Most groups contain rounds of speaking and rounds of listening. Your facilitator will guide this, and set the structure and the pace. You are encouraged to share when it is your turn to share (but don’t have to), and encouraged to listen when it is your turn to listen - groups involve reciprocity with peers. You can share to the extent and depth that feels right, as little or as much as you need, without monopolizing the group entirely of course. The group will receive you, your emotions are welcome.

It is encouraged that you speak to your own experience and do not generalize it to others, ie, “you should” vs “I should”. Or “the world is” vs “my experience of the world is”.

When listening, you are encouraged to non-judgementally, and respectfully allow each member's expression. Stay present to what you hear and what you feel while the other speaks, put what you want to say aside for a moment. Holding on to everything you need to say later is not being present to the other, put it aside.

You will be invited to speak, and then, you are encouraged not to speak from a collection of thoughts but from what is ‘alive’ in you, what you are feeling in that specific moment – you are encouraged to trust and to express that. There are times when it is appropriate to interrupt when showing support for another, and times when it is not. The facilitator may moderate this. This is different from a normal group conversation as the facilitator is aiming to support participants to express what they feel and need more deeply and congruently, and sometimes this involves a process to come into this. The premise is that in order to feel truly heard and seen, you need to express the emotions and needs that are connected to and underneath your thoughts about your problems, and sometimes this takes some catharsis and sessions to get there