How women's drum circles are supporting my healing journey
I'm deeply grateful to Amy for sharing her powerful journey with our women's drum circles in Bristol. Her story beautifully illustrates how these sacred circles create space for deep healing and authentic self-expression. - Ruth
Learning to let go through rhythm and community
There was this moment in our women's drumming circle when everything seemed to break loose.
The collective rhythm we'd been building suddenly scattered, and I couldn't find the beat anymore.
I initially felt anxious and felt the need to bring the chaos under control.
My hands automatically tried to establish a steady rhythm to guide everyone back.
Then I stepped back and observed myself, realising how absurd it is to perceive a responsibility to fix everything all the time. As women, we're so often under societal pressure to be the ones who step in when things appear to be going off track.
When I relaxed and let the flow take me, I discovered what was emerging on the other side of chaos was powerful and beautiful. It was a rhythm that wasn't about consciously concentrating on structure, but about natural connection with each other. We naturally locked into each other's rhythms and something far more heartfelt emerged from deep within the soul.
“Drumming is helping me to trust more in the flow, and in doing so, it’s helping me process everything I’ve been through in a way I couldn’t imagine talking therapy ever doing for me.”
From "Getting on with it" to deep healing with drums
Out of the blue, I was diagnosed with stage four cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. My approach was simple: just get on with life. As long as I managed to stay working through my chemo treatment (the only days I had off were when I was in the chair), I thought, "Well, as long as I'm doing that, I must be okay."
But that mindset made me very uptight. I developed significant anxiety, waking up early worrying about anything and everything. I was becoming an anxious control freak in survival mode. But in my mind I was blinkered: "I'm still working, still doing everyday things, therefore I must be okay."
Physically, the chemo team was fixing me, but mentally, my state was declining.
I'd been advised to try talking therapy, but the idea mortified me.
I've always been open about my cancer with friends, but talking to a therapist about it? No, it wasn't going to happen.
“Then the first time I went back to the drum circle after treatment, I felt something unlock inside me.
The trauma I’d been holding started to release though not in that overwhelming, terrifying way I feared would happen with a therapist. It came out through my hands, through the rhythm, through my body.”
After one particularly powerful session, I felt peaceful and content, when I'd been tearful all day before. The drumming brought pent-up emotions to the surface in a healthy way. I was recognising them, processing them, and letting them out but through rhythm and vibration rather than words. That's when I realised: this was the therapy I actually needed.
Birthing my own drum: A solstice journey
I birthed my drum in the garden at Summer Solstice. Unable to afford a commercial drum or workshop, I researched the process through YouTube videos and Facebook groups, gathering materials and knowledge. The ceremony of creation was as important as the drum itself.
When my first attempt wasn't quite right, I gave it a "rebirth" by soaking and remaking it. From the leftover skin, I created a smaller drum that I lend to newcomers. Later, I made a drum for my mother-in-law Marilyn as a Christmas gift, crafting it during Winter Solstice. Our drums were birthed at opposite points on the celtic wheel of the year.
Witnessing women break free in sacred circle
There's something magical that happens in the drumming circle when women begin to let go. I remember watching two ladies dancing around the outside of our drum circle, playing drums and bells, barefoot in the soil. They were so wild and free; moving without self-consciousness, eyes closed, completely immersed in the rhythm we were creating together.
A recent women’s drum circle in Bristol’s woodlands
I love when women start singing and using their voices. It's amazing how quickly women sense the energy of the safe space we've created together. You see barriers lowering and masks being cast aside to reveal the true wild woman behind.
One of the women once said that during one jam, it felt like we were charging into battle. It does feel like we're there with the ancestors. All those modern societal norms are broken down and shed away, and the women that we were thousands of years ago come to the surface.
When women let go like that, it gives the rest of us permission to. It only takes one woman with the confidence to break free and we all go, "Oh yes, I remember her, that wild woman is inside of me too but I kept her locked away."
My first time at this women's drumming circle
When I first joined, I wasn't sure what to expect. The circle begins with everyone setting intentions and checking in, immediately creating this feeling of safety. Ruth guides us through this process with such care. She takes time with each meditation, helping us discover what's going on in our bodies and what we need that day. Her gentle prompts get us out of our heads and into our physical selves in a way I hadn't experienced before.
A recent women’s woodland drum circle in Bristol
What surprised me was how the rhythm naturally builds. It's not rehearsed; it just happens. The drumming opens something primal in you. Some women start dancing, others sway with their eyes closed. Voices emerge - sometimes tentative at first, then growing bolder.
