When Women Gather: Why It Matters Now

“Women’s circles are not a new idea. They are an ancient way of being together that allows us to remember who we are.” — Jean Shinoda Bolen

There’s something almost too easy to overlook about women gathering.

It can sound like conversation. Support. Time together. But it has never really been that simple.

Across history, women have gathered to make sense of things. To speak plainly. To sit with what is difficult, without needing to resolve it immediately. Something happens in those spaces that doesn’t happen in isolation.

You can feel it before you can explain it.

Jungian psychology has always understood the psyche as something shaped in relationship, not apart from it. Much of what we carry sits outside of conscious awareness. It doesn’t respond to logic alone.

And while Carl Jung is the name most people recognize, this body of work was never his alone.

Sabina Spielrein was there at the beginning, writing about transformation as a process that involves both destruction and creation. Her thinking influenced both Jung and Freud, though it took decades for her contributions to be properly acknowledged.

Emma Jung, his wife and a psychoanalyst in her own right, wrote extensively on the inner life of women and the dynamics of anima and animus. Her work stands on its own, even if it’s often referenced in relation to his.

Toni Wolff, one of Jung’s closest collaborators, developed early frameworks for understanding feminine psychology and relational patterns.

Later, Marie-Louise von Franz expanded this thinking through her work on fairy tales and the symbolic life, giving language to experiences that are often felt but difficult to articulate.

And Esther Harding wrote directly about women’s psychological development and the process of coming into oneself in a culture that often pulls in the opposite direction.

There’s a through-line here.

These women were not working in isolation. They were thinking, writing, and developing ideas within a relational field. In conversation. In proximity. In shared inquiry.

That matters.

When Women Gather: Why Women’s Circles Matter Today

In places like Halifax, and around the world, women’s circles are re-emerging as a way to make sense of what we’re carrying, both individually and collectively.

We are living in a time where the volume of input is constant. Social media, news cycles, cultural narratives. Opinions arrive quickly, often with authority, and they don’t leave much room for reflection.

Over time, something not-so-subtle happens. Our attention fragments. Our sense of self becomes less clear. We start to absorb ideas that don’t fully belong to us.

We find ourselves thinking in borrowed language. Responding to expectations we didn’t consciously choose. Trying to keep up with a pace that doesn’t allow for integration.

It can feel like everything is being held at once, without a place to set any of it down.

This is where gathering becomes less of a concept and more of a necessity.

When women sit together, without needing to perform or make sense of themselves out loud, something begins to shift. The edges soften. You begin to hear yourself more clearly. You start to feel the difference between what is yours and what you’ve been carrying for others.

And somewhere underneath all of that, the nervous system begins to settle. It happens without force. The body picks up on something familiar in the room.

That recognition matters.

And women have been doing this, in one form or another, for centuries.

In kitchens. Around fires. In living rooms and quiet corners of homes. Sitting together, speaking plainly, listening, and making sense of what life was asking of them.

There’s also something different when women gather with other women. You can arrive without having to explain yourself first. Less translating. Less adjusting. More space to arrive as you are. The work moves differently there. More directly. More honestly. Sometimes more quickly than you expect.

Women’s Circles in Halifax: A Space to Reconnect

Over the past year, my sister Kelly (who is also a registered counselling therapist with a Jungian background) and I have been exploring how to create a space that holds this kind of work without diluting it.

Small enough that each person is known. Structured enough to support real reflection. Open enough to allow for what emerges. That’s what led to the creation of Apple Tree Therapeutic Counselling, the group therapeutic arm of SEEK. Through that, we designed a three-session, in-person women’s circle in Halifax.

This is not a replacement for individual therapy--we know how important that is. Apple Tree is something that offers a different kind of experience. One that can’t be replicated alone.

People come to this kind of space for different reasons. Sometimes it’s overwhelm that hasn’t shifted. Sometimes it’s curiosity. Sometimes it’s the recognition that continuing in the same way isn’t working.

But the starting point is often the same: sitting in a room, with other women, and no longer carrying everything on your own.

If this resonates, you can learn more about our upcoming group, Rooted & Rising, here:

Check out the circle