Yarning circles

1. Introduction

Version followed: the yarning typology of Bessarab & Ng'andu (2010: social, research-topic, collaborative and therapeutic yarning); the six protocols and seven principles of Barlo, Boyd, Pelizzon & Wilson (2020); the generic circle protocols of the University of Newcastle Yarning Kit (Newham & Groombridge, 2023); the Aboriginal-led support-group format of the Brain Injury Yarning Circles (Armstrong et al., ECU, 2020–22); and, for one-to-one clinical use, the clinical yarning framework of Lin, Green & Bessarab (2016).

What it is. Yarning is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural form of conversation, used to share stories and knowledge and to build relationships. Bessarab & Ng'andu call it "an Indigenous cultural form of conversation". A yarning circle is a group held in that form: people sit together, share stories in turn, listen closely, and follow local cultural protocols. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]

It is not a manualised therapy. Yarning circles are a cultural practice that belongs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Research, education, health and social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) services have adopted it, but no treatment manual, session protocol or certification exists. Protocols differ from nation to nation. The Newcastle kit calls its own guidance a generic overview for that reason. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; Barlo et al. 2020]

Who holds cultural authority. Authority rests with the Elders and Traditional Owners of the Country where the circle is held, with Aboriginal community-controlled organisations, and with the Aboriginal facilitators they endorse. In Barlo et al., Elders were the senior authorities for their nations, and they set the cultural and ethical rules. Who may speak on a topic can depend on gender, location, language group and kinship. A Welcome to Country can be given only by a local Elder; anyone may give an Acknowledgement of Country. Healing-oriented circles in published programmes are led by trained Aboriginal facilitators, for example in the ECU Brain Injury Yarning Circles. A non-Indigenous clinician's role is to support, refer and partner, not to lead the circle or any ceremony. This guide describes no ceremonial content. [source: Barlo et al. 2020; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; ECU project page; Armstrong et al. 2022]

How change happens, as the sources describe it. Trust is built through social yarning and person-to-person relationship rather than expert-to-patient relationship. Within that trust, people tell their stories in their own way and at their own pace. Being heard and affirmed can help someone rethink their experience; Bessarab & Ng'andu call this therapeutic yarning. Connection to family, community, culture and Country is restored, and isolation is reduced. Healing is framed within the holistic Aboriginal SEWB model, not as symptom reduction alone. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Armstrong et al. 2022; Converge International First Nations services page] [synthesis: the integration of these strands into one change model is mine]

2. Framework

No source publishes fixed phases, session counts or progression criteria for therapeutic yarning circles [uncertain]. The sequence below is assembled from the yarning stages the sources describe. Use it as an outline to negotiate with the Aboriginal lead, not as a protocol.

Sources for each phase:

• Phase 0: Walker et al. 2014; Barlo et al. 2020; Healing Right Way protocol 2021.
• Phase 1: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Walker et al. 2014; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023.
• Phase 2: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023.
• Phase 3: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010.
• Phase 4: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Lin et al. 2016; Barlo et al. 2020.

Delivery formats that are published:

• Ongoing community support groups. The ECU Brain Injury Yarning Circles are led by two trained Aboriginal facilitators and coordinated by an Aboriginal project manager. They are held on Country and in community centres in metropolitan and regional Western Australia, for people after stroke or brain injury and their families. They combine psychosocial support, education, practical problem-solving, yarning and socialising. Each group was evaluated over six months, but session frequency and length were not published [uncertain]. [source: ECU project page; Armstrong et al. 2022]
• Practitioner-supported circles. Converge International's circles are supported by a First Nations practitioner. Participants bring one or two topics that matter to them, and delivery is to individuals, families, communities or groups, in one or several sessions. Settings include clinics, workplaces, video calls and back on Country. [source: Converge International page]
• One-to-one consultations (clinical yarning). A consultation moves through social, diagnostic and management yarns. The yarns are interrelated and not strictly sequential: a social yarn can recur at any point. [source: Lin et al. 2016]

Typical session format [synthesis: a common shape drawn from the sources, not a published protocol]:

1. Gathering and food.
2. Acknowledgement or Welcome to Country.
3. Introductions by mob.
4. Restating protocols.
5. Yarning in turn, often with a talking object.
6. Topic or practical content.
7. Closing with thanks and next steps.

