What is Restorative Circles?
Restorative Circles is a facilitated dialogue process that brings together individuals affected by a conflict or harmful action to address the impact, understand underlying needs, and develop collaborative action plans for repair and prevention. Unlike traditional conflict resolution that assigns blame and punishment, Restorative Circles emphasize healing, mutual understanding, and community accountability through structured conversation.
Participants sit in a physical circle of equals—chairs at equal height, no barriers between them—and include the “author” of an action, the “recipient” of that action, and members of the wider community affected by the harm. These terms deliberately replace “offender” and “victim” labels to acknowledge the complex web of mutuality often present in conflict situations.
Origins & Lineage
Restorative Circles emerged in the mid-1990s from conversations between Dominic Barter and residents of gang-controlled favela shantytowns in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In August 1995, Barter began organizing impromptu restorative responses to conflicts raised by young people, including drug gang members, who were seeking nonviolent alternatives to the violence that dominated their communities.
The work drew heavily on the principles of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), developed by clinical psychologist Marshall Rosenberg in the 1960s and 1970s. Barter had read about restorative justice in the early 1990s but developed the Restorative Circles model without formal templates, guided instead by NVC principles and the specific social realities of Brazilian urban violence.
From 2004 onward, Barter served as consultant and training program director for Brazilian Restorative Justice pilot projects, collaborating with the UN Development Program, UNESCO, the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, and Special Secretariat for Human Rights. By 2009, the British think-tank NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) estimated that applying Restorative Circles to UK youth crime could save $101 million annually.
Restorative Circles exist within the broader restorative justice movement, which itself draws inspiration from Indigenous peacemaking practices of First Nations communities in Canada and the United States, Māori traditions in New Zealand, and other global Indigenous cultures that have long practiced community-based conflict resolution. However, the specific Restorative Circles methodology represents a distinct systemic approach developed in response to Brazilian urban conflict.
How It’s Practiced
Restorative Circles unfold through three key stages: pre-circle meetings, the circle itself, and post-circle evaluation.
Pre-Circle Preparation: A facilitator meets individually with the person requesting the circle, the person(s) who acted, the person(s) directly impacted, and community members affected by or able to contribute to resolution. This preparation identifies who needs to be present and ensures voluntary participation.
The Circle Process: Participants sit in a circle and address three sequential questions:
- Mutual Comprehension: “What do you want to have known and by whom about how you are right now in relation to the act and its consequences?”
- Self-Responsibility: “What would you like known, and by whom, about what you were looking for at the moment you chose to act (or react)?”
- Action Planning: The group discusses and agrees on concrete next steps, which are written down and made known to the wider community.
Facilitators are community members who identify themselves as impacted by the conflict. They serve the emergent wisdom of participants by offering questions from an agreed-upon basis and tracking the co-creation of meaning and action. The facilitator participates as an equal when the talking piece reaches them.
Restorative Circles Today
Restorative Circles are practiced in schools, courts, prisons, hospitals, workplaces, and communities across more than 50 countries. In São Paulo, Brazil, young people who commit crimes in schools surrounding the Heliopolis shantytown are funneled to a restorative track rather than traditional prosecution. In some areas, police have discretion to take an offender to school for an immediate Restorative Circle rather than to the police station. Referrals to juvenile court decreased by 50 percent following policy implementation.
The practice appears in educational settings as a proactive community-building tool, in organizations for team conflict, and in justice systems as an alternative to punitive processes. Training is available through restorativecircles.org, the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and certified practitioners globally. Audio recordings of Dominic Barter’s presentations and conversations are available online.
A significant challenge noted by practitioners is that derivations of Restorative Circles sometimes present themselves as the work itself while lacking crucial systemic elements, potentially weakening effectiveness. The work requires establishing a “Restorative System” within a community—where key people support the process, facilitators are trained, and community members know how to initiate circles—before individual circles can be sustainably effective.
Common Misconceptions
Restorative Circles is not simply sitting in a circle to talk. The physical arrangement is one element of a specific systemic approach with defined stages, questions, and community ownership structures.
It is not mediation or therapy. While facilitators guide the process, they do not mediate between parties or provide therapeutic intervention. The circle’s wisdom emerges from participants themselves.
It is not appropriate for every conflict. Some situations require clear victim-offender roles and traditional restorative justice conferences. Restorative Circles work best when multiple people share both responsibility for harm and experience of harm, or when ongoing community relationships require repair.
It does not mean avoiding consequences. Action plans may include accountability measures, but these are developed collaboratively rather than imposed punitively.
Restoration does not mean returning to how things were. It means creating conditions for people to organize, regenerate, and move forward with mutual understanding and agreed commitments.
How to Begin
Read foundational material at restorativecircles.org, which houses articles, videos, and learning events with Dominic Barter. Listen to audio recordings of Barter’s presentations available through the site’s audio archive.
Study Nonviolent Communication through Marshall Rosenberg’s book Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life (1999), as NVC principles underpin the Restorative Circles approach.
Attend training through the Center for Nonviolent Communication’s Restorative Justice Project or seek certified Restorative Circles practitioners. Before using circles for conflict, practice facilitating relationship-building circles with friends, family, or colleagues to develop comfort with the facilitator role.
Establish a Restorative System within your community—school, organization, or neighborhood—before implementing individual circles. This means building buy-in from key stakeholders, training facilitators, and creating clear pathways for how circles are requested and supported.