The Way of Council
Listening from the Heart, Living in Connection
Council is a practice of speaking and listening from the heart. We come together in a circle, creating a space for empathy, honesty and the possibility of being truly heard. Through attentive listening and authentic speaking, we begin to meet ourselves and one another with greater compassion, openness and understanding.
What is Council?
Rooted in ancient traditions of gathering in circle, Council offers a way to share our stories, listen deeply, and honour the wisdom each person brings. Story has long been a way of keeping traditions alive, maintaining our connection to the sacred, and remembering our place within the greater web of life.
In contemporary practice, Council creates a container in which every voice matters and difference can be welcomed rather than overcome. It offers a way of bearing witness and making peace, cultivating mutual respect, shared responsibility and a more non-hierarchical way of being together.
Council is not about fixing things, offering advice or being right. It is about learning to listen without judgement, to speak from our own experience, and to meet what arises with honesty and care. Through this practice, we become more attentive to ourselves, to others and to the world around us.
At its heart, Council is both a practice and a way of being. As we enter the circle, we step beyond our familiar patterns of speaking and listening into a space of shared presence, where something greater than the individual voice can emerge. We may experience a deepening sense of connection — to one another, to the living world and to the mystery that holds us all.
When we gather in this way, the possibility opens for new understanding, healing and wholeness. We begin to discover that the wisdom of the circle is not held by any one person, but arises through our willingness to listen, to speak truthfully and to make room for the experience of another.
The Way of Council: A Journey of Deepening
The Way of Council can meet us at different stages of our lives and practice. Whether we are discovering the circle for the first time, learning to tend a circle for others, or seeking to embody Council more fully in our lives, each stage offers an invitation to deepen our listening, presence and relationship with the world.
The three levels of Council described below offer pathways into this unfolding journey — from Listening from the Heart, through Tending the Circle, to Embodying Council: Living the Way.
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
William Shakespeare, King Lear.
Three levels of Council
“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing” -
Rollo May
Council is a practice that can nurture personal, professional and family lives. It offers a way of communicating that encourages attentive listening and heartfelt, compassionate speaking. Circle practice recognises that each voice needs to be heard, every person has a gift, and each of us has a story to share. As we make room for this circular wisdom, unexpected insights arise; healing and understanding can happen. Each person’s voice contributes to the whole truth.
Three levels of Way of Council trainings, each grounded in my lived experience and carrying the depth and spirit that I share here. These levels can speak to participants wherever they are on their journey — from tentative first steps, to Circle facilitators, to those ready to embody and transmit the practice more fully.
Way of Council – Level One: Listening from the Heart
Theme: Entering the Circle
Focus:
An introduction to the Way of Council as a practice of deep listening, heart-centred speaking, and shared presence. This level is for those who are new or relatively new to Council. The emphasis is placed on the Council's intentions, the role of the talking piece, the guidelines, and the creation of a safe container. Participants begin to experience the subtle shift that happens when we listen without needing to fix, judge, or respond.
Participants will learn to:
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Understand and honour the roots, history and intentions of Council
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Learn the guidelines, meaning of circle, talking piece and story
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Use the talking piece with presence and clarity
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Listen beyond words — with the heart and body
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Begin to notice their inner dialogue and move beyond it
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Speak authentically from personal experience
Outcomes:
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A felt experience of being heard and seen.
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A foundation for personal reflection and opening to the ‘Spirit of Enquiry’
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Tools to begin integrating Council into personal life and relationships
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Way of Council – Level Two: Tending the Circle​​​​​​​​​​​
Theme: Becoming a Keeper of Council
Focus:
This level is for those who have sat in multiple Councils and feel called to deepen their practice and/or open Council circles for others - not as a leader or authority, but as a tender of space, one who listens for the ‘field’ and soul of the circle and learns to read the Council rhythm. Emphasis is on deepening the guidelines. We explore Council as a ceremony and its many forms and intentions, including group dynamics, and begin to work with challenging emotions and polarities.
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Participants will learn to:
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Set a safe container and hold boundaries with grace
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Track the emotional and energetic field of a circle
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Sit with strong emotions, silence, and discomfort
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Deepen the art of story, witnessing, timing, and other forms - fish bowl, spiral & dyad
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Listen for what lies beneath words (the collective field, the land, the unseen)
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Begin to open your own circles with more comfort and ease, presence, clarity, and humility
Outcomes:
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Beginning confidence in initiating Council circles
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Deeper trust in the mystery and wisdom of the circle
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A more grounded ability to set a safe container and bear witness
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Way of Council – Level Three: Embodying Council
Theme: Living the Way
Focus:
This is the maturation of Council practice — no longer simply something we do, but something we are. The emphasis is on embodiment, transmission, and soul-tending. This level invites those who have lived and breathed Council in an apprenticeship with some years of practice, now living the deeper teachings of listening, presence, and peace-making. It includes the inner psychological work of facing one’s own edges, shadows, and vulnerability, using that energy for transformation. Participants explore Council not only as a relational tool but as a spiritual path.
Participants will learn to:
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Walk as Council — bringing the practice into all areas of life
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Hold collective trauma and ancestral story with care
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Deepen their intuitive listening — to self, others, and the world
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Serve as a mirror, a witness and a possible soul-guide within the circle – in response to challenging situations and the shadow
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Relate to Council as mystery, as medicine, and as a way of being
Outcomes:
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More fully integrated and understanding of the Way of Council
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An embodied presence that transmits the practice
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Capacity to sit with diversity, polarisation and opposition and cultivate Council in community
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Developing and opening a culture of gratitude and love
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Finding Your Way into Council
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The three levels offer a pathway for deepening your relationship with the Way of Council, from discovering the practice to tending circles for others and embodying its teachings more fully in daily life.
Everyone comes to Council with their own experience, questions and sense of what is calling them. These levels are intended as a guide rather than a fixed progression; each person's journey is different, and there is room for flexibility in how the practice is explored.
If you feel drawn to the Way of Council, whether you are new to the practice or have been sitting in circle for many years, you are warmly invited to get in touch. We can talk together about your experience, what you are looking for, and which offering might best meet you where you are.
My personal Journey with the Way of Council
I have spent more than thirty years practising, teaching and mentoring in the Way of Council. My work is grounded in sustained personal practice, formal training and decades of accompanying people through moments of transition, vulnerability and change.
Through workshops, retreats, trainings and mentoring, I have shared Council with thousands of people across Europe and the United States.
Yet Council is more than a practice I have studied or a method I teach. It is a way I have lived with and returned to, again and again, over more than three decades, something I have carried in my bones and blood, and continue to deepen through the ongoing journey of listening, witnessing and living from the heart.
All my Way of Council offerings are listed on the homepage and events page of my website, with dates, places, and costs.
You are welcome to contact me if you have questions or need more information: pippa@ancienthealingways.co.uk