Assessing Circle Health Leads to Revelations

by John Marra and Karen May

Over the past 10 months, our Couple, along with Dan & Amy Sheesley, have conducted Circle Health workshops for eight circles that wanted to know how well they serve their members.

We asked four questions of the circles:

1. What is your circle providing for your couple?

2. What would you like your circle to be or do?

3. How do you want your circle to move forward?

4. What do you provide for your circle?

We found that the circles, while being of different configurations (in-person, hybrid or all-virtual), had very similar responses.

We wanted circle members say what was present for them so that it became part of an out-loud conversation. In many cases, they discovered things that were going on that were not revealed previously. One circle had not addressed the fact that couples had left the circle. This was a source of incompletion that existed for more than a year.

Other circles that had transitioned to hybrid had not addressed the uncomfortable feeling of not being together face to face.

On a positive note, all the circles felt the satisfaction of being connected and the feeling of support they felt from a body of friends. More than one circle’s members mentioned that the circle provided them with a safe, sacred space to say what needed to be said and share intimacy.

If your circle would like to include the Circle Health workshop in one of your quarterlies, all we ask is that your members come with an attitude of curiosity about the health of their circle and answer the questions needed to find out. We’d love to help you explore! Contact us at [email protected].