Circle Theory.
I learned this profound maneuver many years ago in a Phase 5 Ortho-Bionomy class taught by Luann Overmyer. It is one of my favorite strategies because it speaks to the deep intricacies of how the human body can organize, in a profoundly complicated universe of energetic systems. We don’t often have understandings or vocabulary for all the various changes that occur, but can witness and sense them just the same.
In Circle Theory, the practitioner listens while rotating a joint, often in a circular fashion- looking for a skip or glitch in the movement.
The glitch indicates a loss of understanding – a misstep. A gap. If we go to the space right before, or immediately after this misunderstanding and hang out there, the body connects the dots and figures it out. Is a deep and magical place where all things unknown can happen.
I like to parallel this “skip” in the body to what the Buddhist refer to as a “bardo”
A bardo is a place of uncertainty and possibility. The Bardo of Death is the most familiar to people, but anything that has a ‘gap’ is a bardo!
It is a transitional state that has no ground. They are often scary, because they inherently bring confusion and unfamiliarity.
It is the in-between of things, and because they are inherently empty, these gaps bring great possibility!
In Conscious Systems, an energetic work I study & practice, we often come across “blank spots” in the energetic field of the body. Commonly referred to as a ‘blind spot’, it is a blank place where the body became so overwhelmed by a situation – usually a traumatic event – that the body literally sloughed off the energy to survive.
The action taken here is to look for the structured energy that was lost, or more accurately- ejected from the body. When the structured energy is retrieved and presented to the blank spot, the body will integrate the information, and bring all kinds of changes for better strength and congruence.
Organization includes high and low frequencies, organ repair and internal energetic channels.
Although not exactly the same, the activity in the “glitch” reminds me of this intelligence.
I share circle theory with anyone who is interested, not just clients. I recently shared it with a PT friend who found the whole thing very magical. I find that even people who can’t feel their bodies very well, can almost always feel the flurry of activity and information that occurs in these gaps.
And those who take the time to experiment with this approach in their own bodies report great success, and a newfound strategy to alleviate discomfort.
It encourages people to slow down. It fosters self-reliance, self reflection and presence.
It teaches a nonviolent approach to oneself and to others.
I think then, like many good body works such as Ortho-Bionomy, we are looking at encouraging reflections of a larger picture of life and of what it means to be human.
When people describe Ortho-Bionomy to me as “gentle,” I will often correct them and say it’s “respectful”, because I think that is a more accurate adjective for this nonviolent work.
Because we are continuously asking permission and matching preferences from moment to moment, the body feels deeply witnessed and respected. This creates the capacity for profound, lasting change.