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Part 2: The Nuts and Bolts of Circle Facilitation with Mike Irwin
In this episode with Mike Irwin (michaelirwin.org), he and Julia discussed:
• It’s okay as a facilitator to be learning and not be perfect! People are looking for authenticity and not super-confident
• Your nervousness can be a gift to the nervous attendees
• The first part of starting the circle is to get present yourself as a facilitator
• You can start with a centring question e.g. ‘What’s preventing me from feeling comfortable here?’ or ‘What do I want to feel like at the end of the session?’
• As important aspect of guidelines is to open up the requirements around confidentiality to the attendees eg.’if you see me in the supermarket ignore me’ through to ‘let’s swap phone numbers and keep in touch outside the circle’
• You may also want to discuss how the circle will deal with conflict. A ‘hygiene measure’ that might help is to make ‘I’ statements
• There is a tension between what people want to talk about and what they don’t want to talk about but would be good to, like emotions! For example, relationships with parents, family, sexual relationships, with money. ‘Tell me a time when….(e.g. your relationship with money was difficult)’
• One exercise is to put an empty chair in the room and imagine putting someone in it e.g. mum, partner,
• There is a tension between facilitation and participation – Mike feels you can’t fully be in the group and facilitate
• The process involves understanding ‘Where am I?’ now and being in an intermediary position where you don’t want to be before you can get to ‘Where I’d love to be’. You might ask ‘Can you inhabit this inbetween place?’
• In closing the circle, you might give people a chance to say what they got out of it.
• Circles are important because they counteract the influences on young men from what is on social media
Get 20% discount on our London training - 8 & 9 March 2025
Use the code POD20 when you check out.
Circle Holding Non-Residential Retreat - London
https://www.circleholding.org/weekend-retreat
Get 20% discount - Group Mentoring Programme
Use the code POD20 when you check out.
Get your free Start Your Circle Guide HERE
You can order our book Circle Holding: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Talking Circles on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/)
Or you can get 10% off the book through the publisher using code CIRCLEHPOD10 at checkout on this link only: https://uk.singingdragon.com/products/circle-holding
To learn more about facilitating circles you can join one of our trainings:
https://www.circleholding.org
Circle Holding Fundamentals - introductory 3 hour workshop
https://www.circleholding.org/circle-fundamentals
Circle Holding Facilitator Training - 3 month training
https://www.circleholding.org/circle-holders-journey
Yoga Nidra & Circle Holding
https://www.circleholding.org/yoga-nidra-circle-holding
Circle Holding Self Study Programme
https://www.circleholding.org/self-study
Circle Holding Non-Residential Retreat - London
https://www.circleholding.org/weekend-retreat
Circle Holding Residential Retreat
https://www.circleholding.org/autumn-residential
Free Events and mini trainings - meet Julia & Tessa and get a taste of circle holding
https://www.circleholding.org/free-resources
We love to hear from circle facilitators and circle goers so please email us at [email protected]
Music credit: Fabio Venuti
View all episodes
By Julia Davis and Tessa Venuti SandersonIn this episode with Mike Irwin (michaelirwin.org), he and Julia discussed:
• It’s okay as a facilitator to be learning and not be perfect! People are looking for authenticity and not super-confident
• Your nervousness can be a gift to the nervous attendees
• The first part of starting the circle is to get present yourself as a facilitator
• You can start with a centring question e.g. ‘What’s preventing me from feeling comfortable here?’ or ‘What do I want to feel like at the end of the session?’
• As important aspect of guidelines is to open up the requirements around confidentiality to the attendees eg.’if you see me in the supermarket ignore me’ through to ‘let’s swap phone numbers and keep in touch outside the circle’
• You may also want to discuss how the circle will deal with conflict. A ‘hygiene measure’ that might help is to make ‘I’ statements
• There is a tension between what people want to talk about and what they don’t want to talk about but would be good to, like emotions! For example, relationships with parents, family, sexual relationships, with money. ‘Tell me a time when….(e.g. your relationship with money was difficult)’
• One exercise is to put an empty chair in the room and imagine putting someone in it e.g. mum, partner,
• There is a tension between facilitation and participation – Mike feels you can’t fully be in the group and facilitate
• The process involves understanding ‘Where am I?’ now and being in an intermediary position where you don’t want to be before you can get to ‘Where I’d love to be’. You might ask ‘Can you inhabit this inbetween place?’
• In closing the circle, you might give people a chance to say what they got out of it.
• Circles are important because they counteract the influences on young men from what is on social media
Get 20% discount on our London training - 8 & 9 March 2025
Use the code POD20 when you check out.
Circle Holding Non-Residential Retreat - London
https://www.circleholding.org/weekend-retreat
Get 20% discount - Group Mentoring Programme
Use the code POD20 when you check out.
Get your free Start Your Circle Guide HERE
You can order our book Circle Holding: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Talking Circles on Amazon (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Circle-Holding-Practical-Facilitating-Talking/dp/1805013157/)
Or you can get 10% off the book through the publisher using code CIRCLEHPOD10 at checkout on this link only: https://uk.singingdragon.com/products/circle-holding
To learn more about facilitating circles you can join one of our trainings:
https://www.circleholding.org
Circle Holding Fundamentals - introductory 3 hour workshop
https://www.circleholding.org/circle-fundamentals
Circle Holding Facilitator Training - 3 month training
https://www.circleholding.org/circle-holders-journey
Yoga Nidra & Circle Holding
https://www.circleholding.org/yoga-nidra-circle-holding
Circle Holding Self Study Programme
https://www.circleholding.org/self-study
Circle Holding Non-Residential Retreat - London
https://www.circleholding.org/weekend-retreat
Circle Holding Residential Retreat
https://www.circleholding.org/autumn-residential
Free Events and mini trainings - meet Julia & Tessa and get a taste of circle holding
https://www.circleholding.org/free-resources
We love to hear from circle facilitators and circle goers so please email us at [email protected]
Music credit: Fabio Venuti