Healing Circles (Learning Circles, Talking Circles, Sharing Circles)
“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention.”
Rachel Naomi Remen
For Indigenous People, the circle itself is sacred. Aboriginal people see the circle as a dominant symbol in nature which represents wholeness, completion, and the cycles of life.
According to Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, in their book, The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair, the “ Circle started around the cook-fires of humanity’s ancestors and has accompanied us ever since. We remember this space. When we listen, we speak more thoughtfully. We lean in to shared purpose.” What took place around cookfires ages ago became a model for face-to-face interaction that is so effective, it survives to this day.
What exactly are Healing Circles?
Healing Circles are Talking Circles (or Circle Talks) which are a foundational approach to indigenous people’s teaching-in-action since it provides a model that encourages dialogue, respect, learning, and social conversation. Healing Circles are Sharing Circles; facilitated gatherings where participants sit in a circle and take turns sharing their thoughts, feelings, and experiences related to a specific topic. It is also a Learning Circle where individuals meet to learn from each other. Learning Circles build upon the idea that every participant has something to contribute and that every participant has something to learn. Healing Circles are a safe place where individual wisdom can be shared. No matter what you call the circle (healing, learning, sharing, or talking) these circles are intended to be a safe and supportive space where participants can be vulnerable, share their stories with others, and learn from one another.
So, to summarize, Healing Circles use the North American aboriginal procedure of “the talking circle or sharing circle.” The aim is to create a safe space where participants can feel heard, understood, and supported. Think of a Healing Circle as a sacred space and time where participants sit together in a circle to learn, share, and to heal physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Healing Circle Agreements
Participants in healing circles agree to the following:
- We treat each other with kindness and respect.
- We listen with compassion and curiosity.
- We honor each other’s unique ways to healing and don’t presume to advise or fix or try to save each other.
- We hold all stories shared in the circle confidential.
- We trust each of us has guidance we need within us and we rely on the power of silence to access it.
The intention of healing circles
The intention of healing circles is to create a safe space in which we journey together to heal ourselves, heal one another, and heal the world. As spiritual adviser and author of The Book of Awakening, Mark Nepo said: “When we heal ourselves, we heal the world.”
Are Healing Circles successful?
Voice of the Faithful is a lay organization formed in response to the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church. This organization began as a “listening session,” or Healing Circle, of 30 parishioners. On its Website Healing Circle participants said:
- “The Healing Circle was the single most transformative healing experience since my own healing began.”
- “The … Circle created a space for sacredness, safety, and community—one in which I experienced a kind of ‘mountaintop moment’ or peak experience.”
- “To speak freely without a question being asked or a comment being made provided a sense of trust rarely felt when baring pain.”
The Healing Realm’s Healing Circles are a safe space for you to start your healing journey!
“To listen is to continually give up all expectation and to give our attention, completely and freshly, to what is before us, not really knowing what we will hear or what that will mean. In the practice of our days, to listen is to lean in, softly, with a willingness to be changed by what we hear.”
Mark Nepo
The Healing Realm 