What to expect
After the Leaving is a 90-minute, peer-led conversation circle held live on Zoom. We’ll begin with a gentle welcome, a reminder of our community agreements, and an opening prompt to help settle into the room. From there, the conversation is allowed to unfold naturally around what participants are carrying that day. You are welcome to share, ask for support, offer your own lived experience, or simply listen. There is never any pressure to speak. This is not a class, workshop, or therapy session. There is no homework, treatment plan, or expectation that you arrive with the “right” thing to say. The goal is simply to spend time with people who understand. Come as you are. Camera on or off. Tea in hand. Tears welcome. Silence welcome. You don’t have to carry it alone.
Who this room is for
After the Leaving is for women who are navigating life during or after an abusive, controlling, or coercive relationship — whether the relationship ended recently or years ago. You may feel at home in this room if you are experiencing: post-separation abuse or ongoing coercive control high-conflict or intimidating co-parenting divorce, custody disputes, or family court grief, anger, fear, confusion, or isolation after leaving difficulty rebuilding trust in yourself financial or emotional fallout from the relationship the feeling that leaving did not actually make the abuse stop a need to be around people who understand without requiring you to prove what happened You do not need to have a diagnosis, police report, court case, or perfect language for your experience to belong here. If you are carrying the aftermath, there is a room for you here.
What this room is not
After the Leaving is not therapy, counseling, legal advice, crisis intervention, or medical care. This is not a space for diagnosing one another, telling someone what they “should” do, pressuring anyone to disclose details, or debating whether someone’s experience was “bad enough” to count. Facilitators are here to guide conversation and help protect the space, not to act as clinicians, attorneys, or emergency responders. This room is for connection, shared experience, listening, and being witnessed by people who understand. Come for community — not treatment.
Your facilitator
nico paradis
Nico is a social worker, community builder, and longtime dance studio owner with a master’s degree in psychology. Her work has centered around creating accessible, trauma-informed spaces where people can feel seen, supported, and connected. As a survivor herself, she understands how isolating the aftermath of abuse can be, especially when post-separation abuse, coercive control, or family court are involved. Nico created After the Leaving as a peer-led space for women to come together without pressure, judgment, or the expectation to have everything figured out. Her role in the circle is not to provide therapy, but to hold space, guide conversation, and help create a room where people can feel less alone.
Community agreements
Confidentiality
What is shared in a Room Circle stays in the Room Circle. Names, stories, and details are not to be repeated outside the space.
No recording
Room Circles are not recorded. Recording, screenshotting, or capturing any part of a circle is not permitted.
Respectful listening
We listen to understand, not to respond. We give each person the space to speak without interruption.
No diagnosing
We do not diagnose one another. We do not offer clinical interpretations of each other's experiences.
No unsolicited clinical advice
We share from our own lived experience rather than prescribing solutions. If advice is wanted, it will be asked for.
No harassment, hate speech, or discrimination
Room Circles welcomes people of every identity, background, body, and belief. Harm of any kind is not tolerated.
No pressure to share
You never have to speak. Listening counts as participating. Silence is welcome.
Speak from personal experience
We use 'I' statements and speak from our own lives, not on behalf of others or a group.
Respect different identities and experiences
We honor that every person's path is their own. We hold space for difference without debate.
Facilitators may remove participants who make the room unsafe
Facilitators are entrusted with the well-being of the room and may ask someone to leave if the space becomes unsafe.
Zoom links may not be shared
Meeting links are sent only to registered participants and may not be forwarded or shared with anyone else.
Room Circles provides peer-led community support and does not provide psychotherapy, medical treatment, diagnosis, crisis intervention, or emergency services. It is not a replacement for licensed mental health care.
