Circling & Relational Mindfulness: A Practice of Presence and Wholeness
What is circling?
Circling is a relational mindfulness practice rooted in self-awareness, authenticity, aliveness, and deep curiosity. It invites us to slow down and tune into the present moment—within ourselves and with others. Together, we explore how our inner world impacts the space between us, creating what we call the relational field.
In these circles, participants often feel safe enough to touch into tender edges—grief, power, confusion, and shadow. We don’t offer advice or try to fix; instead, we witness each other with care. Through presence and attunement, we create a space where your full self is welcome.
Each session begins with gentle warm-up practices, followed by a 40-minute free-flowing circle. Facilitators hold the space with trauma-informed awareness, helping the group navigate emotion, expression, and shared insight. Circles typically include 6–12 people, fostering intimacy, honesty, and collective emergence.
This is not just a practice—it’s a remembering. A place where healing happens through connection, presence, and being seen.
Our approach to Circling is rooted in three guiding principles:
Self Compassion
We welcome all parts—especially the tender, protective, messy, and exiled ones. Compassion is the foundation of safety. It softens shame and makes space for belonging.
Self Awareness
We practice deep listening within. We name our sensations, emotions, projections, and needs—claiming our experience as ours. Self-awareness is sovereignty in relationship.
Curiosity
We let go of “knowing.” Instead, we wonder. What’s here now? What’s alive in the space between us? Curiosity invites emergence, humility, and reverence for the unknown.
In a culture that prizes speed, perfection, and self-sufficiency, circling is a kind of soul rebellion. It reminds us that relational wounds require relational medicine—that what was broken in disconnection can be mended in presence.
When we are met with curiosity instead of judgment, when someone stays with us in our confusion rather than trying to fix it, something shifts. We begin to trust again—not just others, but ourselves.
This is the power of the relational field. In circling, the group becomes a mirror, a container, a sanctuary. We feel our impact on others and theirs on us. We learn to track subtle cues of emotion and intuition. And we discover that truth is not static—it is co-created.
Why Circling?
The Impact
For the self, circling cultivates:
Greater emotional awareness and embodiment
Increased capacity for vulnerability and boundary
Clarity about personal patterns, longings, and defenses
A felt sense of belonging and dignity
For relationships and communities, circling nurtures:
A culture of listening and presence
Resilience in navigating conflict
A deeper respect for difference
Shared meaning and mutual transformation
We hold space as a practice of reverent witnessing.
Joanna and Sam bring distinct yet complementary approaches to Circling that reflect the richness of the relational field itself. Together, they create a space that honors both the rawness of inner truth and the sacredness of presence.
Together, they model a dynamic balance—structure and softness, inquiry and presence, challenge and care. Their shared commitment is to hold space that is trauma-informed, emotionally honest, and alive with possibility. Through their collaboration, participants are invited into a deeper experience of themselves, one another, and the relational field that connects us all.
Joanna Bartolome
Joanna meets people where they are—and invites them into deeper territory. With fierce compassion and poetic precision, she helps individuals explore the hidden places within: the exiled parts, the unspoken grief, the shadow longing to be named.
Her facilitation centers on safety, mystery, and transformation. She attunes not only to words, but to tone, gesture, and the nervous system’s quiet signals. Participants often say they feel both seen and stretched in her presence—able to soften while being gently invited beyond their comfort zone.
Joanna works fluidly with shadow material, helping others bring curiosity to discomfort, contradiction, and power. Her background in trauma healing, depth psychology, and archetypal ritual supports a container where the sacred and the messy can coexist—and where paradox becomes a portal to wholeness.
For Joanna, Circling is a practice of remembrance. Of returning to truth, undoing aloneness, and building community rooted in honesty, mystery, and the courage to feel it all.
Sam Pelczar
Sam brings a grounded, directive style that gently challenges participants to lean into their growth edges. He attunes to what’s unspoken, often naming patterns with clarity and precision that invite deeper self-awareness. His experience in grief care and chaplaincy lends a steady anchor in the midst of emotional terrain.
His approach to Circling is quiet and grounded—more about deep presence than performance. He supports individuals and groups in exploring their emotional landscapes with honesty and care.
Sam has walked with people through grief, illness, and transformation. In his facilitation, you’ll find room for silence, for contradiction, for both rupture and repair. He helps people feel the power of simply being.
For Sam, Circling is not just about insight; it is a sacred return to the body and to the space between us where genuine connection can emerge. His presence brings a sense of depth, authenticity, and devotion to every circle he holds.
"When you meet another human being in their vulnerability and stay—without fixing, without fleeing—you become medicine."
– Anonymous, Circling tradition
A non-judgemtal space to lean into your relational edges
Circling invites us into direct contact with our inner world—especially the parts shaped by habit, defense, longing, and memory. When you lean into your edges—the places where vulnerability and discomfort meet—you begin to reclaim parts of yourself once hidden or exiled.
In a trauma-informed, relationally attuned space, something powerful happens:
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Owning your experience (even the messy parts) gives you choice, not control—choice to respond, rather than react.
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When you voice your assumptions or emotions out loud, you start to see what belongs to you and what never did.
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The mirror of others helps reveal your blind spots—not as shame, but as invitations toward deeper integrity.
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Leaning in gently, with support, helps expand your capacity to be with intensity, difference, or the unknown.
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When you don’t bypass the edge, you often find beauty, surprise, and tenderness waiting there.
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In being seen as you are—without needing to impress, fix, or hide—you rediscover the power of just being.
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With yourself. With others. Even when it’s awkward, uncertain, or intense. And that staying is a kind of love.
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