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Blending Depth Psychology with Sacred Circle Wisdom

The Circle Facilitators
Experiential Training

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Dates & Location

Sunrise Ranch in Loveland, Colorado

September 26th-29th, 2024

About the Training

Embark on your journey into the world of Circlework by joining this training—an initiation to mastering impactful group facilitation skills through practices like embodiment, rituals, relational education, mindfulness, and movement. This hands-on experience is vital for truly grasping the profound impact of Circlework’s philosophy. Post-training, there’s an optional 6-month mentorship program for those passionate about honing their skills in creating healing circles.

Circlework, pioneered by Jalaja Bonheim, offers a uniquely transformative circle experience. Many participants laud its distinctiveness. I encourage full participation in the training to gauge if Circlework resonates with you and aligns with your practice.

My specialization lies in aiding licensed therapists seeking to integrate clinical expertise into Circlework, especially in providing psychospiritual and transpersonal group work. However, I’m open to welcoming healing guides into the program if their practice and goals align well with its aims.

This Training Caters to Therapists Who:

  • Desire to blend therapy with spirituality, movement, meditation, and somatic practices.
  • Aim to provide psychospiritual group work that surpasses traditional psychotherapy, incorporating insights from Western therapeutic models.
  • Are interested in a transpersonal approach to group therapy.
  • Want to integrate plant medicines into their group work.
  • Possess expertise in yoga, breathwork, psychedelic-assisted therapy, meditation, art therapy, and nature-based practices, and aim to combine these modalities for creating deep group experiences.

From this immersive training training, you can expect to experience:

Deep Immersion

Experience three nights at the enchanting Sunrise Ranch Retreat Center. This space is designed for personal reflection, healing, and fostering connections among participants. You'll depart feeling rejuvenated, aligned, and empowered to launch your unique offering.

Collaboration & Community

This training is limited to just 15 spots, ensuring an intimate training environment. Engage in a vibrant community that nurtures and encourages you to recognize your distinctive talents and contributions to the world

A Holistic Retreat

Indulge in nourishing farm-to-table meals and tranquil accommodations nestled in the serene northern Colorado foothills. Take the opportunity to unwind, recharge, and nurture yourself.

Ongoing Support

Unlike trainings that end without practical application, here, various support avenues await you as you apply your newfound knowledge in the real world!

What Comes Next?
Going Beyond the Circle Facilitator Experiential Training

Participation in the Circle Facilitators training automatically qualifies you for the Art of CircleMentorship program. The Art of Groups Mentorship Program is specialized and tailored for therapists aiming to acquire the expertise needed to craft impactful group encounters. This curriculum encompasses essential and advanced methods crucial for excelling in the craft of guiding groups. It aims to assist you in establishing a profound connection with your emotions and guiding with intuitive wisdom from within. 

This Mentorship Program Covers the Following Topics:

Interested in learning more about The Art of Groups Mentorship Program? Enter your details below. 

As a reminder, this program is only available to those who have completed the Circle Facilitators Experiential Training.

Frequently Asked Questions

Circles with a sacred center are the oldest form of social interaction. Cave art, paintings and other ceremonial relics suggest that human beings gathered in circle to hear stories, worship, and to pass down their traditions more than 30,000 years ago. Yet, during the Industrial Revolution, we lost touch with the healing power of the circle and the power it had to connect us to ourselves, spirit and one another. 

In recent times, circles have reemerged and are being utilized to create more nourishing ways of connecting.

The circle is a place of peace, compassion and deep listening. It is a way of being and interacting that connects people to their hearts and awakens them to their shared humanity.  

It is hard to truly define “circle” but you will understand when you experience it.

The training has been deeply informed by the work of Jalaja Bonheim, PhD.  She has been a teacher and mentor for me.  I recommend  you check out her work for more about the healing power of circles.

You can read more about circles in this article!

 This training retreat is focused on supporting participants in foundational principals of transformational circle facilitation.  The training is not clinical in nature.  If you are hoping to facilitate clinical groups, it is necessary that you have a clinical degree and training.  However, if you are a clinician, this training will help to deepen and enhance your group work.

The options are limitless.  The fundamentals learned can be combined with any of the following depending on your professional background:

  • movement practices (Yoga, Tai Chi)
  • artistic practices (painting, collage)
  • healing practices (Healing touch, Reiki)
  • spiritual practices (Meditation, Prayer)
  • psychological healing practices (Self-compassion, IFS) 

The intention is for each participant to identify the circle that they are uniquely called to offer.  Often participants will blend the foundations of the circle training with an area of passion or professional expertise to meet a need they see in their communities. 

Some examples include:  Soul collage circles, Writing circles, Women’s healing circles,  Ancestral healing circles, Grief circles, Racial Equity circles, Children’s Creativity circles, Trauma Healing circles

SCHEDULE

Day 1

  • Check-in:  2-5
  • Dinner: 6-6:30 
  • Orientation and first Circle gathering: 7-9 

Day 2

  • Breakfast: 7:30-8
  • Circle gathering: 9-11:45
  • Lunch: 12-12:30
  • Free time: 12:30-4
  • Circle gathering: 4-6
  • Dinner: 6-6:30
  • Circle gathering: 7-9

Day 3

  • Breakfast: 7:30-8
  • Circle gathering: 9-11:45
  • Lunch 12-12:30
  • Free Time :  12:30-4
  • Circle gathering: 4-6
  • Dinner: 6-6:30
  • Circle gathering 7-9

Day 4

  • Breakfast:  7:30-8
  • Circle gathering: 9-11:30
  • Check out and lunch (optional)

Sunrise Ranch has a variety of accommodations.  

You can find more details on all of the lodging options here! 

