Guidelines and Tips for Facilitation
Creating a Safe Learning Space
Participants need to feel comfortable, safe, and respected during the training. We discuss several strategies for helping to create a positive learning space. As you prepare to facilitate, you will want to consider factors such as when and where to hold the session, key messages on promotional materials, whether to use group guidelines, how to ensure diverse representation, and ways of working with co-facilitators or guests. If possible, having a co-facilitator or someone to assist you during the presentation can be very helpful. If a participant is triggered and needs to leave the session, a co-facilitator or helper can follow up with the participant.
Opening with Intention
Facilitators have an enormous role to play in setting the tone for a session. As people enter the space (online or in person), you can welcome them and help them get oriented. You can let them know if you’ve started or whether you’re waiting for a few more people, and share housekeeping information such as where the bathrooms are, where they can put their things, or how to use online interactive features. You may want to consider using a breathing exercise together or an icebreaker activity to help put people at ease. As you begin the session, you can use opening questions that help create inclusivity, such as correct pronouns, check-in questions, or information about accessibility needs and requests.
Scope of the Session
It is important to hold space in a session for people’s feelings and experiences – shared or not. However, boundaries are also needed to allow the session to move forward and be completed within the stated time frame.
It is also important to establish at the beginning that the training is a learning space and not a counselling session (you may also want to send an email with this message to all participants prior to the session). If a participant is starting to take over the discussion with their personal experiences, you can gently redirect the conversation back to the material that you need to cover. Plan to stay after the session is over to talk to any participants one-on-one.
It’s also important to reassure participants who worry that they must “fix” a student who is in distress. Emphasize that faculty and staff are not expected to be counsellors or to provide mental health treatment.
What This Session Does Not Include
This training doesn’t focus on how to recognize and support a student struggling with substance use and addiction. Substance use and mental health are closely linked, but this topic is beyond the scope of this foundational training.
This session briefly addresses suicide, but suicide is a very serious issue that requires more in-depth training. BCcampus has a training resource on suicide awareness for faculty and staff. BCcampus also has a facilitated resource on suicide Let’s Talk About Suicide: Raising Awareness and Supporting Students.
Faculty and staff who have concern