For facilitators
How to hold one of these sessions with adults, online or in a room, and how to look after yourself while you do.
The care routes your group named in the session before the first come before anything here.
Before you agree to run this
Do not run these sessions for people you manage, assess or supervise, if you can avoid it. If you cannot, say so, make everything optional, and tell them nothing is reported back, not even who attended.
Attendance must never be required. If participants are in a heated dispute with each other, postpone sessions 5 to 7.
Care and safety
Passing is always allowed
Say it at the start of every session and mean it. Anyone can pass on any question, any round and any practice, with no reason given.
Never go round a room or a call in an order that leaves someone nowhere to hide. Offer the chat, a nod or silence as equal ways to take part.
If someone is in distress
If someone is crying, panicking, or seems far away, slow down and keep your voice level. Say: “We can stop here. You do not have to say anything. Would you like a break, some water, or to step out?” Offer to go with them, or send your co-facilitator.
If someone says they are thinking of ending their life or hurting someone, do not leave them alone and do not promise secrecy. Ask plainly: “Are you thinking of suicide?” Listen. Then help them contact emergency services or a crisis line in their own country, and stay until someone else is with them.
Do not ask for the full story, do not let the group give advice or similar stories, and do not try to treat it yourself.
If someone leaves an online session suddenly, message them privately: “We noticed you left. Are you okay? No need to reply about the session.” If you are worried about their safety, use the contact route your group agreed. After any of this, tell your co-facilitator or host and write down what you did, without names or health details.
When to refer, and where
Use the care routes your group named in session 0. If a person may be at risk of harm, follow the route your group agreed, or your host organisation's procedure if you have one, and contact emergency services where needed.
You are not a therapist in this role, and you do not hold someone's safety alone. Tell your co-facilitator, or your host if you have one, and write down what you did.
Holding a 75-minute session
Follow the shape on each session: the card, a short talk, discussion, the activity, private reflection and a closing round. The five minutes at the end are there because sessions run over.
Read the card aloud with its adult wording on screen. Keep the talk to ten minutes; the notes give you three or four points and where each comes from.
Give the activity most of the time, and use the fictional case or a light topic. Nobody works on their own hardest moment in the group.
Facilitating with someone else
Share the roles before you start: one leads, one watches the room or the chat, keeps time and notices who has gone quiet.
Agree a signal for "I need a pause" or "I will step in". Swap roles from session to session if you can.
Run sessions 7 and 8, and the grief module, with a second facilitator.
Online
Cameras are optional and captions stay on. Use breakouts of three, and give each breakout the activity in writing.
Use the presenter's screen-share layout, which keeps the words large and the care and safety note off the shared screen.
Use a chat waterfall for closing rounds: everyone types their word and presses enter at the same moment. Anyone can pass.
Your own practice
Do the between-sessions experiment yourself. You will facilitate it better for having tried it.
Have your own peer or supervisor to talk to after a hard session, and take the private debrief below. Holding a group is work, and rest afterwards is part of doing it well.
After each session, a private debrief
Five minutes, while it is fresh. It stays on this device and nothing is sent anywhere.
Your debriefs
If you would like to tell us what to change, write to Recipes for Wellbeing. Your email opens with the sessions named in the subject, nothing from your debrief is in it, and nothing is sent until you send it.