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Jalaja Bonheim Ph.D.(, born June 1953) is an author, speaker, workshop leader and leadership trainer. She is the author of five books including most notably Aphrodite’s Daughters: Women’s Sexual Stories and the Journey of the Soul and The Sacred Ego: Making Peace with Ourselves and Our World.

Bonheim is the originator of a method called Circlework™, which uses circle gatherings to facilitate individual and collective transformation, awakening and empowerment. The defining features of Circlework includes its focus on sacred geometry, its unique use of body-centered modalities such as movement and touch, and a strong emphasis on qualities that are often associated with Femininity, such as receptivity, gentleness, beauty, compassion and spaciousness. Bonheim is internationally known for her pioneering work with Jewish and Palestinian women in the Middle East. Since 2005, she has been leading workshops and trainings that offer women the healing and empowerment they need in order to serve as peacemakers and healers in their communities. Every year, women leaders from around the world, including Afghanistan, India, Germany, Australia, Kenya, Israel and Palestine, attend Bonheim’s training programs in upstate New York. Several hundred women have graduated from the Circlework training, and Circlework has found its way into hospitals and schools, community centers and corporations.

Early Life and Education
Jalaja Bonheim was raised in Austria and Germany by Jewish Parents. She completed her PhD in English and German literature from the University of Freiburg, and taught German language and literature at Warwick University in Great Britain for two years. Growing up German and Jewish in post-war Germany, Bonheim struggled to make sense of the events that had left both the German and Jewish people deeply traumatized. This struggle greatly influenced her work and provoked a life-long path of activism and education. In 1981, she traveled to India to study Hindu temple dance, which she continued to do for eight years, spending a total of two years in India. Her training in India enabled her to write her first publication Serpent and the Wave: A Guide to Movement Meditation,which presented movement meditation primarily from an Eastern perspective but with reference to many spiritual traditions.

Teachings
Bonheim has been leading circle gatherings and training circle leaders since 1984. In 2001, she founded the Institute for Circlework, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the practice of Circlework around the world including Arab-Israeli Peace Circles. The aim of Circlework is to encourage both individual and collective transformation. Jalaja leads workshops and spiritual retreats, in the United states and abroad, primarily for women at centers and conferences such as Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Rowe Center in Rowe Massachusetts, and Women of Wisdom Conference in Seattle, WA. She believes that to survive, we need to empower women and cultivate qualities traditionally associated with femininity, such as gentleness and compassion. Another focus of Bonheim’s work lies on helping people understand how our consciousness evolved, why certain collective habits that once served us are now threatening to destroy us, and how we can transform them in order to build a peaceful and sustainable global community. Based on her work with peacemakers from around the world, In her latest book The Scared Ego: Making Peace with Ourselves and Our World, Bonheim pinpoints sources of conflict and warfare within our own psyche and shows how and why we undermine our desire for peace. From there, she goes on to show us the practical steps we can take towards transforming the collective habits, both in ourselves and in our world, that stand in the way of peace. The Sacred Ego bridges spirituality, psychology, and activism and is one of several publications within the Sacred Activism Series launched by North Atlantic Press.