Allow unhurried time. The sources treat time pressure as a barrier, but some note that time limits can help a circle close respectfully.

3. Guiding principles

Barlo et al.'s six protocols [source: Barlo et al. 2020]:

• Gift: what a person shares is a gift. It counts as received only when it is accepted and valued. Practically: acknowledge every contribution, and never treat it as data to be mined.
• Control: the participant sets the length, direction and form of the yarn, which may include talking, drawing or other forms. Practically: do not steer, interrupt or impose your agenda.
• Freedom: people share only what they choose, in the way they choose. Practically: no pressure to disclose; passing is always fine.
• Space: the place must be culturally suitable and physically comfortable. Practically: choose the venue with the community, which may mean on Country or in a community centre rather than a clinic.
• Inclusiveness: everyone is welcome, and receiving knowledge requires active, close listening. Practically: make room for every voice, and listen more than you speak.
• Gender specificity: who is present can shape what may be discussed, by gender and by age. Practically: ask the Aboriginal lead whether a topic is men's or women's business before it is raised in a mixed group.

Barlo et al.'s seven principles [source: Barlo et al. 2020]:

• Reciprocity: honour the relationship and keep power balanced. Practically: give back (time, information, practical help) and share something of yourself.
• Responsibility: keep people informed at every step, and maintain relationships after the work ends. Practically: tell the group what happens next, then do it.
• Relationship: the encounter becomes part of the person's story. Practically: do not appear once and then vanish.
• Dignity: everyone, including the facilitator, is accepted and honoured. Practically: no judgement of stories or of different perspectives.
• Equality: everyone has the same rights and responsibilities in the space, whatever their age or gender, and Indigenous knowledge has equal standing. Practically: do not privilege clinical knowledge over lived and cultural knowledge.
• Integrity: be honest about why information is sought and how it will be used. Practically: be explicit about notes, recording, reporting and confidentiality limits.
• Self-determination: each person chooses to take part and may stop at any time. Practically: voluntary attendance, with no consequences for leaving.

Further principles from the other sources:

• Accountability to the person. Bessarab & Ng'andu: "The researcher is accountable to the research participant." Practically: the expectations formed in social yarning bind you. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Person-to-person, not expert-to-participant. Both parties are knowers and learners. Practically: introduce yourself as a person (family, where you are from), not by your title. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Let the story unfold. Meandering is part of the method; listen for the threads. Practically: resist cutting in, and never interrupt an Elder. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Watch your conceptual baggage. Clinical or academic language steers people away from their own terms. Practically: use the group's words. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Listening takes priority over talking. Look toward the speaker where that is culturally appropriate, to read non-verbal cues. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Confidentiality by permission. Stories are not retold outside the circle without permission. Practically: ask first and never assume. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Resolve power differences before starting. Practically: name the roles in the room (staff, Elders, clients), and agree how they will be handled. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Cultural security, patient-centredness, active listening and trust. These are the keys of clinical yarning. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Knowledge stays with its custodians. Hearing something does not give you permission to use it. Practically: ask before you record, write up or reuse anything. [source: Barlo et al. 2020]
• Deep listening (Dadirri). Dadirri is a Ngan'gikurunggurr and Ngangiwumirr practice of deep listening and quiet, still awareness, shared by Elder Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann; the Foundation's page names Ngangiwumirr culture only. It is often cited alongside yarning. The Miriam Rose Foundation says Dadirri "belongs to Country" but can guide people everywhere. Practically: treat it as an attitude of listening that informs your stance. Do not teach it or run it as an exercise unless the Foundation's accredited programmes or the community authorise you. [source: Miriam Rose Foundation page] [uncertain: the language-group naming beyond Ngangiwumirr comes from general knowledge]

4. Intervention inventory

This inventory is in three parts:

• A. Circle procedures. The Aboriginal facilitator or Elder leads these. A non-Indigenous clinician supports, co-plans or attends by invitation.
• B. Clinical yarning. One-to-one procedures that any clinician can use, published by Lin, Green & Bessarab.
• C. The clinician's referral and partnership tasks. These are [synthesis].

All example language is illustrative and must be adapted to local language, including Aboriginal English, and to local protocol. Nothing here describes ceremony; ceremonial elements are for the community alone.

