About Us
After years working in therapeutic realms with a deep commitment to meditation, both Dechen and Ty independently discovered this practice. Both were struck by how elegantly it brought together powerful elements of therapy, mindfulness-meditation, introspection, group work, and culture building within a simple relational form. They recognized in this practice a way of moving beyond some of the familiar structures of growth work and into direct contact with what is actually occurring in the present moment. In that contact they found the possibility of stepping beyond entrenched patterns into greater aliveness and agency—and a deep commitment to the practice was born.
Dechen and Ty first met in the Spring of 2023, when Ty attended a Circling retreat in Vermont at the monastery where Dechen was living. Dechen was intrigued by the entrance Ty made – he’d walked across the US-Canada border carrying only a hand-woven basket – and Ty appreciated Dechen’s bold and direct approach to practice. Before long, Ty brought Dechen to Vancouver Island to lead their first immersion together and their unique orientation to an emergent relational practice was born. Since then, they’ve hosted a growing series of retreats together on both coasts of North America, and Liam, a longtime friend of Ty’s, has been present at every single one.
In 2026, the three of us formed The Well when we realized we could bring together our complementary skills and our shared passions to steward this relational practice and create a home for community, and personal transformation.
Our Vision
Circling and relational practice are part of a comparatively recent emergence: the combining of ancient lineages of mindfulness meditation with the interpersonal and relational realms. This emergence has given rise to practices focused on bringing mindfulness, meditative awareness and authenticity into the relational field, and the result is a rapid and direct path to personal and interpersonal development. We see these practices as having the potential to catalyze personal and relational growth, help people move through trauma and difficult patterning at an accelerated rate, and, at a broad scale, contribute to the development of our communities and culture.
Our vision is to support our community’s development through stewarding and refining this practice, and to connect people to the global network of inspiring and like-minded people drawn to explore the deep, confronting and transformative power of authentic connection.
Our Team
Dechen Ellen McSweeney
Dechen Ellen McSweeney is a teacher, facilitator, therapist, writer, and musician living in Washington, DC. For more than two decades, she has been catalyzing and nurturing collectives who strive to embody a more beautiful world: from string quartets and folk bands to Extinction Rebellion and a metamodern monastery.
Dechen has been a Dharma practitioner since 2012, including two years of intensive training in a Buddhist residential community. In 2022, she completed facilitator training with John Thompson of Transformational Connection. As a facilitator, Dechen brings deep soulfulness; a fierce commitment to truth; and a love of improvisation that helps her welcome chaos, friction, difference, and the unknown.
Dechen is the founder of The Nectary: a relational monastery, research-lab, and pop-up school which supports emerging teachers and facilitators to collaborate more deeply and bring their offerings to a wider community of learners. She blogs at The Incarnate and has a private psychotherapy practice in Washington, D.C.
Ty Cooke
My journey with Circling began with a longing for connective relationships, a desire for a community who looked at truth deeply together, and a trust in what becomes possible when we bring awareness to the present moment. Since 2021, I’ve been facilitating relational practices and continue to be humbled by what emerges when individuality and connection, embodiment and reflection, personal truth and interpersonal attunement are held together with equal care.
A fascination with psyche, spirit and culture has always pulled me to explore landscapes where these elements combine: Music, travel, anthropology, psychology, Vipassana meditation, activism, relational practice. Circling offers a living laboratory where these threads weave together—an opportunity to explore how they move within us and between us in real time.
I work as an Internal Family Systems and Psychedelic Integration therapist, host relational practice retreats on Vancouver Island and across North America, and am developing a podcast exploring the relationship between inner and outer ecology.
My facilitation style is grounded, curious, welcoming of both tenderness and challenge, and deeply interested in the ways connection can support both personal growth and collective healing.
I see Circling as both a path of personal transformation and a quiet act of resistance to the forces of disconnection shaping our culture. My hope is to create spaces where we can rediscover ourselves, each other, and the communities we are nested within.
I look forward to exploring with you.
