The teenage girls take off their shoes and line up in the hall of the Salt Lake County Youth Services building. Once they are quiet, social worker Lorri Lake opens a door and they file into a small conference room, a plain sort of place with gray walls and blue carpet. In the middle of the floor, a candle burns. A long, flowered scarf encircles the candle and the girls sit on the floor around the scarf. They stare into the flame.

"We consider this sacred space," Lake reminds them. "What changes when you come in here?" she asks. One girl says,"I'm calmer." Lake reminds them they leave their shoes behind as a symbol of escaping the dirt of the world, the negativity and worries.

Some of the girls in the group are court-ordered to be here. Still, they have a choice; if they try the group and don't like it, they can see a counselor instead. But Lake explains why she would prefer they stay.

"Discovering Possibilities" is part of the Girl's Circle model out of California. The initial studies show the program improves social connections, improves perceptions of appearance and improves confidence.

In a phone interview, the Girl's Circle founder, therapist Beth Hossfeld, says that teenage girls heal through connection. "Connection with others is a central organizing feature of their psychological health." If girls are abused or neglected, certainly their ability to trust is broken, she says. But girls from happy families also can enjoy what the circles offer — a safe place to make friends and find power within a group.

In Salt Lake, girls attend twice a week. There are optional activities on weekends, too. Lake often invites the young women to join her at a local sweat lodge. Sweating ties in nicely with their group work, Lake explains. "Sweats are experiential."

Lake sees therapy becoming more experiential in Utah as in the rest of the country. "Talking, we can stay in our heads, be defensive, rationalize. When we feel and experience, we become part of it."

In Discovering Possibilities, she says, "The whole goal is for girls to see themselves as sacred. They can learn to honor one another and then they will learn to honor themselves."

As for focusing on a candle, Lake says, "If I can get these girls to be present for two hours, it will affect all parts of their lives." They'll learn to listen to each other, to know themselves. Lake will also teach them to meditate. If they can get a taste of peacefulness, she says, they will learn they don't need the other stuff — the drugs, the mean boyfriends.

Today, the girls do an exercise involving markers and chalk and a big paper bag. They are asked to decorate the outside of the bag with judgments they have heard about themselves from other people. As it turns out, all of them have been called a

"b----." Most have been called worse.