A. Circle procedures (Aboriginal-led)

A1. Seeking permission and setting up cultural governance

• Purpose: ensure the circle has community endorsement and an appropriate Aboriginal lead before anything else happens. [source: Walker et al. 2014; Barlo et al. 2020; Healing Right Way protocol 2021]
• Steps:
  • Approach local Elders through the communication channels and hierarchy the community uses. In Walker et al., the regional Elders were approached first.
  • Discuss the purpose with male and female Elders together. Follow gender-specific matters only with Elders of that gender: in Walker et al.'s women's wellness project, later follow-up was with female Elders only, and organisations were not approached where women's business could not be shared with men.
  • Partner with an Aboriginal community-controlled organisation, and agree who will facilitate. In published therapeutic circles, the facilitators are trained Aboriginal people.
  • For formal or funded work, set up an Aboriginal reference group to advise on recruitment, cultural issues and feedback. The Healing Right Way trial's group met twice a year.
  • Build relationships before you engage Elders. Barlo et al. note that meaningful participation is almost impossible without prior relationship.
• Example language (illustrative): "We've been asked to set up a group for families after brain injury. Before we do anything, we wanted to sit with you and hear whether this is wanted, and who you think should be leading it."
• Watch for:
  • Token consultation after the decisions are already made.
  • Pressure on a single Aboriginal staff member to carry all the cultural load.
• Signs it is working: Elders or the organisation name the facilitator and the venue, and shape the purpose.

A2. Preparing the space

• Purpose: create a space that is culturally suitable and comfortable (Barlo's Space protocol), and that families can attend. [source: Barlo et al. 2020; Walker et al. 2014; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; Armstrong et al. 2022]
• Steps:
  • Choose the venue with the community. Options include on Country, a community centre linked to local Aboriginal organisations, or a family-friendly venue where children can come. In Walker et al., women shared minding the children so that everyone could take part.
  • Arrange seating in a circle. In the Newcastle kit, people sit on a mat, with chairs and mobility aids for anyone who needs them. Shoes are removed as a sign of respect, and food and drink are kept off the mat.
  • Provide food and share it in the customary way. In Walker et al., food was shared at every meeting, and lunch was prepared during the social yarning.
• Example language (illustrative): "Kids are welcome. There's a corner set up for them, and lunch is on."
• Watch for: clinical rooms, uniforms and paperwork that signal a hospital-style hierarchy.
• Signs it is working: people arrive early, stay afterwards and bring family.

A3. Opening: Acknowledgement or Welcome to Country

• Purpose: to recognise the Traditional Owners and the Country the circle sits on. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Steps:
  • If a local Elder is present and willing, they give a Welcome to Country.
  • Otherwise, anyone, including the facilitator, gives an Acknowledgement of Country.
  • Anything beyond this opening, such as smoking or other ceremony, is decided and led by the community alone. This guide does not describe it.
• Example language (illustrative, for an Acknowledgement): "I'd like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we're meeting on, and pay my respects to their Elders past and present."
• Watch for: a non-Indigenous person giving a "Welcome". Only Traditional Owners can welcome people to their Country.

A4. Introductions and family yarning

• Purpose: let people place one another in kinship, Country and community, and present the facilitators as people rather than experts. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Walker et al. 2014; Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Steps:
  • Each person says who they are, and where they and their family are from. Walker et al. quote the question "Where you mob from."
  • Facilitators introduce themselves in the same way. In Bessarab & Ng'andu, the Aboriginal researcher named her family and language-group connections.
  • The Newcastle kit adds an optional step: share one thing about yourself the group does not know, but only if you are comfortable.
  • A non-Indigenous clinician says where they and their family come from, and their role, plainly.
• Example language (illustrative, non-Indigenous clinician): "I'm Sam. My family's from Ballarat, my people came out from Ireland a few generations back. I work as a psychologist at the health service, and I'm here to support Aunty and to listen."
• Watch for: people who prefer not to name their family, for example because of Stolen Generations disconnection. Accept whatever people offer, and do not probe. [synthesis]