The tea breaks are where we connect as women, sharing and witnessing each other's journeys. What I love most is that there's no pressure to participate in any particular way. Some nights I've got up and danced with my drum; other times I've just sat with my drum, taking it all in.
By the closing circle, I always feel shifted. More centered, more myself. It's hard to explain until you experience it!
The physical transformation in a women’s drum circle
The physical effect of drumming is something I've never experienced with other therapies. It's very somatic. There's this mind-body-heart connection, whereas talking therapy is just all up in the head. Talking therapy can feel like reinforcing the stories we tell ourselves, but drumming goes into the body. The vibrations travel through your hands, up your arms, and somehow reach places inside you that words never could.
I'll often tell the other women, "Take a minute before you drive home," because drumming can put you into a state of deep meditation. With my ADHD tendencies, there's usually a thought process going on constantly, and traditional sitting meditation doesn't have much effect on me.
Feel the vibrant energy of the Women’s Woodland Drumming Circle in Bristol
But drumming does something completely different. It's like coming out of a vivid dream and needing a moment to return to reality. After one woodland drumming session, I remember saying, "I wish there was a ring of tents around this fire, because I could quite easily just crawl in here!"
Emerging from cancer's shadow with drum medicine
Since my cancer diagnosis, I've known I wasn't myself and life has been on hold. I kept telling myself that now treatment was over, I needed to process what happened and get back to the person I was before. But since I started drumming, a new version of me is appearing.
I didn't realise how bad my mental state was until I felt the release from drumming. I'd come to the circle and enjoy myself, not recognising how deep it was going. Then I would wake up the next morning with no anxiety, just feeling relaxed and ready to face the day.
This "new me" is calm, content with life, and taking forward the positive lessons gained over the last few years. My concentration is better at work.
With the ADHD brain, focus can be an issue, but it's definitely better in the days after drumming. And it's a calm focus, not that pressured focus. It feels like I can deal with life, and it's all okay.
With each session, I see more of this new me appearing, and it feels incredible! I can't measure what Ruth has done for me - it's the therapy I didn't know I needed.
Finding my tribe in women’s healing circles
I first discovered Ruth's women's drumming circle through a Facebook ad for circles at the Bristol Goddess Temple. I wasn't really sure what to expect. I never anticipated finding a tribe of women who would feel like family.
What I found was a truly intergenerational community. Women from their 20s right up to their 70s, from many different cultures and backgrounds, all coming together with drumming in common. This diversity of ages brings such richness to the circle. I even attend with my mother-in-law, Marilyn, and it's been deeply therapeutic for her too. Since COVID, she had rarely ventured out, but the drumming circle is the one thing she regularly attends.
Ruth is warm and welcoming. I felt like I'd known her all my life when we first met. She has this genuine way about her that puts people at ease. One of the most powerful things she says is, "Everything's an invitation". You can step out, stop drumming, or just absorb the rhythm if you need to.
With the voice work too, I remember thinking, "Oh my, I can't use my voice, it sounds like someone stepping on a cat." Ruth gently encouraged us to "just find the note that is your natural note and let it out." She creates this space where it feels safe to try new things.
“What makes Ruth special is how she reads people. She’s a natural empath who picks up on what each person needs at that moment.
When women come to the circle for the first time, they can be anxious and unsure what to expect. Ruth has this lovely smile and a calming presence that helps those nerves melt away.
Ruth’s authenticity helps everyone see that this isn’t just something she does; it’s a genuine calling to support women on their healing journeys.”
Drumming as daily medicine for women’s wellbeing
The times when you think, "Should I go to the drumming circle? Will I benefit when I'm not in the right mindset?" Those are precisely the times when you need it most.
So many times I've heard someone say, "I was so tired tonight I didn't think I could get myself here." Inevitably, those were the times they got the most benefit.
It's become what I turn to when I need to centre myself. If I'm getting stressed with something, I'll put down what I'm doing and play the drum for a while as it shifts me into a different headspace.
The effect is immediate. I feel calmer and more grounded, even after just 5 minutes.
I simply tell women to just try it. If it ends up being nothing more than a mindfulness exercise, it will still benefit you. But every woman who has come to our circle has been surprised by how deep an experience it was. The universal response is: "Wow, I don't know what happened there, but I feel very different!"
“But every woman who has come to our circle has been surprised by how deep an experience it was. The universal response is: “Wow, I don’t know what happened there, but I feel very different!”
I can't put into words what the drumming circles have meant to me. They've been a way back to myself. Not just having fun with drums, but finding ourselves again when we've become lost. If you're curious but hesitant, come along once and see how it feels. You might be surprised by what you discover.
