Facilitation: See it, Hear it, Touch it

Last night ended the first year of my psychotherapist training program. I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned and noticed about facilitation through going through these classes.

The course was almost entirely auditory: 90% of the classes were discussion-based. For someone like me, who is predominantly an auditory learner, you’d think this would be a great system. However, just because you’re talking doesn’t mean you’re reaching the auditory learner. The auditory learner listens to what you’re saying, meaning that it needs to make sense. There needs to be main points. There needs to be verbal signals (“First we will talk about x, then y”, or “The point of this story is …” “To summarize the presentation …”). The auditory learner actually pays attention to the verbal flow and the words of the argument, and less attention to your gestures or to the colourful and descriptive phrases you’re using.

In some of our weekend workshops, we did more kinesthetic and visual activities. If you haven’t tried incorporating such activities into your own groups or workshops, I highly recommend it. You’ll get an entirely different take on a topic if, instead of asking for open discussion, you ask people to draw a response and then present it. You’ll gain an entirely different understanding of perspectives if you ask people to articulate their viewpoint through a gesture, body position, or sculpture.

People new to facilitation are often reluctant to deviate from the traditional discussion-based approach, fearing that pictures or movement won’t address their topic or will be uncomfortable for participants. I strongly believe that we are missing out on entire ways of knowing and ways of being if we don’t include such representations. Try it, and trust the process – you’ll be pleased and surprised with what unfolds.