In November, I had the privilege of participating in a Restorative Justice Session at the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington. Prior to this session, I had only briefly heard about the process, and had dismissed it in favor of more “concrete” methods of justice and retribution for two reasons. First, as a high schooler I couldn’t see myself interacting with a group of adults in such a setting. Second, I believed that our (the group members) experiences would be so disparate, that healing would be impossible.

We began by sitting in a ‘peace’ circle (a custom borrowed from Native American and African cultures), which immediately established a sense of respect and equality between participants. Once the ice had been broken, each member of the circle shared a word  that sprang to mind when they recalled a time they had been hurt by another. Responses included  “shame”, “abandonment”, and “powerlessness”. The process was then repeated for multiple situations that involved difficulties revolving around human relationships, pain and recovery.