A5. Explaining protocols and agreeing a group charter

• Purpose: ensure everyone understands how to take part respectfully, and settle power differences in advance. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; Walker et al. 2014]
• Steps:
  • Explain the circle's protocols before starting: how speaking turns work, listening, confidentiality, and respect for each person's story.
  • Build a charter of responsibilities with the group.
  • Name power differences, for example staff and clients, or managers and workers, and agree how to manage them.
  • Explain consent, audio recording and what happens to notes in plain terms during the social yarning. In Walker et al., this was done during social and family yarning.
  • Agree that stories are not shared outside the circle without permission.
  • Agree how devices will be used. The Newcastle kit allows recording devices but asks that people stay present.
  • State the limits of confidentiality that bind you as a registered clinician, for example serious risk to life and child-protection duties. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "What's said in the circle stays in the circle unless the person says it's okay to share. The one thing I have to tell you: if I hear someone's life or a child is in danger, I can't keep that to myself. I'd talk with you first about what happens next."
• Watch for: a charter written by staff and handed to the group. It should come from the group.

A6. Social yarning

• Purpose: build trust and relationship, and quietly negotiate boundaries. The trust formed here shapes what people will later share or hold back. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Let informal talk run: news, family, footy, humour, Country.
  • Share something of yourself in return.
  • Allow social yarning across several meetings if needed, before any topic work.
  • Return to social yarning whenever tension rises. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "How'd the team go on the weekend?" "Yeah, my nan grew up out that way too."
• Watch for:
  • Rushing into the agenda. Lin et al. list skipping the social yarn as a pitfall.
  • Treating this phase as rapport-building technique rather than genuine relationship. Bessarab & Ng'andu distinguish the two.
• Signs it is working: people relax, tease, ask you questions back and start raising the topic themselves.

A7. Talking object and turn-taking

• Purpose: make turns visible, keep the floor with the speaker and slow the pace. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Steps (Newcastle kit version):
  • The kit uses three coloured "Yarning Stones". The speaker holds one, and the next two speakers hold the others.
  • People signal when they want to speak, and the facilitator steers the stones.
  • The speaker passes their stone on to someone who has signalled.
• Other versions: other circles use a single object or no object at all, and protocols vary by nation. Follow local practice. [uncertain: no other specific variant is described in the sources]
• Example language (illustrative): "Whoever's holding the stone has the yarn. If you want to go next, just give a nod and we'll pass one along."
• Watch for: the object becoming pressure to speak. Holding it and passing it on in silence must be fine. [synthesis]

A8. Topic yarning

• Purpose: a purposeful yarn about the circle's focus, "a conversation with a purpose", that is still relaxed and interactive. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Walker et al. 2014; Converge International page]
• Steps:
  • Signal the change from social yarning in words and in behaviour. In research, this meant a change in tone and asking permission before turning on the recorder.
  • Introduce the topic as an open invitation, not a question list. In Converge's model, participants bring one or two topics of their own.
  • Let stories unfold and meander, and listen for the threads.
  • Do not direct the questioning. In Walker et al., participants could respond to the topic in whatever way they chose.
  • Close the topic when stories begin to repeat (saturation) or when the agreed time is up.
• Example language (illustrative): "We're here today to yarn about how things have been at home since the stroke. Whoever wants to start, tell us how it's been for you and your family."
• Watch for: academic or clinical framing, such as symptoms or diagnoses, which pulls people away from their own terms.

A9. Collaborative yarning

• Purpose: two or more people share and test ideas together to reach new understandings or solutions. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; ECU project page]
• Steps:
  • Invite members to respond to each other's stories with their own experience and ideas.
  • Use the circle's collective knowledge for practical problem-solving, for example getting to appointments or caring for a family member. The ECU circles combine problem-solving and education with yarning.
  • Where the group agrees, the clinician or a guest adds information as one voice among many. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Has anyone else had trouble getting to the clinic? What worked for your mob?"
• Watch for: the clinician becoming the default problem-solver.
• Signs it is working: members coach and support one another between meetings.

