The Healing Circles movement is built on the life-changing retreat work of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program (CHP), which began 30 years ago in Bolinas, California. Inspired by the CHP, others have founded powerful retreat centers based on that model, including Callanish in Vancouver, British Columbia; Harmony Hill in Union, Washington; and, more recently, The Abbey Retreat Center in Toronto, Ontario, and Revadim in Jerusalem, Israel.

Retreat centers provide refuge and rejuvenation for an extended period of time and can create a powerful sense of community in which transformational change often takes place. These communities are based on kindness, mutual respect, and, often, love. Participants explore what matters now in life. They may find the inner resources to move forward with less anxiety, depression, and fear, and with a deeper sense of possibility and hope.

Here are some blog posts that provide more information:

Starting Commonweal and Healing Circles

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 If it provides refuge, touches your heart, and guides you on your path, it is a healing circle.

Opening to Miracles

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Commonweal inspires Harmony Hill to launch its own Cancer Help Program.

How Callanish Began

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Janie Brown's longing to address the non-physical aspects of cancer led to the creation of Callanish.

Getting Started in Jerusalem

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Our program, Revadim, was established in order to bring the Commonweal model supporting cancer patients to Israel.

10 Tips for Getting Started

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How we got started at Healing Circles Langley feels like a miracle—outside of any norm we could have conceived. The right people showed up time and again to co-create, serve, and stretch us to do more. Capturing that process in ten tips seems…

I’m Still Here: Young Adults Living Life with Recurrent Cancer

“I’m Still Here” is a short film that follows six younger-adult participants on a three-day Callanish retreat, as they are supported by a team of compassionate professionals who guide them through a healing process.

Header photo courtesy of Commonweal