Great question — and yes, this training fully prepares you for both online and in-person Circles.

Even though we meet online, the frameworks, structures, and facilitation tools you’ll learn are universal. You’ll receive clear guidance on:

• how to design and hold an in-person Circle
• how to create safety and belonging in physical spaces
• room set-up, flow, and environmental considerations
• working with objects, talking pieces, and ritual elements
• adapting the Circle structure for retreats, community gatherings, and team meetings

By the end of the training, you’ll understand exactly how to translate what you’ve learned into any setting — from living rooms to boardrooms to retreat centres.

This training stands apart in a few important ways:

1. It’s designed to work in any environment.
The structure you’ll learn is highly adaptable — it works just as well in a corporate boardroom as it does on a retreat, in a women’s or men's circle, a school classroom, or a community gathering.
Nele has used these tools everywhere: with executives, with teenagers, with intergenerational groups, with teams, and with women’s groups. You’ll leave knowing how to translate Circle into any context you feel called to serve.

2. It’s global.
Every round brings together people from all over the world.
The cross-cultural insight, support, and collaboration that emerges from this is invaluable — people have gone on to create projects together, run retreats, co-host events, and become lifelong friends.

3. It leads to real-life transformation and integration.
More than 150 people have graduated from this particular training, and many have:
• shifted careers
• launched their own Circles and communities
• integrated Circles into their coaching or therapy work
• brought Circle into schools, hospitals, and organisations
• added it as a core tool in their leadership or facilitation toolkit

This isn’t a training that sits on a shelf.
It’s one you immediately bring into your life, work, family and leadership.

4. It blends ancient principles with modern, ethical facilitation.
You’ll learn a trauma-aware, integrity-driven structure rooted in lineage and adapted for contemporary settings — without rigidity.
The focus is on safety, belonging, and responsible leadership.

5. It’s deeply experiential.
You don’t just learn about Circle — you actually sit in Circle, practise Circle, and receive feedback on your facilitation.
This gives you confidence that can’t be learned from a book or template.

6. It honours your unique voice.
You’ll receive a proven Circle framework, but you’re also supported to discover your own style — your magic, your presence, your way of holding people.

7. You’re learning from someone who has devoted her life to this work.
Nele has spent well over 10,000 hours designing and holding Circles, transformational spaces, and facilitating groups across cultures, industries, and continents.

8. You won’t just learn the tools — you’ll go through your own transformation.
Because this training is experiential, you don’t simply study the practice of Circle — you live it for six weeks.
In that sense, it becomes its own rite of passage.

Many graduates say it’s the most meaningful personal development they’ve ever done. Over the journey, you’ll naturally:

• become a deeper, more attentive listener
• strengthen your ability to regulate your nervous system in group environments
• refine your intuition and inner knowing
• experience what it feels like to belong, be witnessed, and hold others with care
• build confidence not from theory, but from embodied practice

This training is more than a skillset.
It’s a community, a practice, a tool you can carry anywhere — and a doorway into a more human-centric way of leading.