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Your Most Important Relationship Is Between Your Inner-Parent and Inner-Child
My wife, Cindy, has taken part in many sharing circles. A sharing circle usually consists of one person talking about whatever they want while the others listen, don’t interrupt, and attempt to hold the one who is sharing with unconditional positive regard. In twelve-step groups, like AA, Al-Anon, and ACA, the rules are explicit about there being “no cross-talking” allowed. No cross-talking means that when one person is communicating, the others don’t.
Cindy has extensive experience in a slightly different approach called Circling. In Circling, crosstalk is allowed, but any communication is witnessed by the whole group and the group is tasked with holding the container. If one person is sharing and another starts to attack or shame them, then the other members of the group will intervene. However, In Circling one member of the group will usually take the facilitator role. Cindy often takes this role because she’s a trained and experienced Circling facilitator, trains others in Circling facilitation, and is also trainer of trainers. She’s facilitated the Circling train-the-trainer (T3) course at Integral Centered.
I’m about to describe a challenge that Cindy recently faced, and it might be surprising after what I just wrote above, but I think it shows that we can all struggle, given the…
