Reclaiming Self, a Community Approach: 6 weeks with Patricia Kim
"Shame dies when shared in safe spaces."
Olio Circles are emerging as a space for us to democratize therapy and support each other through the simple (yet difficult) acts of speaking honestly and listening with compassion.
Becoming comfortable showing different sides of yourself in a group setting is transformative. Through these compassionate circles, we’ll examine the stories we tell ourselves and support each other in letting go of the ones we no longer need. Our hope is that everyone leaves feeling accepted for who they are and excited about who they’re becoming.
How it works:
Over six weeks, a small, close-knit group of 10-12 participants will engage in deeply guided sessions led by Patricia Kim, LMSW. Together, you’ll explore your inner worlds and the societal forces shaping them, using a mutual aid framework to uncover collective wisdom and reclaim personal and communal power.
Olio Circles inspires participants to take insights from the group and apply them in tangible ways, for example, through working together with your cohort to create real-world change grounded in your local community, between and beyond the sessions. We'll approach individual and societal development, blending the best of therapy, personal development, mutual aid, and cultural exploration. These Circles offer a transformative space where individuals come together to heal, grow, and contribute to something larger than themselves.
The Process:
🌀 Small Circle Sessions - Our Circles will be capped at 10-12 people and the same group will remain together for 6 weeks.
🪷 Therapist-Guided Exploration -Patricia Kim, MFA, LMSW helps the group navigate their emotions, breaking down shame and rebuilding resilience.
🖼️ Art as a Catalyst - Each session will begin by looking at a relevant art piece (visual or literary) to help ground us and start the discussion. Patricia will facilitate our session and everyone will have an opportunity to share their current struggles, challenges, victories etc..
Your Facilitator:
Patricia Kim received her MFA from Columbia University and taught Composition and Literature classes at Baruch College while completing a novel. She is a licensed clinical social worker who worked for the Mental Health Service Corps (MHSC) under New York's Thrive initiative and as a reentry social worker on Rikers Island, providing services to the population of patients on Rikers with serious mental illness.
She is currently a clinical supervisor at a practice founded by a fellow colleague from Rikers and focuses on abolitionist praxis.
The Value:
By assembling in groups we are able to offer dedicated time with a highly engaged therapist for much less than normal.
6 weeks at our lower income level is $250, which comes out to $20/hr. Each session will be 2 hours long and you will have group time and individual focus during the group sessions if you choose to.
If you are able to support us at the suggested level, you are ensuring that our therapist is being paid well and that future attendees will get to receive this experience at a cost that is affordable to them.
What are OlioCircles?
Olio Circles are being born as an emergent space for us to democratize therapy and support each other by the simple (yet difficult) acts of speaking honestly and listening compassionately.
Led by a therapist, and supported by a dedicated group of 10-12 people, these Circles can be thought of as a compliment to your existing therapy, or as a new approach to healing done in a group setting rather than one-on-one.
Group processing and peer support has been a focus of non-western approaches to healing for thousands of years, and at Olio we are committed to creating spaces where you can find purpose and belonging to usher in a new vision of society.
This circle will be 6 weeks long and meet on consecutive Mondays in March and April.
Traditional therapy is valuable and yet often mirrors the isolating systems causing our distress. As Patricia Kim says, many so-called "mental illnesses" may be more accurately understood as 'Social Illnesses' caused by societal and environmental factors such as perceived isolation, competition, and diminishing community spaces.
What is expected of you:
An open mind, a willingness to participate (at your own pace and depth, of course), and the desire to support others and be supported.
Some words of inspiration that we align with:
“We face an unheavenly host of challenges as a species. But the constancy of attempts to "look inward" obscures a more scandalous idea: that the self is not "inside" per se, but between. I sense, like my dear colleague Professor Wendy Hollway, that "psychology is the policeman of capitalism." I think that the therapeutic rituals of care that now dominate the globe are materially implicated in the preservation of a kind of war against the world around us. "We are good at looking inward," James Hillman might have said, "but not very good at looking around."
- Bayo Akomalafe
"Re-situating our sense of self in the community, and re-connecting to the ‘soul of things’” recognizes that healing does not happen in isolation or with one paid professional - it is a collective effort since it is the world around us that we belong to and that we need to feel part of to live full lives."
- Eco-psychologist, James Hillman
“Wounds need to be expanded into air, lifted up on ideas our ancestors knew, so that the wound ascends through the roof of our parents’ house and we suddenly see how our wound (seemingly so private) fits into a great and universal story.”
- Robert Bly