A10. Therapeutic yarning

• Purpose: to hold a disclosure of traumatic or deeply personal experience. Bessarab & Ng'andu describe the listener shifting from questioner to listener, supporting the person to voice and make sense of their story. Affirming the story may help them rethink their experience. They note this "is not a counseling yarn". [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Steps:
  • Stop asking questions, and listen.
  • Let the person tell it their way, and allow silence.
  • Affirm and acknowledge what they have shared, without interpreting it.
  • Afterwards, check in privately with the person. Offer follow-up with the Aboriginal facilitator, an Aboriginal SEWB worker or individual counselling. [synthesis]
  • Check how the rest of the circle is affected. [synthesis]
• Example language (illustrative): "Thank you for trusting us with that." "Take your time. We're not going anywhere."
• Watch for:
  • Turning the disclosure into a therapy session in the group, or exploring trauma further. Neither belongs in the circle.
  • Signs of overwhelm or risk (see section 5).

A11. Inviting quieter members

• Purpose: ensure equal opportunity to share. The Newcastle kit treats any member's silence as something that affects the whole circle. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023]
• Steps:
  • Gently offer the floor, and accept a pass.
  • Check in with the person outside the circle.
  • Consider whether gender, kinship or avoidance relationships, or a power difference, are keeping them silent. [synthesis, informed by Barlo et al. on kinship and gender]
• Example language (illustrative): "Uncle, anything you want to add? It's fine to just listen today too."

A12. Closing

• Purpose: end respectfully and keep the relationship going. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Thank everyone.
  • Summarise the threads that matter.
  • State the next steps clearly, and repeat them. Ng'andu reflected that she should have restated next steps at the close.
  • Make clear that the relationship continues.
  • The Newcastle kit gives no closing protocol, so follow local practice.
• Example language (illustrative): "Thanks everyone for your yarns today. Next time is Thursday fortnight, same place, and Aunty's bringing the damper. If anything comes up before then, you know where to find us."
• Watch for: an abrupt close. Lin et al. list closing abruptly as a pitfall.

A13. Reporting back and keeping the relationship

• Purpose: return knowledge to the people and community it came from (Barlo's Responsibility and Relationship principles). [source: Barlo et al. 2020; Walker et al. 2014; Healing Right Way protocol 2021]
• Steps:
  • Check any written record or summary with the people concerned. They may add to it or withdraw material.
  • Return anything sensitive to the Elder before it is used.
  • Report back first to participants, then to the community, and only then to funders. Use forms the community prefers: a yarning circle, artwork, workshops or social media.
• Example language (illustrative): "Here's what we wrote down from the circle. Is this right? Is there anything you want taken out?"
• Watch for: reports that go to management before the community has seen them.

A14. Support and education content within circles

• Purpose: in health-focused circles, add psychosocial support, education and socialising that reduces isolation, as in the ECU Brain Injury Yarning Circles. [source: ECU project page; Armstrong et al. 2022]
• Steps:
  • The topics are shaped by participants through participatory action research, not set in advance. No session-by-session topic list was published [uncertain].
  • A clinician may be invited to yarn about a health topic. When that happens, use the management-yarn methods in B3.
• Watch for: education taking over from yarning.

B. Clinical yarning (one-to-one, any clinician)

Lin, Green & Bessarab (2016) built clinical yarning for clinicians in Aboriginal health care, including non-Aboriginal clinicians. Green and Bessarab are Aboriginal authors. The framework combines Aboriginal conversational norms with biomedical understanding. It has three interrelated yarns. The authors recommend training that combines theory, skills practice, and reflection with feedback. [source: Lin et al. 2016]

B1. Social yarn

• Purpose: build connection and trust and learn about the person's life. The patient leads, is treated as the expert, and power is shared. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Open with common ground: sport, family, the weather, seasonal bush foods or connection to Country. In coastal communities, for example, fishing may matter.
  • Use cues from the person's age and gender, and keep kinship ties in mind.
  • Share something about yourself.
  • Keep an open, non-confrontational posture.
  • Return to a social yarn at any point in the consultation.
• Example language: Lin et al. give the opener "Seems everyone I speak to from there just loves it up there" (Box 2). They move into the diagnostic yarn with "Oh, can you tell me about that?" [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Watch for: skipping the social yarn under time pressure. The authors say it speeds up later consultations once a relationship exists.

