Once a month a local women’s shelter has a therapeutic drum circle. This program has been gaining momentum and appreciation from the women who live there, and on Monday October 17th we had the largest turnout yet! The women who have been attending monthly are so excited and cannot wait for the next circle.
Some women have just moved in to the shelter and are absolutely STRESSED to the max. The struggles that they are facing are huge. The drum circle is a safe welcoming place and they quickly realize that they can breathe a little deeper. Faces soften and smiles begin to appear.
After about twenty minutes of drumming I suggested we create some rhythms and have some intentional rounds of drumming. For the first round I asked them if there was one thing they would like to let go of. After a pause, one woman suggested, “Shame.” Everyone unanimously agreed that would be something amazing to let go of. We created a rhythm, ‘Letting go of Shame.’ and drummed together with that phrase running through our minds. I suggested to entertain the question, “Who would you be without the shame?”
We came to silence and it was time to create our second rhythm.”What would you like to drum up more of?” Again a pause, and the same woman said, “Love.” Another woman said, “You have to love yourself first.” Isn’t that the truth! We drummed for love with the phrase ‘drumming up the love’ in our minds.
At the end of the circle I was packing up the drums and a staff person came to me and said, “Every single woman that came out of that room was radiant and smiling! Not sure what you did in there but it was clearly remarkable.”
Written by
Jamie Gore
