Marcella Friel holding her hands to her chest in joy

Welcome to the Heroines' Circle

A dedicated community hub for women walking the Women, Food & Forgiveness path together.

The Heroines’ Circle is where your journey inside the Academy becomes real, relational, and lived.

New students and longtime sisters meet in this space to stay connected, deepen their study, and receive the support that makes lasting transformation possible.

This circle exists so you don’t have to navigate your healing alone. Here, you walk your Heroine’s Journey in the company of women committed to truth-telling, self-compassion, and steady movement through breakdown, breakout, and breakthrough.

Margaret immeditately knew this was the right place for her to be

Even though she didn't know the women in this group, Margaret knew the work would be powerful and transformative.

What You Receive in the Heroines' Circle

A space that supports your transformation without overwhelming you.

Inside, you’ll find:

📱 Private texting group membership

Membership in the private texting group on Signal, where you can share victories and ask for support 24/7.

🧑‍🏫 Monthly Mentorship Calls

Explore the Heroine’s Journey stages through curriculum review, teaching, and reflection in these monthly calls led by Marcella.

📚Study Hall Calls

Parallel co-study sessions and discussion led by the Guidesses.

🦉Resources for Further Study

A growing library of tapping guides, teachings, and contemplations to augment and enrich your curriculum experience.

Lola discovered the freedom of feeling "on track"

Lola felt "frantic, powerless, stuck, fed up, hideous, and frustrated" when she joined the Academy.

Through her experience in this community Lola discovered how to love herself and trust her body in a way she'd never experienced before.

Why This Circle Matters

Unlike noisy social media feeds, here is a place to truly check in with yourself.

What you’ll find here:

  • Somatic tools such as EFT Tapping that can shift your nervous system out of fight-or-flight and into rest-and-digest.

  • Food peace restored by safety, intuition, and inner companionship.

  • Deep self-forgiveness that allows you to come home to yourself after decades of living in exile.

  • Real sisterhood with women who show up with honesty, humility, and humor.

  • Spiritual mentorship through Two-Way Prayer, archetypal teachings, and narrative practices that help you hear your own wisdom again.

  • Consistent momentum on your journey, so you no longer have to do it all alone. The container holds you so you can keep going.

Meet Your Mentor

I’m Marcella Friel, founder of the Women, Food & Forgiveness Academy, author of Tap, Taste, Heal, and a lifelong student of forgiveness and feminine wisdom.

For more than three decades I’ve walked a path of spiritual practice and recovery, rooted in Buddhist teachings and 12-Step living.

These traditions taught me that genuine liberation is born from compassion toward ourselves and service to others.

This is the spirit in which I welcome you: one heroine to another, remembering who we are, together.

"Marcella's brilliance in facilitating transformation is truly remarkable."

—Mary Sheila Gonnella, Occidental Nutrition

Bethany found hope she didn't have before

When Bethany joined the Academy she was struggling with depression, physical pain, and a sense of loss and frustration about how to change her predicament. Nothing was working.

Listen as Bethany describes how her Academy sisters helped her shift not only her relationship to food and her body but indeed her entire life.

Our secret weapon: EFT Tapping

Integral to the work in this circle is the tool of Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

EFT is a simple, powerful tool to release emotional stress at its root and can be extremely helpful in dealing with food-related issues, such as

  • Emotional eating

  • Binges and cravings

  • Food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances

  • Negative body issues

  • Undesirable food habits

  • Sugar addiction

  • Confusion over what and how to eat

Beth peeled the onion layers

Even though she had a ways to go, Beth was inspired to move forward by the love and inspiration she got from her sisters in this group.

Tapping for Self-Forgiveness

Use this PDF download to stop blaming yourself for your food and body-love struggles and start setting them free with EFT Tapping.

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Marcella Friel is not a licensed health-care provider, counselor, or psychotherapist. 
She offers her services as a food professional and a self-help educator. She does not diagnose or treat illness, disease, or psychological problems. Tapping is not a substitute for professional health care. The information Marcella provides in this web site is for general education and not intended to replace qualified medical or psychological advice.