What is Council Process?
Council Process—also known as the Way of Council—is a structured group communication practice in which participants sit in a circle and speak one at a time while holding a talking piece. Derived from ancient traditions, council involves bringing individuals together in a circle, under the guidance of a trained facilitator, for candid conversation where participants speak from personal experience rather than opinion, and listen deeply without comment or judgment. The practice encourages attentive listening as well as honest and compassionate expression, making room for new insights and understandings, wisdom in decision making, and healing.
The contemporary practice is organized around four core intentions, sometimes summarized as “listening and speaking from the heart, being spontaneous and lean.” These intentions guide participants to speak from the heart with simplicity and passion, and to practice listening from the heart, which largely determines the success of council. Unlike debate or discussion, council creates a non-hierarchical space where attentive listening and authentic expression build positive relationships between participants and neutralize inequitable dynamics that may arise due to status, age, race, or other social factors.
Origins & Lineage
Council weaves ancient practices and wisdom traditions developed over thousands of years throughout many different cultures, drawing from practices like Veche (Slavic), Satsang (Hindu), Ho’oponopono (Hawaiian), Daré (Zimbabwe), Fambul Tok (Sierra Leone), Diwan & Loya Jirga (Islam), and Quaker Devout Listening Circles. In the early days of the United States, Benjamin Franklin witnessed the Talking Circles of the Iroquois Nation and wrote about the inspiring collective wisdom practice, dubbing what he observed “the council,” utilizing a word derived from Anglo-French cuncile, from Old North French concilie and from the Latin concilium that meant “a gathering of the people”.
The modern codified practice emerged in California in 1979. Dr. Joan Halifax, anthropologist and protégé of mythologist Joseph Campbell, was invited to lead an organization renamed The Ojai Foundation to explore living spiritual traditions and study the interface between science and spirituality, situated on 40 acres of land stewarded since 1927 by the Happy Valley Foundation. The way of council evolved and was shaped in collaboration with renowned teachers and elders over many years, including Andrew Weil, Arvol Lookinghorse, Deena Metzger, Joan Halifax, Joanna Macy, Joseph Campbell, Thich Nhat Hanh, Wallace Black Elk, and many others.
The practice was codified and popularized with the publication of The Way of Council, written by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, in 1996. The Ojai Foundation continued under the leadership of its Board of Directors, co-chaired by educators Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, both of whom had worked with The Ojai Foundation since its earliest days, and together with fellow elders Leon Berg and Lola Rae Long, played a central role in developing the facilities and disseminating the Way of Council. Center for Council began as a program of The Ojai Foundation in 1984, restructuring to become its own independent organization in 2014, and relaunching as Beyond Us & Them, a 501©(3) nonprofit, in 2024.
How It’s Practiced
A talking stick, or other significant or impromptu object, is passed around the circle, and only the circle member holding the stick is allowed to speak, though he or she may allow others to interject. The practice brings people together in a circle to bear witness and share authentically, with participants speaking one at a time, sharing personal stories and listening non-judgmentally while others speak.
The practice rests on four core intentions. Speaking from the heart means imagining words emerging from the chest region rather than the mouth, creating greater connectedness to others in the circle. The success of council is largely determined by the quality of listening in the circle. Spontaneity requires participants not to rehearse what they will say while the talking piece comes around, allowing a more intuitive voice to emerge. Being lean means expressing oneself concisely, finding words and images that serve both the teller and the circle.
Council is a compassion-based attentional practice that fosters greater awareness of self and others and capacity for cultivating skillful communication, respectful relationships and ethical action. Sessions may be held with or without a stated theme. Circle processes are based upon equality between participants and the principle of sharing power with each other instead of having power over one another, characterized by the use of a talking piece, which regulates communication, with both talking and listening important because mutual understanding lays the groundwork for deeper, more meaningful discussion.
Council Process Today
Beyond Us & Them (formerly Center for Council) is a Los Angeles–based nonprofit organization that trains practitioners in using council to promote wellness and resiliency within the social justice, educational, law enforcement and health care systems, using mindfulness practices, compassion-based communication exercises, and training in self-awareness, resilience, and self-regulation to help heal divisions between disparate communities.
Council has been introduced and expanded in a variety of settings—intentional communities, educational settings from kindergarten through university, business organizations, hospitals, professional groups, prisons and restorative justice settings, municipal organizations, inter- and intra-cultural settings, rites of passage, intimate relationship, clans and family groups. Council is an evidence-based practice underpinning academic growth, social-emotional learning, restorative justice, youth rites of passage, and what students themselves want to learn.
Beyond Us & Them’s “Council for Insight, Compassion and Resilience” is a six-month intervention where prisoners are trained to facilitate council sessions for other prisoners, expanded to 29 California prisons, and awarded the 2020 “Innovations in Corrections Prize” by the American Correctional Association. Trainings are offered globally by certified council trainers who travel to support individuals and organizations.
Common Misconceptions
Council Process is often confused with general discussion circles or talk therapy groups, but it is neither. It is not a debate format—participants do not argue positions or try to convince others. Practitioners describe learning “contemporary circle practices” inspired by and on the shoulders of indigenous cultures, rather than direct adoption of the sacred practices of First Nations peoples, with this respect and understanding an inseparable part of council trainings offered “in the Ojai Foundation tradition,” asking all those trained to know this commitment as well as the history of their own ancestral and circle ways.
Council is not group therapy, though it can be therapeutic. It does not require a religious or spiritual belief system, though it draws on wisdom traditions. It is not primarily a decision-making process, though decisions can emerge from council. The practice is not about fixing or advising others—cross-talk and feedback are typically not part of traditional council form.
How to Begin
Those interested in beginning their journey with the Way of Council are invited to explore resources, particularly the 2nd edition of The Way of Council by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, then attend one or more trainings from Center for Council or associated organizations. The primary text remains The Way of Council (1996, second edition 2009) by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle, which has been translated into Hebrew, German, and other languages.
Beyond Us & Them offers public council training workshops that provide an interactive and immersive introduction to the basic forms of council, as well as grounding in the pedagogy, methodology and context for the practice. Skilled facilitators and trainers have spent many hours sitting in council circles—as participants, facilitators, and as witnesses—with the Way of Council becoming a part of their being and their way of life. Certification programs are available for those who wish to become council trainers and carry the practice to communities and organizations.