About me
I'm Dave Bingham, and I'm the founder of True Circles, and its primary trainer, facilitator, and mentor*.
I'm a husband, father, and grandfather. I've been a bus-driver and I've been a Consulting Director. I've been an (inner and outer) wilderness guide and a men's work 'elder'. I've trained in eco-psychology, human development, and spiritual accompaniment. I'm a mountain-lover, wild-camper, and a contemplative. |
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But most of all, I'm what's called a Carrier of Council, that means I take it with me wherever I go and into all aspects of my life. Anytime that Council might serve, I'll offer it. And so it is that I've sat in Council circles with just men, with just women, with all genders & orientations together, with children and their foster parents, with prisoners, with addicts, with trustees, with a jury...
I've practiced Council knowingly and intentionally for 15 years now, and unwittingly and intuitively for far longer.
I've been privileged to learn from a dozen great teachers and mentors, especially from The Ojai Foundation, The Center for
Council, & the European Council Network, and from the Animas Valley Institute.
I've gained much from the writings of Bill Plotkin & Geneen Haugen, Jack Zimmerman & Gigi Coyle, Hyemyohsts Storm, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Hillary Cottam, Richard Rohr and J.R.R. Tolkien, among others.
My journey has brought me training and experience in:
Those things form my kit-bag. What gets pulled out in any given moment depends on the answer to a question I learned from my Way of Council mentors: "What will serve? What will serve me, the circle, the greater good?"
*(Where programs call for additional resources, I can call on experienced Council experts who, like me, have been trained by the European Council Network, the Center for Council, and/or The Ojai Foundation (now Topa Institute) in California).
I've practiced Council knowingly and intentionally for 15 years now, and unwittingly and intuitively for far longer.
I've been privileged to learn from a dozen great teachers and mentors, especially from The Ojai Foundation, The Center for
Council, & the European Council Network, and from the Animas Valley Institute.
I've gained much from the writings of Bill Plotkin & Geneen Haugen, Jack Zimmerman & Gigi Coyle, Hyemyohsts Storm, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Hillary Cottam, Richard Rohr and J.R.R. Tolkien, among others.
My journey has brought me training and experience in:
- Deep yet safe group communication (Way of Council practices & facilitation)
- Group facilitation, active listening, mirroring
- Human development facilitation (developing wholeness & learning to Self-heal)
- Nature re-connection practices (rewilding the human spirit)
- Contemplation and spiritual accompaniment (in the Ignatian tradition)
- Counselling & eco-psychotherapy
- Wilderness guiding, mountain leadership, wilderness first-aid
Those things form my kit-bag. What gets pulled out in any given moment depends on the answer to a question I learned from my Way of Council mentors: "What will serve? What will serve me, the circle, the greater good?"
*(Where programs call for additional resources, I can call on experienced Council experts who, like me, have been trained by the European Council Network, the Center for Council, and/or The Ojai Foundation (now Topa Institute) in California).