This is a program of the SF Contemplarium.
Carve out some space in your life to honor your everyday human experience, alongside a small group of diverse folks you’ll get to know over 3 sessions. Each session, we’ll sit in a circle, take turns sharing what is on our hearts, and practice honoring each others’ experiences with compassionate listening.
For a given series, you will be asked to commit to attending all 3 sessions so that the small group can build trust and share a part of their human journey together.
<aside> ✍️ Sign Up: Fill out this quick future interest form Interested in participating in a future Journey Group? We'll make sure to loop you in about future series!
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As a program of the SF Contemplarium, the purpose of a Journey Group is to help us honor our human journey. In this case, we gather with a small group of folks from different walks of life in order to (1) honor our own journeys by sharing them, and (2) honor others' journeys by listening and holding their stories.
The purpose of a Journey Group is distinct from some other forms of gathering and talking in a circle. We are not gathering in the service of therapeutic, developmental, or even social-emotional goals. Rather, the primary goal is an expression of value -- to give our experiences the care and respect that they deserve, through the practice of sharing and listening. Lots of good and beautiful things come as a consequence of that, but the goal of honoring each others' experiences comes first.
A simple format serves the purpose: after opening the circle, each person takes a turn to "have the floor" to share what is on their heart, uninterrupted, until they pass their turn to the next person in the circle. "Cross-talk" -- i.e. debating or reacting to what someone else has shared -- is kept to a minimum. Each person's experience stands on its own. This continues for as many cycles around the circle as time allows.
Sharing is the way you honor your own experience. What do people share? Anything that's on your heart -- that could be joys, sorrows, frustrations, questions, challenges. Experiences that are weighing on you or lifting you up. You honor those experiences by discerning them, giving voice to them, and offering them for the circle to hold.
Listening is the way you honor the experience of others. As someone else shares during their turn, your role is to listen with your heart. This listening holds and honors your groupmates' experiences.
This simple act of sharing and listening -- mirror forms of honoring -- is profoundly transformative. In order to deepen the trust among the same group of people, the Journey Group meets for multiple sessions (for this series, three). This allows deeper layers of experience to be shared, held, and honored. Mutual expectations and boundary-setting will be covered at the start of each circle.
Because this is a pilot program, you are gratefully invited to stay for a debrief and feedback session afterwards to help improve the experience.
Journey Groups are currently facilitated by Seanan Fong, founder of the SF Contemplarium and conflict resolution practitioner.
<aside> ✍️ Interested in participating in a future Journey Group? Fill out this quick future interest form, and we'll make sure to loop you in about future series!
</aside>
Journey Groups are for anybody who recognizes the need to honor their experiences and those of others in a facilitative context. A Journey Group is not meant to be therapy with the goal of "fixing" anything, nor is it for education or development. It is an honoring practice.