Group Facilitation #1 Reflection

Yesterday Annese Jaffery and I lead a group on the topic of relating to others. I think Annese and I worked really well together when forming the protocol and as we were leading. For example, I get nervous when leading a group, especially at the beginning, and as a result of this I often have a problem remembering to do an introduction, which happened this time. Annese quickly jumped in and covered the introduction in a natural way. I realize that when I am leading alone this is something I need to work on. After this we played a quick introduction game that seemed to wake everyone up and get the ready for the activity. We started with having each group member draw/color a graphic of a few things about themselves, being: future goals, fears, and hobbies. We then asked the group to share their drawings. After each group member shared, we opened the floor for discussion of things that the members noticed were similar on their paper to someone elses. Everyone in the group seemed to be listening really well and noticed many similarities with their group mates. After the group members discussed their similarities. Annese and I told them that in order to relate to others, you first have to understand things about yourself. We talked about the activity and then asked the group how they can work on relating to others and building relationships outside of the group and in the community. I think we used our judgement to decide when the group may need prompting with a question and when to allow some silence for the group members to think of their own answer.  I am thankful that for our first session we are able to work with a partner so that we could get the feel of the process. Overall, I think our session went well and I am looking forward to take what I learned and apply it to my next group facilitation.