Avsnitt
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In this episode about listening with Julia and Tessa, we covered:
The importance of the listener being attuned and not having an agenda
How wonderful when listening is reciprocal and the listener isn’t trying to fix anything
The signs of someone not listening to you
How to do a Listening Partnership
The joy of a longer term listening partnership
That self-worth can grow as someone feels their voice is important -
In this episode, Julia and Ben covered:
• How breathwork can be transformation and does involve deep feelings and going to somone’s edge
• Breathwork is not regulated but you can check whether facilitators are signed up to the voluntary organisation Global Professional Breathwork Alliance (GPBA)
• There are two main aspects in facilitation: framing (doing, the structure, organisation) and the felt sense, which guides you to know when to push someone, when to ease off, when to offer touch (with consent)
• Breathwork session can be really different, rather than knowing the exact number of people to have in a session, the size of the venue etc, the important aspect is to have structure in place and then follow your felt sense
• It’s important to think about comfort and be welcoming because people want to belong
• Good to include fun at the beginning of a session to reduce awkwardness and break the ice.
• Ben shares an example of a light hearted icebreaker that also is a corridor to deeper feelings. -
Saknas det avsnitt?
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In this episode, we look at the common fear of new circle facilitators around managing big, raw feelings and diverse personalities. We discuss the balance between all feelings being welcome and allowing time for everyone to speak, between people being they're authentic self whether they tend to talk (a lot) or be very quiet and encouraging all to speak.
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In this episode we talked about:
• How co-facilitation can flow
• How preparation is key in forming the container to hold space and arrive empty to attune to what happens in the gathering
• How holding space is a creative process that also creates a new you
• A held space is a safe one, but also an emergent space for something new to happen
• That inner work is an essential part of being a facilitator
• Allowing your humanness is a gift to others when you are a facilitator and humanness in leadership is radical
• Bringing compassion to facilitation is essential because we will make mistakes. -
In this episode we will be talking about the role of the circle facilitator.
When we talk to people about our book we are often asked the question: What is circle holding or holding space?
When we dreamed up the title we knew exactly of the book we wanted a step-by-step approach as you can see from the subtitle: "A Practical Guide to Facilitating Talking Circles" clarified our intention.
Included in this overview is the following:
*It is about having someone who takes responsibility for the space
* As the facilitator you will have to make decisions about who speaks, for how long and when
*Sometimes you might have to interrupt people and that is why there is a level of skill involved in the role
*If you are already a teacher, group talking therapist, group coach, manager or space holder in other areas you are likely to have gained some of the skills required for talking circle and be drawn to doing this -
In this episode, Julia talks to Lee Keylock of Narrative 4 and they covered:
* Storytelling around controversial topics build community through revealing nuance
* How exactly Narrative 4’s Story Exchange works through experiencing radical empathy in circle
* That empathy starts with the courage and generosity to try to listen
* Hearing your story told by someone else lets you see it in a new light
* Facilitation is key to handle the emotional space and a co-facilitator helps keep the flow going
* That there is nothing soft about the skill of facilitation and it improves through practice
* Working with and learning from local leaders who already have people’s trust. -
This week we will be answering the question what is circle?
A circle is a tool that can be used in a whole variety of contexts, some of which you will hear about in other episodes.
In its purest form it is: In person, a group of people sitting in a circle who can all see and hear each other each having the opportunity to listen and talk.
Online it is a group of people who can do the same however the people tend to be in boxes rather than an actual circle.
There is a structure to circle holding and usually guidelines. We have created a whole episode about respectful listening. The basics are that you are creating a space where all participants have the opportunity to speak and be listened to respectfully.
There is usually at least one person who is taking responsibility for the group of people who have gathered. When that happens that is when it becomes a talking circle.
You can have spontaneous talking around a fire or at a picnic. Although the benefits of those circles can be great, what is different about a talking circle is that the space has been created with intention.
If you are new to circle circle holding it can be a fantastic experience and very valuable in and of itself. Putting simple guidelines in place for a talking circle can make a huge difference. -
This episode will be reassuring for new circle facilitators and get lots of nods of recognition from experienced ones. In this episode we talked about:
- Imposter syndrome is normal when moving from 121 to group work
- The difference between a leader, teacher and facilitator
- How you grow capacity to hold space as you do it
- That it’s normal for group process to be messy
- The more you bring yourself as a person to facilitation, the more you enable others to
- Having a clear intention for your circle is paramount
- You don't want the inner critic driving the bus! -
In this episode, Julia and Tessa introduce themselves through:
* the circles they've attended,
* how they met
* their favourite circle stories from the book
* why they wrote the book -
The first episode will drop on 1st September.