Circles

The conversation you can’t have alone.

Small, themed cohorts of six to ten members, facilitated by a Keeper, over four to eight weeks. The eldest daughters, the mothers between worlds, the grief that arrived late. A room of people who already understand the question, so you do not spend the night explaining it.

Coming soon. Circles are not running yet, and nothing is charged for them until they do. Members hear first when the first ones open.

Join Hearth →See planned themes

What a Circle is

A small room, held carefully.

Circles share the shape of a Sit: slow, paired with a real person, no streaks. But with a few other members in the room who are bringing a version of the same thing.

Cohort size

6 to 10 members.

Small enough that everyone has room to speak. Large enough that you are not the only one carrying a particular shape of the question.

Length

4 to 8 weeks.

Themed series with a beginning, middle, and end. Not an open-ended forum. The arc is part of the work.

Facilitation

One Keeper, every week.

The same trained Keeper holds the room for the whole series. They are not a moderator. They are a host who has sat with this theme before.

Format

Video. Evenings.

90 minutes, held over secure video. We run cohorts across multiple time zones (Americas, Europe, Asia, Oceania) so you can find one that lands kindly in your evening.

A week in a Circle

Four touchpoints, one slow week.

The Circle is the Wednesday night, but the week is the Circle. Here is what one looks like, from Monday morning to Friday evening.

Monday

The prompt arrives.

Your Keeper sends a single prompt to the cohort. A question, a passage, a small piece of writing. Something to sit with for two days. Nothing to perform, nothing to submit. Just a thing to carry into Wednesday.

Wednesday, 7pm

The Circle meets.

Ninety minutes on video. Your Keeper opens. People speak when they have something. Silence is allowed and frequent. Nobody is called on. Nobody is graded. The shape of the conversation is the conversation.

Thursday

The Long Talk thread.

A private thread for the cohort opens for the rest of the week. Not a Slack. Not a chat room. A slow place. Most members write a paragraph or two, sometimes nothing. Your Keeper reads it and replies in their own voice.

Friday

The closing reflection.

A Keeper

Availability

Not open yet

Tell me when it opens →

New themes open monthly. Members are notified two weeks before registration opens.

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The honest scope

What Circles are not.

Circles are not group therapy. They are not a clinical support group. They are not AA-style mutual aid. They are not advice circles. Nobody is telling you what to do, and nobody is graded for participation.

A Circle is a peer cohort, facilitated by a trained Keeper. The work is being in a room with other people who already understand the shape of the question, with a host who keeps the room safe enough that the slow conversation can happen.

Pricing

Circles are included.

Both Hearth tiers include Circles in the monthly membership. Single passes are available if you want to try one without joining.

Hearthside

$39/mo

Biweekly Sits with your matched Keeper. Circles are coming soon; members hear first.

Hearth Deep

$99/mo

Weekly Sits and priority Long Talk. Circles are coming soon; members hear first.

Single pass

Not on sale yet

A way to join one Circle without a membership, once Circles open. Nothing is sold until then.

See full pricing →

Common questions

The questions before the room.

The things people ask before signing up. If your question isn’t here, write to circles@dearhearth.com.

Are Circles confidential?: Yes. What members share inside a Circle stays inside that Circle. Your Keeper holds the same confidentiality they do in a one-to-one Sit. We ask members to agree to the same before the first session. It is part of the opening.
What if I miss a session?: Life happens. We do not record sessions, so a missed week is genuinely missed. But your Keeper will send a short note about what the room held that night, and the Long Talk thread is open all week. Most cohorts can hold one or two missed weeks comfortably.
Can I switch Circles?: Before a series begins, yes. Write to your Keeper or to circles@dearhearth.com and we'll move you. Once a cohort has started, we ask you to stay if you can. The room is built on the people who showed up to it.
Do I need to share?: No. There is no round-robin, no calling on people, no obligation to perform. Many members spend their first week or two mostly listening. The Keeper's job is to make the silence safe, not to fill it.
Are these recorded?: Never. Circles are not recorded, transcribed, or saved. Nothing leaves the room except what you carry out of it yourself.
Can my Keeper join my Circle?: Usually no. The Keeper who facilitates a Circle is a different Keeper from your one-to-one Keeper, by design, so the Circle stays a peer cohort and not a second therapy session. If your Keeper happens to be facilitating a theme that interests you, we'll let you know and walk you through the choice.

For the broader site FAQ, see /faq.

The next Circle opens in two weeks

Pull up a chair in a room that already understands.

Circles are not running yet. Join Hearth for one-to-one support now, and you will hear first when the first Circle opens.

Join Hearth →See pricing

Tending the chair