school of the small and imperfect
A 13-week relational lab for people who care about power, harm, and participation - and want to perceive how interaction actually organizes in real time
You care. And still, something happens before you can choose
You notice what’s happening in a room: a hesitation, a shift, or a silence that could go somewhere.
And then, almost immediately, you move.
You explain or soften. You step in. You take responsibility.
It happens quickly enough that it feels like instinct.
But something is already happening
In any interaction, before anyone chooses what to do:
responsibility begins to concentrate
tension is being absorbed
participation is organizing what happens next
This process is fast, often invisible.
And it shapes:
who carries the moment
what gets expressed
what disappears
what becomes possible
Care alone doesn’t interrupt it
Many people who come to this work:
care deeply about power and harm
are highly aware of relational dynamics
don’t want to dominate or override others
And still find themselves:
taking responsibility they didn’t choose
stabilizing interaction before others can respond
leaving interactions more tired than expected
It isn’t because they lack awareness but because participation organizes interaction faster than intention.
Even careful, ethical action can reproduce the pattern
You may have noticed a moment where you try to act carefully, respectfully, ethically, and you still feel something subtle narrow anyway.
Where the interaction becomes more coherent and more manageable but also less open.
This is not a failure of values.
It’s that participation is shaped by the field before you act.
The work slows that moment down
So you can begin to perceive, in real time:
What is this action doing to the interaction?
Does it:
widen what’s possible?
maintain the current pattern?
narrow participation?
collapse the interaction into a single direction?
This is where participation becomes power-aware.
a structured relational lab
This is not a discussion group, a therapy space, nor a place to improve communication.
Each week introduces a specific constraint that changes how interaction can unfold.
At times, you will not be able to:
explain what you mean
resolve tension
respond to what just happened
or make the interaction coherent
This is intentional. These constraints surface the patterns that normally remain invisible.
What we’re practicing
Over 13 weeks, the work moves in layers:
First
noticing the impulse to step in
feeling the moment completion becomes available
seeing how quickly interaction stabilizes
Then
offering without pre-approval
staying without resolving
being met without taking over or withdrawing
Then
recognizing repeating participation patterns
noticing how responsibility moves between people
interrupting without controlling what happens next
Finally
staying in interaction without agreement
allowing difference without resolving it
letting interaction end without closure
What develops over time
Not techniques, but capacities:
sensing coordination pressure as it forms
staying with tension without absorbing it
offering without needing it to land
refusing without withdrawing
interrupting without taking over
tracking responsibility as it shifts
remaining in interaction without stabilizing it
Why this requires a lab
This process:
happens between people
unfolds faster than conscious decision-making
reorganizes in real time
This cannot be shifted through reflection alone.
Without the ability to perceive this as it happens, participation will tend to reproduce the existing field, even when you’re trying to do otherwise.
It becomes perceptible through practice, inside interaction.
Over time, the work changes what becomes perceptible during interaction, not just afterward:
“This work has started to expand in me and in my relational field. I’ve noticed patterns repeating across different people and situations - with such similarity that I can’t help but see my own participation in creating the outcomes. There’s a kind of zoomed-out perspective now, like I’m in the interaction and also watching it unfold while it’s happening.” -Kevin Karpinski
“A trustworthy kind of disorientation. Our hours together altered how I moved, noticed, and responded to my life. Here, there is the possibility of relational habits becoming visible, becoming relational skills to move with, rather than be bound by.” -Karalyn Riepert
Who this is for
This tends to resonate with people who:
care about power, harm, and how interaction shapes outcomes
are highly aware of relational dynamics
work with groups (facilitators, therapists, teachers, etc.)
often find themselves carrying more than they intended
notice patterns after the moment, but not during
want to practice without rushing to resolve
You don’t need a specific role.
You do need enough stability to remain present when interaction becomes uncertain or unfinished.
Structure
13 weeks
75 minutes weekly
live on Zoom
closed cohort
maximum 12 participants
Each cycle repeats. The field does not.
A Different Kind of Practice
Our aim is not to become “better” at interaction. It is about becoming more perceptive of how interaction is already organizing.
Participation doesn’t begin when you decide what to do because it is already shaping the moment.
next cohort
Begins April 21st
Tuesdays, 15:00–16:15 CET
(6am Pacific US, 9am Eastern US, 2pm UK, 7:30pm India)
Enrollment closes when the cohort begins. No late entry.
Investment: 6300 SEK (approximately 665 USD)
Monthly payment plan available: three monthly payments of 2400 SEK (approx 258 USD)
A small number of reduced-rate spots are available if needed. You’re welcome to reach out.
If you’d like to speak before enrolling, you may schedule a short conversation with me.
If you recognize this pattern in your own participation and haven’t been able to shift it on your own, this is a place to practice.