AN INTRODUCTION TO COUNCIL
online certified training - JULY 2024
“The transparency of facilitation created a warm and egalitarian environment” … “adapted well to the virtual format” … “I felt able to connect with the rest of the trainees - even through Zoom” … “ It gives me hope for humanity to be in a practice which feels accessible, vulnerable and intentionally held for everyone” … “I look forward to integrating circle work into my personal and professional relationships.”
If you’ve sat in council circles - online or in person - and wondered why the facilitation seems so “easy” … if you think you hear, and suspect there’s more to learn about listening … if you’re frustrated when conversation is dominated by one or two people … if you’re looking for a more active form of meditation and mind focus … if you’re uncomfortable with silence and don’t know why … if it’s time to bring a little structure into those family zooms … if you’re done with talking and ready for conversation … this training is for you.
Join a like-minded group to embrace the art and learn the science of a circle-based practice of deep listening and heartfelt expression. Yes - even on Zoom. Acknowledging and paying respect to the roots of council in Indigenous cultures worldwide, we’ll learn of its current applications in families, social profit organizations, schools, prisons and businesses, its varied forms and settings, the importance of a strong “container”, the purpose of a centerpiece, the potent nature of the talking/listening piece, and how to sit in an intentional circle online. There’s opportunity for break-outs so you can practice with your colleagues, and time well-spent learning how to form a prompt open enough to welcome responses from the most diverse circle. You’ll gain an understanding of the basic tenets of council and finish with the skills to begin bravely practicing what you’ve learned with family, friends, work colleagues and your chosen community, in-person and virtually.
Sherre Vernon is a poet, educator and Council trainer with over 15 years experience facilitating California teachers, students, parents and school leaders in circle practices. Join Kate and Sherre as they guide this highly functional 16-hour training (divided into four 4-hour sessions), which is taught in the tradition of The Ojai Foundation - now Topa Institute - and offered online. Full attendance is required for completion, and participation is limited to 15 registrants.
In the U.S., these four 4-hour sessions will take place in the evening hours of July 12, 13, 19 and 20.
In Australia, these four 4-hour sessions will take place during the mornings of July 13, 14, 20 and 21.
Tuition is on a sliding scale from $US150 to $US400. You’re invited to choose the level that reflects your current financial ability and to participate more generously if you’re able, so that more can join the circle. A portion of the program fees are returned to the community via social profit organizations, food banks, international relief agencies and organizations seeking to reestablish Indigenous sovereignty. Recent recipients include Mujeres de la Tierra, LA Regional Food Bank, International Rescue Committee, The Land Back Foundation (Australia) and Paraxat Paxaavxa (the Tongva Land Conservancy.)
Highly recommended reading: The Way of Council by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, Bramble Books, 2009
Contact Kate for details or register here today.
PRACTICE THE PRACTICE
ONLINE - third THURSDAY EACH MONTH 5:00 - 6:30PM PdT (Check your time zonE here)
Whether or not you’ve attended a certified council training, you’re welcome in this monthly online space. Participants around the world are gathering as instant family, finding their stories echoed by others in the circle. This is a place to find the council curious or the newly-trained, as well as council veterans; a place where certified trainers can witness the creative ways we’re all applying our skills as the world changes, and to offer yet more perspective on how to hold the practice. Come tell your war stories of falling on your face. Hold a response council to hear how others have made it through when council goes off the rails. Try out new forms, brainstorm new prompts, practice your co-facilitation skills with diverse partners. This is your space! Use it to build your confidence, then go out into your world, find your people and form your circles!
The sliding annual membership fee of $US50 - $US70 will be returned to the community via social profit agencies. Certified trainers may register free of charge and visit at any time. (If you’re not sure whether you’re a trainer, you’re probably not there yet.) Register here or contact Kate with your questions.
COUNCIL oN THE CARPET
in venice in person - second thursday each month 5:30 - 7:30PM pdt
Meet a circle of adults that’s different every month, shaped by who shows up, and what is present in their lives or in our world. If you’re a council facilitator, let go of that role and be held by another, different container. If you know council in another setting – a school, a family, a business – see it anew as you sit with strangers or acquaintances who don’t know your “old story.” It’s hard to explain council, right? Bring a loved one and let the council unfold without description.
Council on the Carpet may be intermittently postponed based on community health. Currently, masks are optional. For more details, contact Kate.
COUNCIL IMMERSION
resuming soon
Some people want to attend a council training – to learn how to be a facilitator of circles, start on the path to becoming a Council trainer or simply because they wonder what the fuss is about.
If you know what the fuss is about and are hungry to sit in more, longer, perhaps deeper councils – a council that goes more than one round, a council that doesn’t have to stop because time is up, a circle that honors the emergence of collective wisdom -- consider attending this day. We’ll spend our time exploring different Council forms, activities, openings, and closings, and we’ll deepen or begin new friendships. Sign up just to participate, sign up to facilitate the big circle or smaller circles, add your favorite activities to the agenda, or request council forms or games you’ve heard of and want to experience. This is an excellent activity for those who’ve attended a Council training and want to polish their skills!
There will be games, walks, breaks and breakouts.
Council trainers attend free of charge. Those who have attended a Council training receive a 20% discount. Financial aid is available for those engaged in social justice work or public education.
Hours: 10am – 6pm. Please bring a brown bag lunch.
Contact Kate to be placed on the waitlist for the next Council Immersion.
THE FACILITATOR PATH
resuming soon
Are you council-trained and wondering what to do with it? Do you need practice before offering council in your neighborhood, at your kids' school, with your partner? This may be the time for The Facilitator Path. This offering will accelerate your confidence and skill to generate more circles - for connection, for contemplation, for support, for action, for understanding. Each month, you will be paired with a senior trainer to plan, set up, facilitate, close and debrief the Council on the Carpet that has convened in Venice for the past two decades on the second Thursday of the month. In a supported environment, and with guidance from the circle, you'll develop the readiness to bring your own circles into being. From time to time, appropriate handouts will be provided. Whether you want to start a book club or a knitting circle, a men's group or a social justice organizing team, build the muscle so that the council training you took isn't gathering dust on a shelf in your mind!
There is a suggested donation for one year of tuition and practice. Nobody is turned away due to lack of funds. Participants must have taken "Council 1: An Introduction to Council" or an equivalent circle practice training. Required reading: Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle's "The Way of Council."
Feel free to contact Kate for more details.
REMEMBERING NICOLE WILLETT AND SOUL DIVE
Whether you felt already guided by soul or worried that you had no soul, this might have been the adventure for you. Each month, Soul Dive continued a journey to pay more attention to the voice of the soul as distinct from the clamor of ego or personality, to unearth our greatest gifts through the wisdom, ritual and support of a small but mighty council-based circle. Soul Dive was a collaborative effort between Kate Lipkis and Nicole Willett, her beloved friend, who died tragically on Labor Day, 2018. We miss your presence, Nic, though you live with us in a million wild and witty ways. We know your soul has chosen a bigger adventure.