Arriving at the Relational Dojo
Celebrating the merger and rechristening of this place of practice
Dear friends,
Welcome to the Relational Dojo. For some time now, Communication Dojo and Practice Dojo have been walking parallel paths. Both were born from a shared yearning for better ways of being humans together. Both held space for people to learn through direct experience rather than theory alone. Both were asking: what becomes possible when we practice relating with intention?
We’ve decided to join forces.
Relational Dojo is what now emerges: It is a hall, a place of the way, for immersive, experiential learning of relational frameworks and skills. We are coming together because we believe high-quality relational practice spaces should be accessible to more people worldwide.
We hope to cultivate a world where people can effectively use relational skills to raise healthy families, strengthen friendships, build regenerative workplaces, advance democratic systems, and contribute to planetary thriving. We invite hosts to hold experiential learning containers for a wide range of relational skills and frameworks. We invite participants to practice with the groups from a place of learning and care. We cultivate communities of practice to offer peer support and companionship for life-long growth.
This is the Relational Dojo newsletter, and you are reading the very first edition! You received this probably because: 1) you used to be part of Communication Dojo or Practice Dojo, and/or 2) you signed up for a practice in Relational Dojo this Hike. In this newsletter, we give community announcements, share new platform offerings, communicate schedules, and share reflections. This newsletter doesn’t have a hard publishing schedule. Rather, we send it out only when there is important information to share. You are welcome to unsubscribe or subscribe at any time, independent of your practice group subscriptions.
Relational Dojo is deliberately developmental, both for our members and for how we co-evolve. We organize our yearly schedule into three “Hikes”: 4-month-long learning containers to practice together, explore, and see new terrain. Each Hike has a rhythm, a cycle, a beginning and an end. Then we begin again, changed by what we practiced. We are continuously iterating on our practices to make them more robust, generative, and inclusive.
In this first Hike (Jan-Apr 2026), we held four recurring practices:
T-group is a learning group where your task is to learn about yourself and others through interaction. Articulate your experience moment-to-moment as clearly and as accurately as possible. Name things that influence your presence and tune into what’s influencing others’ presence.
Bohm Dialogue is an approach that inherently defies structure, script, or definition. It invites us to pay attention to how our mind (broadly defined) moves within ourselves and with others in the dialogue. We pay attention not only to the “content” of our thinking, but also to “how” we think and communicate. The main purpose is to surface in-coherence within and between us, explore wholeness, and practice cohering across divides.
Being With It All recognizes that life is a lot sometimes, isn’t it? Everything happens so much. This is a simple radical practice of acceptance kindled in the shared space between our open hearts. We welcome the reality of what is, the is-ness of what is true, and we welcome our own experience without pushing away or clinging. When we practice being together, we find our capacity expanding.
Communal Reverie is designed to support the cultivation of collective imaginal attunement. Together, we practice tuning in to the felt sense of the intersubjective field while assuming a posture of hospitality toward the deep imagination, welcoming the autonomous expression of its archetypal intelligence. These cooperative forays can evoke a wide array of experiences: mystery, beauty, wonder, and sometimes weirdness.
With the intention of cultivating nourishing relationships that are beyond transactions, we have a gifting culture. We do not want finances to be a barrier to anyone’s participation. We make our finances transparent to our community members. We operate on a model of gifting, be it financial, intentional feedback, community building efforts, co-creation, or other creative ways you can see contributing. We invite you to give from a place of joy and solidarity. Our intention is to 🍓cultivate a gifting culture🍓 in this community, a culture that helps us to see value and abundance in all forms and shapes.
Having merged communities and stewards, we want to invite our returning and new participants to experience the new Dojo and give us feedback. We continue to operate in a culture where everyone has a voice and where there are pathways for your voices to be heard and integrated.
Whether you’re arriving from Communication Dojo, from Practice Dojo, or finding us for the first time through this newsletter: you’ve found your people!!
We are so glad you’re here.
In gratitude,
Carol, James, Justin, & Ola
Relational Dojo Platform Stewards