Circling the Square

Most facilitators who have spent time with mediation or restorative justice will be familiar with the power of circles.

I have to admit that, as a UK commercial mediator dealing with corporate conflicts and strife, circles have not been a prominent element in my work. Corporate lawyers want to believe that they remain totally in control of the mediation process. Our Anglo Saxon approach to 'sorting out the issues' leaves little room to acknowledge that the process may have an independent power of its own.

It was at this point that Evelyn Zellerer made her entry into 'my life as a facilitator', and in doing so, swept me unequivocally into her fascinating circle of energy.

Friday 13 June was the lucky date; the place Queen's University, Belfast. I joined over forty members and students of the European Forum for Restorative Justice who had selected Evelyn's 'Peacemaking Circles' workshop, making it one of the most popular events of the 8th International Conference.

It became apparent that many of us needed to 'unlearn' a number of learned behaviours before accessing circles.  Entry to the workshop was via a few moment's meditation and creative visualisation. Thus, hard-bitten practitioners and capricious researchers alike were transported into a new receptive mind-set. For those who needed extra intellectual support, Evelyn provided Judge Barry Stuart and R v Moses.

Evelyn's circles offer a structured but flexible method for dialogue in the restorative justice process. Accessing with an opening ceremony and working with shared values, Evelyn brings participants into ever closer collaboration. Then with a subliminal focus on the mind, emotion and presence, Evelyn draws participants into getting acquainted, building relationships and trust, and in a non-linear identification of issues and agreeing action plans.

Central to circles is 'the talking piece'. For Evelyn's workshop she provided a shell, but here cultural differences can be acknowledged by the choice of item which will be held by the speaker until they have spoken.

For detail about Evelyn's process, the reader will need to attend one of her workshops. But let me share the effect. With the numbers present, ours started as a big circle containing disparate detached delegates. As the process developed, the circle appeared to shrink and develop an intimacy and focus of its own. Members became acutely aware of each other's presence and value. At the same time, the light in the centre of the circle seemed to intensify. This was immersion physically, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually, but without a sense of compulsion or resistance.

Evelyn's promise that the solutions would find us through dialogue was astonishingly correct. As we returned, at the end of the session, through our closing ceremony, we experienced a helium balloon sensation - rising above that which had kept us previously from circles and consensus.

So transformative was this moment, that it was to be mirrored within a day. On 14 June, in the heart of the Corrymeela Community at Ballycastle, restorative justice practitioners and academics formed their own circle as a tribute to Evelyn's work, and forged new rounded bonds of understanding and trust.