Circle Connections
Sara Horton-Deutsch, PhD, RN, PMHCNS, FAAN, ANEF, Caritas Coach
Director of the University of San Francisco/ Kaiser Permanente Partnership
University of San Francisco, School of Nursing and Health Professions
[email protected]
During our first virtual ISPN conference this past summer, the program committee organized three Circle Connections. These circles offered a way to bring members/attendees together to connect and promote healing and resiliency. For those who attended, we hope you found them meaningful. Moving forward, as we navigate conferencing in an online world, circle time provides an opportunity to build, enhance, and sustain our community.
In this brief overview, I will give a bit more about the historical foundations of healing circles to create an ongoing dialogue about how we can best incorporate circles into our organization. Using circles to facilitate connection and healing has a long history. The Circle Way (Baldwin, 1994; Baldwin & Linea, 2010) describes a process from an ancient lineage of coming together and finding peer spirit in circles without hierarchy. It is “an archetype of the human spirit, that summons people everywhere to step into the conversation” (Baldwin & Linea, 2010). As such, healing circles are an essential part of the continuum of practices that seek to bring healing, alleviate suffering, and find meaning in nurses and other healthcare professionals' lives. Through the practice of sharing from the heart and deep listening within a safe environment, trust is built, and a more profound sense of belonging follows. Storytelling, both personal and collective, is at the core of healthcare. Healing circles offer a process for sharing those stories in a way that leads to a sense of community and wholeness.
Circles provide a place to hear our own stories and deeply listen to others under the premise that we are all… already whole. There is no need to give advice, help, or fix, but to listen in the spirit of service to one another. Healing occurs through bearing witness, silence, and trusting that we are all on our journey of self-discovery.
Healing circles intend to create a safe space for healing ourselves, each other, and the world. The agreements create space for healing and are underpinned by a shared understanding that all stories are held in confidence. Healing Circles Global proposes the following agreements:
- treating each other with kindness and respect
- listening with attention, compassion, and curiosity
- speaking with intention, sharing our own experience of events
- trusting each person has the guidance needed within and relying on the power of silence to access it
Why are circles so crucial at this time? Circles are a means to draw us away from divisive and polarized environments frequently occurring during times of uncertainty. They offer a way forward through more respectful discourse. Sitting together as equals, slowing down, and reflecting together with intention and purpose, groups draw on insight, information, and story that inspire collective wisdom and action.
Notably, the premises and practices of Healing Circles can be applied to how we work with one another and radiate out into our work with others. Whether working with patients, staff, leaders, or organizations, the skills gained through Healing Circles offers a return to the joy and a renewed sense of purpose in our individual and collective psychiatric-mental health nursing practice. Beyond this moment in time, the more of us who appreciate and apply circles, the more of us who suggest a return to thoughtful listening, the more empowered we will be to create a world where everyone is heard, valued, and included.
References
Baldwin, C. (1994). Call the circle: The first and future culture. Bantam Books.
Baldwin, C. & Linnea, A. (2010). The circle way. A leader in every chair. Berret-Koehler Publishers.
Healing Circles Global (2020). www.healingcirclesglobal.net
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