On Wellness and Exorcism: An Essay on What Makes a Session Valuable

It’s always a balancing act: the whole thing with sitting in a circle in workshop settings. It feels unbearably didactic when everyone takes turns, like chickens on a perch, laying an egg and having to say something (side note: and, interestingly, how often people end up talking about their own tiredness or alertness). On the other hand, it’s also wonderfully democratic when everyone is given space to speak and listen, without shyness or self-confidence (or overconfidence) determining who speaks. And then there’s the admittedly always powerful symbolism of the circle, which in séances even makes tables move as if by magic…