No. While Circlework (a group modality developed by Jalaja Bonheim, PhD) has been a major influence on my group work, she does not certify facilitators to train others.  You will experience my own unique facilitation style influenced by many different group modalities.  

Absolutely.  This retreat is 100% experiential, so it is appropriate for those who would just liked to be nourished in a circle.  
After the experiential weekend, you can decide how you want to bring the circle into your life.

Not at this time.  I have worked hard to keep costs very low so that the training can be accessible.  We are working on ways to provide scholarships in the future.  

What People Are Saying....

"I have participated in many group experiences but I have never had the experience I have being a part of Carrie’s Women’s Healing Circle. The circles are truly a different experience. The circles allow you to focus on your own healing wherever you may be at. The rituals, journaling, meditations, learnings, allow your own individual reflection yet at the same time you are a part of something bigger through the circle of women working on their own healing. During the time our circle started, I felt depleted and didn’t have much to give others but that wasn’t necessary because the circles were very nurturing through Carrie’s leadership and helped me to renew and fill myself back up. Carrie is a very precious, sensitive, caring, loving spirit and holds a very large space for women to heal. "
Circle participant
"The time I spent at the CSU Health Network in group supervision with Carrie taught me more than any other experience in my graduate studies - in fact, it taught me more than any professional development program I've participated in. I learned about myself and my personal triggers, about group dynamics, about recognizing and attending to the energy in the room, about how to co-lead alongside another practitioner, about common themes that clients presented and how to support those clients, and how to support the entire group as an entity in moving forward so that the participants could do the work they came to do. I take any opportunity I can to be in Carrie's presence - she has a profoundly powerful ripple."
Maggie Graham, MEd, LPC, CPCC
"This retreat allowed so much to come through for me. And what allowed that was Carrie facilitating so beautifully and giving so much time and space to allow for the THAW to happen internally. I was able to share my medicine and connect to what I can offer because that is what I was being given. Medicine in the form of circle and connection."
Retreat Participant
"In the women's healing circle, I have found community and connection with other women. Through meditations, body-based activities, journaling, and sharing, we process a variety of themes unique to women and the human experience. In each group, we process a general theme and are invited to share our personal stories or thoughts about it. Part of what makes this process so amazing is that, because of the way in which we are connected in the group, other women's experiences often touch a part of my own experience. In other words, witnessing the process of healing by the other women in the group helps me to similarly heal."
Circle participant
"Sitting in the facilitators training circle retreat solidified for me my desire to create and host transformative circles of my own. The immersive experience allowed me to feel within my own body what sitting in circles can lead to. Carrie is a wise, practiced and encouraging guide. She truly has a special talent for creating rich experience filled containers which allows participants to mine their own lived experiences and wisdom. I look forward to returning to the next retreat for nourishment and training."
Retreat participant
"Go! For sure! It was beautiful and very meaningful. I felt safe and held in the circle by the other women and felt like it was a safe space to share and open my heart up. And I felt like I was met with compassion and kindness when I did open my heart."
Retreat Participant
"The circle experience was the deepest group experience I ever have had. The balance between going within and the connectedness of the collective was powerful and healing. Carrie's intuition of what the group needed was magically spot on and moved us where we needed to go. We moved individually and together physically, emotionally and mentally. The immersion into the self and the collective through dance, nature, drumming, singing, and sharing is medicine. My body and mind were regulated, calm and clear upon leaving and in the weeks afterwards. That connection and remembrance lives inside of me now. "
Circle Retreat ParticipantFall 2023
"Attending the Women's Healing Circle was new for me, never having been to any group work before. It was a wonderful experience. The topics covered were absolutely spot on. I felt so in tune with myself after each session and found myself carrying those feelings and thoughts throughout the month. Carrie is a wonderful facilitator. The circle helped me reach inside and heal some wounds that needed healing and made me feel stronger for it. I would highly recommend attending. I look forward to it each month! "
Circle Participant
I left my first circle retreat differently than how I arrived. The time in authentic communion with other women and the purposeful spaciousness for self care was both deeply nourishing and a corrective experience for me. Though I showed up mentally open, my nervous system and heart were on guard due to previous unhealthy experiences with women in groups. But Carrie and the circle created opening after opening for us all to simply be ourselves with no expectations, to connect, to feel, to share, to move, to support each other, to play, to be quiet, and to drop into heart, body, and ancestry. The permission for all of this is my birthright, and to feel that birthright somatically touched something deep within. I'm so grateful to be thawing my freeze weeks after, and to be more oriented to heart in my daily life and work. Circlework is what the world needs.
Kimberly Rose, M.Ed. NCC GEP CIG
Participating in the Circle Facilitator Retreat was absolutely one of my highlights from this year! I loved spending four beautiful days with such heart-centered, thoughtful, and loving women. It was amazing to be a part of something so sacred and special. From vulnerable sharing to embodiment practices, I am transformed from this experience. My daily life already feels more spacious and intentional since the retreat. There were a variety of meaningful offerings during the retreat weekend including massage, energy work, collage, and a nature walk. Cannot wait to participate again and make this a tradition - a way of continuing to return home to myself.
Kelly Gonynor, LMFT
The Circle Training was a unique and powerful experience. A coming together of hearts and minds for a weekend of healing, authenticity, magic, and connection. The power of the Circle is always there ready to be connected in to at any time it is formed and the intention is set.
Dr. Tara Zeller, DC
This was my second year in the Circle Facilitators Training. I left with my heart overflowing with love and joy, deep connections to women who I only gather with once a year and some I met for the first time this year. Carrie's gift of facilitating a Circle is like no other. If you have the chance to attend Circle with Carrie and are looking for an embodied, deeply connecting experience, then gift yourself time in a Circle with Carrie.
Shannon. Waliser MSW, MPA, LICSW
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