B2. Diagnostic yarn

• Purpose: hear the person's health story rather than run a question-and-answer interview, while listening through a clinical lens for what you need. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Ask open questions, and listen without judgement.
  • Allow comfortable silences so the person has time to think.
  • Let the story unfold. Steer gently toward what you need, and judge when a yarn has truly gone off track. A tangent may lead to the key information.
  • Turn closed questions into invitations to tell a story.
• Example language: Lin et al. give a case where "Do you drink alcohol?" drew a minimal answer. Reframing it as "Tell us a bit more about when you have a drink with your mate" led to a disclosure of heavy drinking. Illustrative for mental health: "Tell me what a bad night's been like lately."
• Watch for:
  • Practitioner-centred questioning.
  • Jargon.
  • Pressing on with structured screening at a moment when trust has not yet formed. [synthesis: if a validated SEWB measure is needed, introduce it after the social yarn and explain its purpose. The ECU circles used SEWB measures such as Strong Souls or the Growth and Empowerment Measure.]

B3. Management yarn

• Purpose: build a shared understanding and agree a plan that makes sense to both of you. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  1. Find out what the person already understands about the problem.
  2. Talk honestly, including family if they are present and the person agrees.
  3. Correct misunderstandings, and put information into clear, jargon-free language.
  4. Link information to the person's life through stories and metaphors.
  5. Use visuals: diagrams, sketches, models, or culturally appropriate audiovisual resources.
  6. Agree a plan that is meaningful to both of you, in a motivational style that respects the person's goals and values.
• Published examples of metaphor:
  • Scabies. Explained by starting from what the patient knew about how turtles and birds lay eggs. The patient then understood why the second cream application had to wait (Trudgen 2000, cited in Lin et al.).
  • Heart disease. A freeway analogy: slow, congested traffic for angina; a blocked freeway for a heart attack.
• Example language (illustrative, mental health): "When stress keeps piling up, it's like a creek in flood. It can't drain. What we're working on is opening the channels again: sleep, yarning with family, getting back out on Country." Check that the image fits the person's own experience. [synthesis]
• Watch for: lecturing. Some people want a direct, no-nonsense explanation, so use judgement.

B4. Checking understanding, interpreters and family

• Purpose: make sure communication has actually worked. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Check understanding, especially when the conversation feels like it is going poorly.
  • Name your own language limits, and invite the person to tell you when you are not making sense.
  • Use interpreters or Aboriginal liaison officers. Where possible, plan with them so the person can ask questions through them.
  • Include family when the person consents. Leaving family out is named as a barrier.
• Example language (illustrative): "I don't always explain things well. If I'm talking rubbish or using big words, pull me up."

B5. Closing the consultation

• Purpose: close warmly and keep the relationship. [source: Lin et al. 2016]
• Steps:
  • Show interest in the person as a person.
  • Restate the parts of their story and plan that matter to their health.
  • Make clear that you want to see them again.
  • A light remark is fine. Lin et al.'s diabetes example ends on a joke about getting the kids onto their skateboards.
• Watch for: abrupt endings.

C. Clinician referral and partnership tasks [synthesis]

This part is my synthesis of the role the sources assign to non-Aboriginal practitioners: listen, support, defer to Aboriginal leadership, and keep the relationship. No source gives a referral protocol.

C1. Assessing fit and referring to an Aboriginal-led yarning circle

• Purpose: connect a client with a culturally led group that adds connection, cultural strength and peer support.
• Steps:
  • Ask the client whether connection to culture, community or Country matters to them now. Some clients are reconnecting; others are not ready.
  • Ask which community or organisation they feel comfortable with. Some prefer a group outside their own community for privacy reasons.
  • Find circles run by Aboriginal community-controlled health services, SEWB teams or Aboriginal-led projects such as the ECU circles.
  • With consent, make a warm referral. Introduce the client to the Aboriginal worker yourself, rather than handing over a phone number.
  • Consider gender-specific circles, such as men's and women's groups, where topics are gender-specific.
• Example language (illustrative): "There's a yarning group run by the Aboriginal health service, with mob who've been through similar things. Would you like me to introduce you to the worker who runs it?"
• Watch for: referring as a way to off-load complexity. Keep providing your own care alongside the group unless the client chooses otherwise.

C2. Co-working inside a circle by invitation

• Purpose: contribute clinical knowledge or safety support while the Aboriginal facilitator keeps cultural leadership.
• Steps:
  • Agree your role with the facilitator beforehand: what you will and will not do, and how you will signal concerns to each other.
  • Sit in the circle as a participant, and introduce yourself as in A4.
  • Speak when the facilitator or the talking object invites you, and keep it brief.
  • Debrief with the facilitator afterwards.
  • Offer supervision or debriefing support for the facilitator's own load, if they want it.
• Watch for: drifting into the leadership role, or being treated as the expert by default.

