The Village Way ~ Hearth
A Grief Circle held through music, ritual, and shared humanity
with Tanya Forgan and Catherine Holt
Welcome
a place to come as you are
The Circle is a place to be with other women without having to perform, explain yourself or hold everything together. We hold honest conversation, deep listening, laughter, tenderness and the parts of life that do not fit neatly into words.
This circle is an invitation to come as you are.
You do not need to arrive polished, certain or healed. You do not need to be endlessly positive, have the right language or know what you want to say. Bring the life you are actually living. The full, unfinished, complicated truth of it.
Here, you can loosen the mask. You can speak when there are words and be quiet when there are not. You can listen, be witnessed and spend time in the company of women without being fixed, analysed or hurried towards an answer.
Come and join the circle. I would love to welcome you.
Circle lives in our bones
An ancient remembering
Women have always gathered.
We have sat together to share stories, tend grief, celebrate, make meaning and find our way through the changes life asks of us. Many of us no longer have places where this happens naturally, but the remembering is still there. I believe we feel it in our bodies, and I have many other women reflect this back to me.
We live in a time when so much is carried alone. We are connected in countless ways, yet life moves so quickly and many of us are longing to be known beyond the surface of things.
Circle asks us to slow down and meet one another differently.
Not through a performance of sisterhood, or by pretending we are all the same, but through the simple and sometimes brave practice of being present. Listening without preparing an answer. Speaking what is true., and allowing other women’s experience to matter, even when it is different from our own.
There is room for all of it. Grief can be welcomed. Rage can have a voice. Joy can be celebrated, and the things we have carried silently can, when we are ready, be spoken aloud.
Practising Another Way
We live within a culture shaped by patriarchal values. One that teaches us to keep going, compare ourselves, prove our worth and carry more than is ours to hold.
Many of us have become very good at living this way, but it has cost us something.
This circle is an opportunity to practise another way.
A way rooted in relationship, where we remember that we are part of a living web and that none of us exists alone. Every woman’s voice matters here. We are invited to give and receive, to honour our differences and to care for both ourselves and the circle as a whole.
This is the heart of matriarchal practice.
It is not about placing women above men. It is about bringing values that have been pushed to the edges back into the centre: rest, care, reciprocity, deep listening and shared responsibility.
We do not have to arrive perfectly healed or certain of ourselves. We simply come as we are, with a willingness to listen, to be seen and to meet one another with honesty and care.
Together, we can begin to remember a more connected, human and life-giving way of being.we have been taught to be and make room for something more connected, more reciprocal and more alive.
What Happens When We Gather
the rhythm for the evening
We will gather in circle. We might explore a theme, share what is present, sit in silence, create ritual, laugh, grieve or listen to another woman’s story without trying to change it.
We will make space to soften, breathe and return to ourselves. There may be gentle guided movement, embodied practice, Yoga Nidra or time simply to lie down and be held by the ground.
There will be invitations, never demands. You can speak when there are words, remain quiet when there are not, and take care of your own needs throughout.
We are not gathering to improve ourselves. We are gathering to remember that we were never meant to carry life alone.
Each gathering will have its own rhythm because each time we meet, we will be different.
The ground beneath us
Circle is a space to slow down, soften, and step out of constant doing.
We make room to simply be with no agenda to keep up with, nowhere else to be, nothing to prove.
Just permission to arrive as you are and let your nervous system settle. What a relief!
Belonging is genuine connection, where every woman’s voice and presence matter.
In circle, we are witnessed and heard without needing to explain or perform. There is room here for all of you; the parts you show easily and the parts you keep hidden, and a quiet strength that comes from realising you are not alone.
Remembering is returning to the body, to inner knowing, to ancestral wisdom and the power of women gathering together.
Circle is one of the oldest ways women have supported one another long before us, and long after. When we gather with intention, we remember something older than ourselves: that we were never meant to do this alone.
