Women’s Circles are a gathering of women, for all who identify as female/non-binary. These sisterhood circles give women a safe space to connect with vulnerability, find their voice, share their story, and own their experience; to learn to listen deeply, and to experience being deeply listened to. We will gather monthly at The Hummingbird Field to sit, share, listen, support, and drink tea together for connection, healing, and community.
Indeed, the Women’s Circle is an ancient occurrence.
With the fire at the center, women encircled the light and warmth as a place to share stories, cook meals, honour the gods and goddess, and dance under the stars. When we participate in a Women’s Circle, we carry on the rituals of our female ancestors by forming a sacred community to celebrate all that it means to identify as a woman, regardless of age, size, genitals, sexual/gender orientation, for all are welcome if you feel called to sit in circle with your sisters.
The Women’s Circle is an opportunity to (re)awaken your connection to intuition, imagination, and the ability to flow with the rhythms of life.
As we reconnect through sisterhood support, we can better express the wisdom within ourselves, our relationships, and communities edging closer to a place of balance and contentment with our choices.
The Women’s Circle is a co-created safe, supportive space to come as you are, and to let your guard down.
The Women’s Circle gives each participant a chance to speak their truth without judgment. Sharing with supportive, empowering women helps us release the weight of our burdens. We shed light on our fears, thus diminishing their power. We can then step beyond the wall of fear, into the freedom of our strength and divine light. We listen deeply, and hold each other up.
The Women’s Circle is a place of self-care.
Women play essential roles in societies. We are the mothers, the wives, the aunts, the sisters. We also uphold positions of power, guiding future generations to pursue their dreams. We are the experts of multi-tasking, caring for our families, while often juggling a career. Busy lives easily stand in the way of self-care practices, in fact, self-care is often the first thing to go when stressed/overwhelmed/exhausted, a non-essential (in comparison to paying the mortgage and putting food on the table, or caring for elder or younger dependents, etc.). The Women’s Circle gives you a moment to apply self-love, self-care; a moment to replenish your resources so you can move through life’s great responsibilities and challenges with less strain, more resilience. When we make time to gather in circle, we are nurturing deep seated, sometimes long forgotten needs for belonging, acceptance, community, and connection… a circle of sisters offers other women the opportunity to mirror back to you all that you do, to support your capacity to sit with how hard you work, and how much you give to the people and causes you care about. A circle is a time to rest, to connect with sisters, and focus on bio-psycho-social wellness.
We honour our female ancestors.
Some female ancestors gathered in the red tent and moon lodges as a sacred space to connect, especially during menstruation. Religious groups, like the pagans and Celtic Christians of the 5th and 6th centuries joined in Women’s Circles. So too did Jewish women throughout the centuries to observe Rosh Chodesh, the first sliver of the moon at the “head” of the month. A Women’s Circles honours female ancestors through unity and ritual, a moment to consider the generations who paved the way for the opportunities available to women today. We honour their strength to overcome the many obstacles of womanhood. We celebrate the female ‘firsts’ who stood up against patriarchy, and became leaders in their community. We remember the great warrior women, the shield maidens, the Grandmother Shaman, the Rosie the Riveters, every woman who embodied the divine feminine with bravery, resilience, and compassion.
The Women’s Circle is a place for community.
As an inclusive space, a Women’s Circle welcomes all ages, bringing together the generations. Great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mothers, daughters, and great granddaughters may sit in togetherness, in solidarity. The elders pass down their wisdom learned through experience. New generations of girls restore the childlike wonder and playfulness of youth to their elders. Together, shared strength circulates through every generation, a way to empower each other to participate meaningfully in the community and pave the way for future generations.
The Women’s Circle reinforces female empowerment and sisterhood.
Society has often found ways to break apart the sacred bonds between women. A women’s circle reminds us to treat each other sisters as allies, rather than competition. We practice rejecting the instinct to bully, gossip, tear each other down, or compete for attention under the male gaze. Instead, we embrace each other as our sisters, we show up to lift one another up, and revel in the gifts of our imperfections with gratitude for each of us are all both masterpieces, and beautiful works-in-progress. You are invited to come and sit with us in circle, perhaps to share, perhaps to listen; all that matters is that you are there if you feel called to be there.
About the Facilitator: Meg Walsh has a BFA from OCAD, is in her seventh and final year of psychodynamic psychotherapist training at CTP; Meg and has been offering yoga therapy to individuals and teaching mindfulness and movement at The Hummingbird Field since 2011. “I have come to believe that we must work creatively, relationally, and improvisationally to participate in the type of healing accessible on one’s yoga mat intra-psychically, and interpersonally sitting in a therapist’s office. It is a developmental achievement to open more to curiosity and ask questions, and to imagine explanations or interpretations to try on together as we travel back to childhood and into the future, imagining new ways of being, coping, living, responding, and relating to others. We all have and live our own narrative—a story we tell ourselves about our lives, about other people, about our world, and who we are in it. In therapy, we can look to see what that narrative is and how it impacts our daily experiences. In this way, art and psychotherapy have much in common So far in my own healing journey, I have chosen a path rife with layers of individual and group psychotherapy, naturopathy, holistic nutrition, osteopathy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, and most consistently, daily yoga/mindfulness/meditation practice. I have worked with a gestalt therapist, a clinical psychologist, a sensorimotor trauma therapist, a somatic therapist/healer, and a psychodynamic psychotherapist—approximately 350 hours of one-on-one therapy, 600 hours of group therapy, and countless hours on my yoga mat processing, reflecting, grieving, feeling, and working through my defenses, communications, shame, and traumatic experiences.. In my years practicing and teaching mindfulness I have noticed that contemplative practice elicits vulnerability and pain. Because we are relational mammals hardwired for connection and belonging, we’re limited in what we can process on our own. We need another human to bear witness, someone who is also willing/wanting to self-inquire, in order to contact long-lasting healing. I have been fortunate enough to encounter this type of relating both in therapy, in intimate relationships, and sitting in circle. The intention with circle culture that I bring to The Hummingbird Field is that we can work together to enhance our self awareness, capacity to hold space for others, listen deeply and support each other; perhaps glean some understanding of the influence our past has on our present, and most significantly, to connect in community and sisterhood.”. Please note, this is not a psychotherapy group, this is a sharing-circle-support group.
Please join us for our monthly Women’s Healing Circle, one Sunday a month at The Hummingbird Field where we gather, sit, share, listen, support, and drink tea together, all female-identifying and non-binary folks welcome. Sliding scale of $20, $25, and $30 to join.
The first circle will be held on Sunday, November 17 @ 2-4pm; register here… and keep an eye on the schedule for this monthly circle to sign up in advance.