Heartmend Community
Agreement & Care Boundaries

The following agreements help protect the safety, trust, and integrity of the Heartmend circles we are building together.

The Nature of Heartmend

Heartmend is a devoted, God-centered healing community for women navigating the heartbreak of a marriage or intimate partnership.

Our circles are held through prayer, compassionate presence, guided sharing, and honest connection. Healing here unfolds in relationship with one another and with God.

Heartmend is not therapy, clinical mental health treatment, or crisis intervention. Participation in Heartmend does not establish a therapeutic, psychological, or medical relationship.

This space is relational and spiritual in nature.

The Structure We Hold

Each circle follows a consistent, gentle structure where women are invited to share honestly from the heart or through guided Heartmend themes..

Circles include:

• Facilitated guidance by Carmen Rivard
• A prayerful opening and closing
• Structured sharing without interruption
• Confidentiality and respectful presence
• Guided areas of healing and thoughtful questions
• Space for silence, emotion, honesty, and reflection

Circles are intentionally kept small to protect depth, safety, and meaningful connection.

As the Heartmend community grows and additional circles become available, women may attend an additional circle as they wish.

Confidentiality & Trust

Heartmend is built on trust.

By participating, you agree to hold in confidence the stories, names, experiences, and personal details shared by other women within the circle. What is shared here stays here.

While every participant is asked to honour this commitment, Heartmend cannot guarantee the actions or choices of individual participants. Each woman enters this space in good faith and shares responsibility for protecting the trust of the community.

Privacy & Recording

Heartmend Circles are private spaces. Protecting the privacy of each woman is an important part of creating the trust and safety that allows honest sharing to take place.

Recording of any kind is not permitted during a Heartmend Circle. This includes audio or video recording, photography, screenshots, screen recording, transcription, or the use of AI-powered meeting assistants, note-taking tools, transcription services, or similar technology.

Participants may not copy, share, publish, post, distribute, or otherwise reproduce another woman's words, story, image, identity, or personal information outside of the circle without her explicit permission.

When attending online, participants are asked to join from a private space whenever possible and to use headphones or earbuds when others may be within hearing distance. Please take reasonable steps to ensure that conversations cannot be overheard by people who are not participating in the circle.

Personal notes may be taken for your own reflection, provided they do not include identifying information or details about another participant's story.

Heartmend may occasionally wish to record educational content, photographs, testimonials, or other material for community or promotional purposes. No participant will ever be recorded, photographed, quoted, or identified for these purposes without her separate and explicit consent.

Protecting one another's privacy is a shared responsibility. By participating in a Heartmend Community Healing Circle, you agree to honour these boundaries before, during, and after each gathering.

How We Share the Space

Heartmend is not a space for advice, fixing, persuasion, debate, or spiritual pressure.

We practice:

• Speaking truthfully
• Listening without interruption
• Respecting time boundaries
• Honoring silence
• Allowing each woman’s healing journey to unfold in her own way
• Compassionate presence without needing to solve or rescue

Presence is more important than solutions.

Emotional Safety & Respect

Heartmend is committed to creating a space that is emotionally safe, compassionate, respectful, and grounded in care.

Shaming, hostility, manipulation, discrimination, repeated boundary violations, or harmful behavior toward others will not be tolerated within the community.

If a participant’s behavior consistently disrupts the safety or integrity of the circle, membership may be paused or discontinued. These decisions are approached with care and conversation whenever possible.

Care Boundaries

Heartmend is not designed to hold:

• Active legal conflict or divorce litigation strategy
• Crisis stabilization
• Domestic violence intervention
• Clinical mental health treatment
• Emergency support

If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm, suicidal ideation, or are in an unsafe situation, please contact emergency services or a licensed mental health provider immediately.

When needs exceed the scope of this community, additional support may be encouraged.

Participant Acknowledgement & Personal Responsibility

Heartmend Community and Heartmend Healing Circles provide peer-based, relational, spiritual, and educational support. Carmen Rivard is not acting as a psychologist, counsellor, therapist, physician, social worker, or other licensed health-care or mental-health professional through Heartmend. Participation does not create a therapeutic, clinical, medical, or other professional health-care relationship.

The conversations, reflections, practices, spiritual discussions, and other information shared through Heartmend are offered for community support and personal reflection and are not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or provide professional advice regarding any mental-health, medical, legal, financial, or other condition or circumstance.

Heartbreak and conversations about relationships, grief, loss, and healing can bring forward difficult or unexpected emotions. By choosing to participate, you acknowledge that you are responsible for deciding what feels appropriate for you, for caring for your own emotional well-being, and for seeking qualified professional or emergency support when needed. You are always free to decline to answer a question, participate in a practice, or share something you do not wish to share.

While Heartmend is intentionally facilitated with care, compassion, and respect, individual experiences and outcomes cannot be predicted or guaranteed. Heartmend Community and Carmen Rivard are not responsible for the actions, statements, advice, conduct, or responses of other participants, nor can Heartmend guarantee that another participant will maintain confidentiality despite the community agreement to do so.

By participating in Heartmend, you acknowledge and voluntarily accept the emotional nature of these conversations and understand the scope and limitations of the support Heartmend provides.

Spiritual Grounding

Heartmend is rooted in a gentle, God-centered approach to healing.

Prayer, silence, spiritual connection, reflection, and faith may be woven throughout the community experience while always honoring each woman’s individual relationship with God and spiritual journey.

Women do not need to identify with a specific denomination to participate, but should feel comfortable entering a space where God-centered language and spiritual grounding are present.

One-on-One Support

Private sessions may be available for women who desire additional individual support.

These sessions are offered separately and are intended as supplemental support rather than a replacement for the shared healing of the circle.

Availability is intentionally limited and offered by request only.

A Gentle Place to Begin Again

Healing is not linear.

There are no timelines, expectations, or requirements for how grief, rebuilding, or healing should look within this space.

Heartmend exists to offer women a place to be held in honesty, compassion, spiritual grounding, and community while finding their way forward, one gentle step at a time.

Entering the Agreement

Please complete the form below to confirm that you have read, understood, and agree to the Heartmend Community Agreement & Care Boundaries.