Chicago Women “Walk Their Talk” With Open Circles by Louise Lovdahl, Kenosha, WI, USA

Melissa Mondschain

Five years ago this month, Melissa Mondschain and Emily Halliday completed the Woman Within Training Weekend (WWTW) at House in the Wood and were in an Empowerment Circle together. Since then they have each stepped into several leadership positions in the Women In Circle community. Both women have extensive staffing experience, are apprentices on the leadership track and have led E-Circle trainings. Melissa is currently the Spirit Keeper (Community Leader) and Emily serves as the Empowerment Circle Coordinator, a position that Melissa has also held. While in the position of E-Circle coordinators they received frequent requests from women who wanted to be in a Circle. Emily and Melissa first encouraged other women to create Open Circles and soon realized that they couldn’t convey that message unless they led through example.

Emily Halliday

Initially Emily was somewhat hesitant to encourage the open concept due to concerns about safety and following the rules of Woman Within. Melissa checked out the Indiana model of Open Circles where up to 32 women attend and they decided to move forward with offering a Circle for women who had no other place to do work.

The Open Circles are available to any woman who has done the WWTW as well as the E-Circle one day training or has staffed multiple times. Emily hosts the Open Circle on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at her home in Rogers Park (south of Evanston) and Melissa hosts on the 4th Tuesday each month at her home in Buffalo Grove, a northwest suburb. Each location has a small core group of women that always attend as well as others who come for awhile to do work and then drift away. Sometimes a consistent group will break away to form their own weekly meetings. In fact a woman who attended from Madison eventually formed her own group in Wisconsin.

The format of an Open Circle is consistent from week to week with a check in, ritual, business and then time for work. No woman is designated as the facilitator, rather all women are involved. The Open Circle gives a woman the freedom to attend whenever she needs, as the time fits with her life.
Jesse Allender has been attending the Open Circle at Emily’s for about a year. She completed her weekend in 2005 and was previously in a co-gender group, often as the only woman. She recommends the Open Circle as a wonderful place to learn and she says Emily has “really comfortable couches”. Jesse encourages women to attend once to see what it’s like. There’s no commitment, no pressure and a woman may never come back or decide to come every time. Jesse also recommended the well attended Open Circles that were held in August and September for all women, whether or not they had done the WWTW.

Hosting Open Circles is a blessing and it is time consuming. Melissa and Emily attend both Open Circles each month and with traffic it can take almost two hours to travel between their homes. The week this interview took place, Melissa was hosting at Emily’s home even though Emily was going to be on vacation. Emily says that when she wonders if she has the energy to continue the Open Circles, she remembers how much community gives back to her and how the work and connections feed her soul. One of the many gifts from the Open Circle time is that Melissa and Emily carve out some time for themselves to enjoy dinner and visiting before the Circles begin. Both women are also busy moms and each is attending graduate school for a master’s degree in community counseling. They are hoping that two eager and willing women will soon step in and take over the Open Circles.

Thank you, Melissa and Emily. Your generous and loving gift of time, leadership and commitment is truly to be honored.