THE ART & PRACTICE OF CIRCLES
Thursday 21st May & Friday 22nd May, 2026, St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, London
For those called to facilitate beginnings, thresholds and endings, with depth, maturity and care
Circle facilitation is a method for hosting meaningful group conversations and participatory dialogue. This training explores how Circle can be used in facilitation, leadership development, coaching and organisational work.
In these confusing times of multiple truths and paradoxes, we need collective spaces to sense integrity, widen our understanding, and re-member ourselves to each other and the greater story of us.
This training explores the practice of Circle, as a facilitation form and a way of being together. Designed for those who facilitate groups of any size, it responds to a growing need for depth, maturity and responsibility in group work.
As a team of three facilitators, offering different cultural lenses, lived experiences, and working histories, we will develop collective listening, container-building and energetic perception of groups.
Participants will experience a Circle held by experienced practitioners while engaging in applied learning — practising the core principles, leadership roles and design elements that enable powerful questions, meaningful ritual, and space hosting which resources the work. Through story, structured practice and reflection, you will not only understand Circle — you will work with it. This is an invitation not simply to facilitate Circle, but to live it with dignity, clarity and care, and begin applying it to more areas of life.
What You Will Learn & Practice
Over two days you will explore the core practices of Circle facilitation and participatory dialogue, developing practical skills for hosting meaningful group conversations.
The core principles and leadership roles within Circle facilitation
Collective listening as a living practice
Container-building — how to open, hold and close a space well
Crafting powerful, clean questions that invite depth rather than debate
Working with group energetics — sensing what is emerging and responding with steadiness
Meaningful ritual that supports reflection and integration
Practical space hosting — structure, rhythm, pacing and transition
The relationship between hosting yourself and hosting others
This is applied learning. You will practise, reflect, experiment and integrate — not simply observe.
I will be alongside these excellent human beings:
Quanita Roberson - Facilitator
For more than two decades, Quanita has facilitated transformative workshops, rites of passage and leadership programmes across the United States and internationally, working at the intersection of grief, initiation, race and spiritual maturity. A master teacher shaped by deep indigenous mentorship and integral theory, she carries an uncommon capacity to hold complexity, reconcile differences and guide groups through profound emotional and systemic work with steadiness and authority.
Jamie Colston - Facilitator
Over the past 15 years, Jamie has trained extensively in Systemic Constellations and Art of Hosting participatory process, supporting and designing training while curating and facilitating innovative and intergenerational community learning spaces. An artist, poet and ritual maker, he brings rigorous systemic practice together with embodied creativity, enabling groups to move beyond conversation into lived, relational experience.
And You?
Seekers, searchers, people in comfort, people in discomfort.
We welcome people from all walks of life, all professions.
Managers, facilitators, team leaders, consultants, coaches, entrepreneurs.
Educators, artists, poets, musicians, faith community leaders, and government.
Community organizers, social change activists, therapists.
We welcome the older and the youngers, and people working with the olders and those working with the youngers.
We welcome men, women, the in-betweens, and the undecideds.
All people seeking a substantially better wisdom of heart, mind, and belly.
Moi Tu - Wisdom Artist
Moi is an artist, consultant and facilitator who works at the intersection of creativity and collective sense-making. She supports groups in workplaces and communities to collaborate with more imagination, meaning and human connection, especially when the work is complex or emotionally charged. Her practice draws on visual and artful dialogue methods that loosen knots, surface hidden stories and make space for voices that are often overlooked.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need previous facilitation experience?
No. The training is designed for people with different levels of experience working with groups.
Is this a Circle Way training?
The training explores the broader practice of Circle facilitation drawing on several traditions of dialogue and participatory leadership.
What kinds of groups can this be used with?
Circle practice can be used with leadership teams, communities, organisations and learning groups.