Healing Circles Global is a program of Commonweal — the Bolinas, California-based nonprofit that has spent more than four decades at the intersection of health and healing, arts and education, and environment and justice. That lineage matters: Healing Circles Global grew directly from Commonweal’s Cancer Help Program, co-founded by Michael Lerner and Rachel Naomi Remen, which pioneered the idea that each of us has the capacity for intentional healing at physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels — and that we heal best in community.
Founded in 2016, Healing Circles Global has expanded that insight far beyond cancer support into a global network of peer-led circles for grief, caregiving, racial identity, expressive arts, healthcare burnout, and anyone simply navigating a hard passage. The circles ask nothing of participants except their presence. No one plays the role of clinician or expert — everyone listens, and everyone is listened to. The practice draws on The Circle Way methodology of Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea, Parker Palmer’s work on hidden wholeness, and the ancient, pre-linguistic human instinct to gather in circle.
The numbers are quietly remarkable: more than 6,000 circles held, participants in 48 countries, and surveys showing that after ten or more circles, 95% of participants report increased wellbeing and 94% feel less isolated. Circles are offered free of charge.
Why It Matters: At a moment when loneliness has been named a public health crisis, Healing Circles Global offers a simple, scalable, and profoundly human response — demonstrating that the most powerful medicine available is often just people showing up for each other, without agenda, in a circle.