C3. Bringing yarning into your own practice

• Purpose: apply the stance in individual or group therapy without claiming to run a cultural yarning circle.
• Steps:
  • Use clinical yarning (B1 to B5) in individual work.
  • If you run a mixed group, borrowing circle seating, turn-taking or a check-in round is ordinary group practice. Do not call it a yarning circle, and do not use cultural elements (Acknowledgement aside) without Aboriginal partnership.
  • Take cultural supervision or consultation from an Aboriginal practitioner.
• Watch for: appropriation, meaning a yarning circle in name without Aboriginal leadership or community endorsement.

5. Handling problems

The sources say little about problems inside therapeutic circles. Where an item is drawn from them it is cited; everything else is marked [synthesis]. Throughout, defer to the Aboriginal facilitator on cultural matters.

• The yarn meanders far from the topic. Meandering is part of the method, and the thread often comes back. Listen for links before you redirect. If you must steer, do it gently and in the group's own words. Never interrupt or redirect an Elder. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Lin et al. 2016]
• Knowing when to close, and time running over. Close when stories begin to repeat. An agreed time limit can help everyone finish respectfully. Close with thanks and next steps, and repeat them. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010]
• Silence or low participation. Silence affects the whole circle (Newcastle kit), so check in privately and gently offer the floor. Look for causes: a power difference (resolve it, per the Newcastle kit), gender or age specificity (Barlo et al.), kinship or avoidance relationships, shame, or a lack of trust. Return to social yarning. Accept that listening is participation. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; Barlo et al. 2020; synthesis for kinship and avoidance and for "listening is participation"]
• Distrust of services, or experiences of racism raised in the circle. Lin et al. name mistrust of health services and perceived racism as barriers. Acknowledge the experience plainly, and do not defend the system. Let the Aboriginal facilitator lead the response. Take the concern back to the service and report what was done. [source for the barrier: Lin et al. 2016; response: synthesis]
• Overwhelming disclosure (trauma, family violence, the Stolen Generations). Shift to therapeutic yarning: listen, affirm, and do not probe. Bessarab & Ng'andu say this is not counselling, so do not process trauma in the group. Afterwards:
  • Check in privately with the person.
  • Offer individual follow-up with an Aboriginal SEWB worker or a counsellor of their choosing.
  • Check on the other members and the facilitator.
  • Arrange debriefing for the facilitator.
  [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; follow-up steps: synthesis]
• Suicide or self-harm risk. Do a private risk assessment following your service's current standard practice. Where possible, do it with the Aboriginal worker, and involve family and community supports the person chooses. Safety planning should include cultural connections and supports. Lethal-means counselling covers safe storage and removal only. Offer a 24-hour crisis line, and an Aboriginal-run one where it exists. [synthesis]
• A confidentiality breach, or a story retold outside the circle. Under the Newcastle kit, stories are not reshared without permission. Raise the breach with the facilitator and repair it privately with the people affected. Revisit the charter with the group. Where a mandatory report is needed (child protection, imminent risk), tell the person beforehand where it is safe to do so, and involve the Aboriginal worker. [source: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; reporting response: synthesis]
• Gender-specific or restricted knowledge comes up in a mixed group. Pause the topic, and ask the facilitator or an Elder how to proceed, which may mean a separate men's or women's yarn. Never record, write up or pass on restricted or sensitive material without the custodian's approval. Return it to the Elder before any use. [source: Barlo et al. 2020; Walker et al. 2014]
• Rupture with the clinician (a misstep, a cultural error, a broken promise). Under Barlo et al.'s principles, the relationship and responsibility outlast the session. Own the error plainly and do not over-explain. Ask what would put it right, and follow through. Ask the facilitator whether a yarn with an Elder would help. [source for the principles: Barlo et al. 2020; repair steps: synthesis]
• Non-attendance or dropping out. Absence is often explained by cultural obligations, Sorry Business, family responsibilities, transport or Country-based commitments, not by disengagement. Converge's materials note cultural obligations and Sorry Business as pressures. Keep the door open, and do not discharge for missed groups. Make contact through the Aboriginal worker. Offer transport, keep food, and allow children. [source: Converge International page; Walker et al. 2014 on family-friendly venues; remaining steps: synthesis]
• Communication and literacy barriers (including after brain injury). Use interpreters and Aboriginal liaison officers, plain language, visuals and aphasia-friendly information. Check understanding often. [source: Lin et al. 2016; Healing Right Way protocol 2021]
• A dominant member, or conflict between families. A talking object and the agreed charter keep turns fair. Disputes between families or clans belong to the facilitator and Elders to handle. Do not adjudicate them as the clinician. [source for the talking object and charter: Newcastle Yarning Kit 2023; family disputes: synthesis]
• Pressure on a non-Indigenous clinician to run the circle (for example, "we have no Aboriginal staff"). Decline to lead it as a yarning circle. Instead, advocate for an Aboriginal-led partnership with a community-controlled organisation, offer clinical yarning one-to-one, and support the service to recruit or fund Aboriginal facilitators. [synthesis, consistent with the Aboriginal leadership in ECU, Barlo et al. and the Healing Right Way framework]
• Burden on the Aboriginal facilitator. Cultural load and vicarious trauma are real. Converge names cultural load as a workplace pressure. Build in paid time, debriefing, cultural supervision and limits on how many disclosures one person carries. [source: Converge International page; remaining steps: synthesis]
• Recording and documentation. Ask permission each time you record. Explain what will be written in clinical notes, and keep group content out of individual files unless the person consents. Validate any summary with participants. [source: Bessarab & Ng'andu 2010; Walker et al. 2014; Barlo et al. 2020; clinical-notes rule: synthesis]

