The Clearing is a peer support group for Black men in Pittsburgh. We meet every other week, in rounds. The next round starts September 20.
Most support spaces ask you to leave the world at the door. We don't, because we can't. For Black men, so much of what we carry comes from out there — work, money, family, the news, the way we're seen and not seen. Pretending otherwise isn't healing. It's another performance.
The Clearing is peer support: no therapist, no curriculum, no audience. A closed circle of Black men who show up for each other, every other week, and say the real thing out loud. What's said in the circle stays in the circle.
This is not group therapy and not a substitute for it — some of us are in therapy too, and the circle works alongside that, not instead of it.
Seven sessions across about three months, every other week. The same men, start to finish. Depth comes from continuity — the circle gets somewhere because nobody's starting over.
Small and closed. Once a round begins, the roster is set. New members join at the start of the next round, not the middle of this one.
What's said here stays here. Confidentiality isn't a policy — it's what makes honesty possible.
Time and location are shared with confirmed members. If you're reading this after September 20, reach out anyway — we'll hold your name for the next round.
Seven sessions. Miss no more than one.
When you join a round, you're not signing up for a meeting. You're making a promise to six other men. The circle only works when it's whole — every empty chair changes what the rest of us can say, and who we can say it to.
So the expectation is simple: commit to all seven sessions. Life happens — one absence is understood, no explanation owed. Beyond that, we'll ask you to step back and rejoin at the start of the next round, with no hard feelings and a held seat.
If you can't make the commitment this round, that's an honest answer and a respected one. The Clearing runs again in the new year.
The fall round opens September 20. Seats are limited and confirmed by a short conversation — not an application, just the two of us talking so you know what you're walking into and we know you're ready to commit.
1. Email us — a sentence or two is plenty.
2. We'll set up a short call.
3. Commit to the seven dates, and your chair is yours.