What We're Really Doing in Women's Circles

Happy Saturday friends!

I've been noticing lately how often women ask me, "What exactly is a Women's Circle?" So today I thought I would pull back the curtain a little and share what they really feel like.

I was trained as an Equine Gestalt Coach. The training was an intensive three years of my life and it was transformative in my own personal life. We played all the parts: watching people being coached, being coached, and being the coach. Equine Gestalt Coaching is deep process work. Some women want to jump in to the deep end of the pool and work on their healing in that way and that’s great, I'm happy to do that with them. But what I’ve found in my years doing this is that most women do not want to jump in to deep process work. Maybe because life itself feels deep process? I tend to attract women who are highly sensitive, empaths, who often find the world a jarring place, who are raising families and/or careers, who are often neurodivergent, who are looking for their “herd” of good and kind women dealing with life. They are looking for softness, for empathy. They are hoping to finally receive some of the compassion they freely offer to the world, but they arrive a little cautious too. Hopeful, but afraid to hope. The world rarely mirrors their softness back to them, so most of them expect nothing at all. When I see a new member settle in to the circle, her eyes softening as she realizes she will be held with carefulness here, my heart dances. And maybe that's why these circles matter so much right now. Life feels sharp for a lot of us. Busy. Loud. Like we're holding too many things and trying to be strong in too many directions. A Women's Circle becomes the one place where you don't have to do any of that. You can walk in exactly as you are, tired or hopeful or tangled up inside, and be met with softness instead of pressure. It's a place to exhale. A place where you can rest in the company of women who understand the weight that life asks us to carry.

So, while I can and do offer deep process coaching, that is not what my Women’s Circles are. The Circles I offer here at the ranch (and online starting in Jan 2026) are gentle. They are a soft place to land. My Women’s Circles are tea and brownies and laughter and dogs and art and a herd of ponies and mini donkeys. They are community and compassion. They are teary eyes when you share something that hurts, laughter and smile lines when you tell a funny story, applause when you stand up for yourself. Experiencing yourself through a group of women who know your story...you begin to believe what they are reflecting back to you: you are worthy, you are amazing, you are a force to be reckoned with.

But what about the art Julia? Ah yes, the idea of art can trip some up right? Did you know 95% of the women have never picked up a brush? Almost all of them say, “I can’t draw a stick figure.” That’s great because we won’t be drawing stick figures ;-) This is art I lead you through. It’s playtime. It’s fun. Maybe it stretches you a little but it feels like a good stretch. During the art portion, you'll hear me say things like, "Use a white pen and make a little oval...add a tiny triangle here...a small circle there...look, there's the body of a bird!" Or, "Make a puddle of any blue you like, I'm not so picky about precise colors." And always, "Don't worry if something feels off, we'll cover it with a bit of acrylic or a white marker at the end." It's mixed media. Anything goes. And my favorite part is hearing the women who have been with me a while passing those same reassurances to the newer ones: "It's mixed media. You really can't ruin it."

And all through the art we are swapping stories, or our favorite tv show of the week, or a recipe we really liked. That hormone doc that is finally making a difference, where we saw the funny Grinch Christmas tree, the cool moon pic we took, someone's bunny or dog or cat, the newest art supply we all need, the baby raccoon someone found in their yard, sharing the job opening we saw at a store we were in because someone’s kid was looking, this week someone brought another woman getting ready to go through chemo, a talisman necklace, and the list goes on and on.

We’ve all heard about the women way back when: tanning hides together, washing clothes together, gathering food and herbs together, cooking together, raising kids together, helping each other heal, and how slowly over time, our lives have become more and more isolated. The Women’s Circle here at the ranch is tapping into that need for a women’s community, a place to share, to talk, to play, to be seen and understood. 

If you're thinking about joining:

Each Women's Circle is six weeks, $210 in total.
We meet for three hours each week.
If you break it down, it's $35 per week, about the cost of a take-out meal or a therapy copay, as someone mentioned this week. It's a supportive, joyful part of the week that many women tell me becomes their anchor. 

Here's what's coming up next at the ranch!

If you'd like read more about the Tuesday morning circle, click here!

Yes, there is a Wednesday evening group but it's usually full. If you'd like to be added to the list, please contact me!

And also, I'd love to have you join me for the free Playdates, first one is this coming Monday, November 17th, 7:30-9:00pm:

Learn more about the free Playdates and the Online Women's Circle here!

THE RANCH:

Not a big fan of all the poison ivy around the ranch, until the fall:

The Polar Bear turned 12 this week:

B-Rad continues his damn dam project. Did I talk about this already? Who knows but apparently you aren't supposed to allow trees to grow on the dam, if a storm uprooted one we could lose structural integrity. So, more trees down:

Good God. Turn your back for a moment and she's up where she shouldn't be. Bet you can't guess who...

Yep...

It's Parsley.

It's always Parsley:

She was not happy with me wrangling her down! "I was just looking over the wall, doesn't mean (probably) that I would jump 6 feet to a broken leg."

Sweetness with a new friend—he was so relaxed that he fell asleep like this, right in her arms:

I had my first crown this week, not a fan. Saw this at my new dentist (Cardinal Family Dentistry, Apex, NC) who I really like:

If you are a sensitive girlie like me, my advice is to take 4 Advil the moment you get home, do not wait until the novacaine starts to wear off, especially if they have to laser your gums to get everything to fit :-/

My brother's dog Princess Penelope, included because she is such a character and obviously belongs on the ranch! Right?

A watercolor sketch of my friend Mary's little grandson and her fabulous Border Collie Finn:

THE MEMES:

Let's just start here with Elyse Myers because wow, this hit me right between the eyes this week. I've always been a worrier but since Mom died from cancer in 2022 and then her younger sister Katy this year from cancer too, well, my brain wants to say, "It's just a matter of time for you miss."

So, this is my goal:

And I have to say, it's actually helping. I mean come on, would you allow a friend to say that to themselves without jumping in? No. Would you allow someone to say it to your friend without jumping in? No! So why allow your anxious brain to bully you? So I hear, "I feel a pain. Obviously we are dying." and I laugh OUT LOUD about how ridiculous my brain is being. Try it and tell me how that's working for you!

How many of you are Trekkies:

Now this one is interesting to me because I spent 5 years of my farm life in Colorado with a flock of sheep and my girls would mount each other, my goats do as well. Apparently I had "very rare" sheep":

Sorry for the continued repost but if I see it, I post it because it made Mom and me laugh so hard:

This is something Tash Corbin says and it makes me snort giggle because dammit it's so amazingly true and we need that too. The best part was that I showed it to B-Rad (who is a really, really good guy) and he said he didn't get it :-/ and then I showed it to a friend and she absolutely did:

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This is an AI-free newsletter! While I love to use AI to help me figure out a piece of software I don't understand, my intention is to use it to help me with the drudgery, never with writing, art, creation. All em dashes are intentional and mine, I was using them way before ChatGPT was a twinkle in Sam Altman's eye :-)

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Thank you for reading :-)

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