Sources

Sources:

• Yarning About Yarning as a Legitimate Method in Indigenous Research (Bessarab & Ng'andu, 2010, full text)
• Yarning as protected space: principles and protocols (Barlo, Boyd, Pelizzon & Wilson, 2020)
• 'Yarn with me': applying clinical yarning to improve clinician–patient communication in Aboriginal health care (Lin, Green & Bessarab, 2016)
• Yarning Kits: cultural guiding (University of Newcastle Library, Newham & Groombridge, 2023)
• Brain Injury Yarning Circles: support groups for Aboriginal Australians after brain injury (Edith Cowan University project page)
• Yarning circles providing support for Aboriginal Australians after acquired brain injury (Armstrong et al., 2022, conference abstract record)
• Healing Right Way: study protocol (Armstrong et al., 2021, BMJ Open)
• "Yarning" as a method for community-based health research with Indigenous women (Walker, Fredericks, Mills & Anderson, 2014)
• Dadirri (Miriam Rose Foundation)
• First Nations Services and Products (Converge International)
• Torres Strait SEWB yarning circle study protocol (BMJ Open 2022, DOAJ record; abstract only)

Works cited:

• Bessarab, D. & Ng'andu, B. (2010). Yarning about yarning as a legitimate method in Indigenous research. International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies, 3(1), 37–50 [uncertain: volume and pages].
• Barlo, S., Boyd, W. E., Pelizzon, A. & Wilson, S. (2020). Yarning as protected space: principles and protocols. AlterNative, 16(2), 90–98.
• Lin, I., Green, C. & Bessarab, D. (2016). 'Yarn with me': applying clinical yarning to improve clinician–patient communication in Aboriginal health care. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22, 377–382.
• Walker, M., Fredericks, B., Mills, K. & Anderson, D. (2014). "Yarning" as a method for community-based health research with Indigenous women. Health Care for Women International, 35, 1216–1226.
• Armstrong, E. et al. (2022). Yarning circles providing support for Aboriginal Australians after acquired brain injury. International Journal of Stroke, 17(Suppl. 1). doi:10.1177/17474930221115480.
• Armstrong, E. et al. (2021). Healing Right Way: study protocol. BMJ Open, 11, e045898.
• Trudgen, R. (2000). Why Warriors Lie Down and Die. Cited via Lin et al. 2016.

Further reading (not drawn on): Charles Darwin University's "Introduction to yarning" document. No Aboriginal community-controlled organisation's facilitator manual for therapeutic yarning circles was found [uncertain].