Practising Another Way
We live within a culture shaped by patriarchal values. One that teaches us to keep going, compare ourselves, prove our worth and carry more than is ours to hold.
Many of us have become very good at living this way, but it has cost us something.
This circle is an opportunity to practise another way.
A way rooted in relationship, where we remember that we are part of a living web and that none of us exists alone. Every woman’s voice matters here. We are invited to give and receive, to honour our differences and to care for both ourselves and the circle as a whole.
This is the heart of matriarchal practice.
It is not about placing women above men. It is about bringing values that have been pushed to the edges back into the centre: rest, care, reciprocity, deep listening and shared responsibility.
We do not have to arrive perfectly healed or certain of ourselves. We simply come as we are, with a willingness to listen, to be seen and to meet one another with honesty and care.
Together, we can begin to remember a more connected, human and life-giving way of being.we have been taught to be and make room for something more connected, more reciprocal and more alive.
What Happens When We Gather
the rhythm for the evening
We will gather in circle. We might explore a theme, share what is present, sit in silence, create ritual, laugh, grieve or listen to another woman’s story without trying to change it.
We will make space to soften, breathe and return to ourselves. There may be gentle guided movement, embodied practice, Yoga Nidra or time simply to lie down and be held by the ground.
There will be invitations, never demands. You can speak when there are words, remain quiet when there are not, and take care of your own needs throughout.
We are not gathering to improve ourselves. We are gathering to remember that we were never meant to carry life alone.
Each gathering will have its own rhythm because each time we meet, we will be different.
The ground beneath us
Circle is a space to slow down, soften, and step out of constant doing.
We make room to simply be with no agenda to keep up with, nowhere else to be, nothing to prove.
Just permission to arrive as you are and let your nervous system settle. What a relief!
Belonging is genuine connection, where every woman’s voice and presence matter.
In circle, we are witnessed and heard without needing to explain or perform. There is room here for all of you; the parts you show easily and the parts you keep hidden, and a quiet strength that comes from realising you are not alone.
Remembering is returning to the body, to inner knowing, to ancestral wisdom and the power of women gathering together.
Circle is one of the oldest ways women have supported one another long before us, and long after. When we gather with intention, we remember something older than ourselves: that we were never meant to do this alone.
Tanya Forgan
"Circle is not something I simply facilitate. It is a way I understand the world" Tanya
Tanya
Circle facilitator · Ritualist · Embodiment guide
I am a circle and group facilitator, somatic therapist, ritualist and grief tender. For more than three decades, my work has taken me through humanitarian and community spaces, trauma-informed practice, embodied healing and the training of women who hold others.
As a mixed-heritage woman and lifelong edge-walker, I know something of the ache of not fully belonging. My work is shaped by that lived enquiry, alongside grief, identity, social justice, the wisdom of the body and a devotion to rebuilding the relational fabric between us.
I hold circle with warmth and humanity, but also with clarity. I am interested in what becomes possible when we stop performing belonging and begin to practise it.
Practical details
Circle Dates
Saturday 10 October 2026
Saturday 21 November 2026
Saturday 19 December 2026
Time
6.30pm to 9pm
Please arrive a few minutes early so that you have time to settle before we begin.
£30 per gathering
Places are intentionally limited so that the Circle can remain intimate and each woman has space to be heard.
What to bring
Please bring a blanket, water bottle, journal and pen. Wear something comfortable that allows you to sit and move with ease.
Everything else will be waiting for you.
Accessibility
If you have any access requirements, health considerations or anything else that would help you feel more at ease, please contact me before booking. I will be glad to talk with you about what you need.
Cancellation and transfer policy
Places are limited and your booking reserves a place in the Circle, payments are non-refundable.
If you are unable to attend, you are welcome to transfer your place to another woman. Please let me know her name and email address before the Circle begins.
If I need to cancel the gathering, you will receive a full refund or the option to transfer your booking to another date.
Practical details