The impulse to share the healing experience — to help others face what we have faced — is built into the human psyche.
As Rachel Naomi Remen puts it,
We heal in community.
Healing circles help us step out of ordinary time into a safe and accepting environment in which we can explore our healing. Together, we explore ways of deepening our capacity to heal, alleviating our suffering, and finding meaning in both challenge and joy.
So for whatever is on your heart today, we invite you to join an online circle. Our circles are small, confidential, and free of charge.
An old proverb reminds us that sharing joy with others doubles that joy and sharing sorrow halves that sorrow. Scientific research is starting to confirm what people have long known to be true: Those with positive social support have fewer heart attacks, live longer, experience less dementia, recover from illness more quickly, and are generally happier. But many don’t have the support they need.
Healing Circles is a non-profit whose vision is to provide positive social support to anyone who asks for it. This takes place in small circles built on a framework that brings out the best in people. It encourages participants to treat one another with kindness and respect, hold one another’s stories in confidence, withhold judgment, and honor one another’s unique path to healing without advising, fixing, or rescuing.
Circle participants work together to explore the best ways to remove obstacles to healing, alleviate suffering, and deepen their capacity to heal. They also access their own inner guidance to determine where the greatest healing—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—can occur.
The Healing Circles learning community is growing and includes centers in Canada, the U.S., and Israel with new centers taking root in India, Switzerland, Thailand, and among groups of professionals, such as healthcare professionals and chaplains. Our online global programs are already reaching out across the U.S. and Canada to Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.
The deepest work of a healing circle is
to allow each one of us to be fully and completely ourselves.
Being fully seen and listened to in a circle
has the potential to heal deep hurts,
be it a physical pain or a deep sorrow of the heart.
When we are received by others
who have the capacity to hold our pain
with a loving, non-judgmental acceptance,
we can start to believe that we are whole,
that we have something to give,
that our contribution to life
doesn’t depend on us being healthy
or even being of sound mind.
A circle member can offer a genuine presence
that can be deeply healing and helpful to another person.
… Janie Brown
Executive Director and Co-Founder of Callanish
In profound ways, the global pandemic is teaching us about our need for refuge and deep healing. It’s next to impossible to do this alone. We need the loving accompaniment of others and the experience of how profoundly interdependent we are as human beings. Healing Circles is a safe place to bear witness to it all. And now, we can join circles from anywhere, healing ourselves and our planet.
Healing Circles help us explore ways of deepening our capacity to heal, alleviating our suffering, and finding meaning in both challenge and joy. Healing circles are a safe and supportive space to walk with each other through our experiences. Each circle is a blend of sharing and silence, compassion and curiosity. Agreements ensure acceptance and confidentiality. We honor our own unique paths to healing and respect the choices of others.
You are welcome to join online circles from anywhere in the globe, or to join an online training to learn how to host a circle in your own community.
HeART of Body: A Compassionate Self-Care Practice Circle
It can be transformative to hold our intention of compassionate self-care by engaging in the simple practices of easy movement, breathing, self-massage, and meditation.
With each practice—which encompasses body, heart, and mind—we learn to relax deeply, become more resilient, and shift our lives into better overall health. When we practice in community, we learn from one another, and we feel held. More info
Lindsay Espejel
Co-Director
Healing Circles GlobalCommonweal
P.O. Box 316
Bolinas, CA 94924
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