Is this parenting circle a good fit?

Our emphasis is on transformation, holding the space for someone to navigate their own experience and look at their patterns and uncover new possibilities. We are trying as much as possible to help them discover their own wisdom from the inside out without becoming burdened by the personal agendas of others and other empathy blockers. We go at a very slow pace with plenty of room for silence, and we hold back on offering strategies until after there has been a lot of room for processing.

A common and alienating experience that we want to avoid is to feeling like we're being invaded and overwhelmed by people's assumptions, judgments, and advice. Rather, I want to hear you putting into words what your inner experience is right now, in response to what I have shared. What is stimulated in you in response to me? What is your basic, raw experience, including how you feel?

Hearing this from you is what gives me the context within which to place and be more fully aware of the experience I have had/am having. And from there, to understand myself better, to be able to feel myself more.

How do we “hear each other into speech, into deeper and deeper speech?”

In the circle, we will not be facilitating with the familiar leadership teaching style. We are not an authority that has answers and knows what to do. We will be in exploration with you, believing in and supporting each of us to gain confidence in our ability to find our own way. We will explore with you what it means to engage with you in a "power with" way.

A major part of what we offer is through how we hold the space for the circle in a certain way. Differences we have identified:

• taking time to notice what's present (emotions, sensations, thoughts) and being with what's emerging rather than jumping over it
• acknowledging how hard it can be to welcome parts of ourselves that we wish were different
• feeling the frustration/grief/etc of how big the gap is between where we are and where we want to be, for example, how much I want connection that I don't feel, connection with myself and with others
• recognizing that deep acknowledgment of how hard being a parent/partner/friend/human being is often needs to occur before exploring strategies
• trusting the process and what emerges with the support that I'm getting

The clues and information we'll be exploring tend to come from different places than usual. One reason they'll be coming from different places is that we're slowing things down and encouraging asking for pauses so that, instead of jumping over things, we can take more time to notice what emerges if we don't go with habitual patterns that may include overriding ourselves/suppressing something alive in ourselves. Some of these clues and information will help us go deeper or see ways to be more vulnerable with those that we're engaging with. Or, the clues and information might help you see how you're contributing to how things are going, for example, and that might give you ideas about what information you might offer or get from someone. As we explore new ways of being and engaging with our children besides what's already familiar and habitual, these clues and information we'll be noticing will help us have new possibilities.

We welcome your feedback along the way about how this process is for you. This important information contributes to our process together.