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.

Commitment to the Circle

When you join Heartmend, you are stepping into a shared rhythm of community.

Participation in Heartmend includes:

• One weekly 75-minute home circle
• A consistent small group of women walking a similar path
• A prayerfully held, facilitated space for honest sharing and compassionate listening
• One 60-minute Heartmend Community gathering every two months to connect with women across the wider Heartmend community

Heartmend Circle Membership is $99/month and is joined in recurring two-month commitments.

Membership renews automatically every two months unless cancelled prior to the next renewal payment.

These commitments help foster the consistency, trust, and emotional safety that meaningful healing requires.

Commitment protects the circle.

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 and healing anchors.

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 occasionally attend an additional circle when extra support is needed and space is available.

These additional support seats are offered on a first-come, first-served basis and are intended to provide flexibility during more difficult seasons.

Confidentiality & Trust

Heartmend is built on trust.

By joining, you agree to hold in confidence the stories, names, and personal details shared within the circle.

What is spoken and shared here remains here.

While we deeply honor confidentiality, Heartmend cannot legally guarantee the choices of individual participants. Each woman enters this space in good faith.

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.

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.

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

By joining Heartmend, you acknowledge that you have read and agree to this Community Agreement & Care Boundaries document and the shared commitments that protect the space we are building together.