Facilitator Guidelines Zwischenwelten

Course Organisation Structure
When it comes to course leadership, we distinguish between three roles. Depending on the situation, these can be taken on by one or several people:

Zwischenwelten Organisation
a) Providing venue
b) Cleaning and preparing the space
c) Preparing required materials and setting up the space
d) Snacks
e) Emergency plans (fire, accidents, etc.)
f) Communication with participants before workshop (ticketing, questions, workshop information)
g) Financial coordination
h) Promotion of event
i) Feedback coordination
j) Communication with course leadership

Assistance
The assistant supports the course leadership. The areas of support are agreed upon clearly in advance. These could include:
a) Additional space-holding and witnessing of course participants
b) Emotional support for difficult individual processes of participants
c) Emotional, content-related or organisational support for course leadership
d) Offering flexibility in the choice of practice partners
e) Additional monitoring function for upholding the rules and direct feedback to course leadership
f) Support with practical matters, such as snacks or cleaning
g) Guiding individual exercises
h) Enriching perspective as an additional “experienced” person

In principle, the role of assistant should be a fairly compensated position.
Alternatively, participating as an assistant can be a one-time gift from a former participant as a gesture of appreciation, a one-time application for future collaboration, or an offer from the course leadership as a unique opportunity to repeat a course at reduced cost in order to absorb more information.

Profil Kursleitung
1)You have understood the rules and the glossary, and are ready to implement and apply these rules and language.
https://zwischenwelten.ch/agreement/?lang=en
https://zwischenwelten.ch/glossar/?lang=en

2) Professionalism: You feel competent to convey the knowledge you share, while at the same time knowing the limits of your knowledge. You are connected with others in this field and have several years of experience with the subject. You are curious and passionate about this topic, continuously educating and developing yourself, and have a system that supports and carries you through professional crises. You teach out of passion for the subject and out of goodwill. You follow your intuition and resonance, while remaining in service to the course participants.

3) Personal: You are appreciative and well-meaning towards your participants. You are resilient in the face of stress reactions, disharmony and resistance to authority, and can handle these with confidence and goodwill. You are self-assured. You are able to address different groups and their needs, and are flexible enough to adapt to them. You actively want to empower participants to feel as free and as safe as possible in your courses. You feel empowered to lead the group.

Preparation and Facilitation of the Workshop

1) Planning: You have clarity about the goal of the workshop, what the profile of your participants is, and what type of exercises will be carried out. You have a schedule and know what materials you need. Each course facilitator has developed a clear consent concept and structures the workshop accordingly: grounding exercises, interaction exercises, negotiation exercises, etc.

2) Thinking Ahead: You are aware of the possible risks and dynamics and take these into account in your communication. How do you protect the goal of the workshop? What do you do to contain non-congruent intentions (e.g. personal hunger for touch, sex, contact, self-fulfilment, etc.)? How could certain exercises be misunderstood?

3) Providing an Outlook: The workshop is organised in manageable, ritual segments. Participants know what to expect, both in terms of the general daily structure and specifically regarding exercises. Concretely, this means: all exercises and their contents are verbally announced or demonstrated in advance, and the time frame is communicated. There are no unannounced ‘surprises’ during exercises (finding a partner, changing partners, changes to the setting).

4) Leaving the Course: Participants know that they are free to leave the workshop at any time, but are asked to inform the course facilitator. The decision to leave the course should be normalised by the facilitator and does not need to be justified by the participant. However, an offer of support (feedback, venting, expressing oneself) should be made.

5) Exercises Are Based on Consent: At each segment, participants are offered an active choice as to whether and how they want to participate in that segment. This is not only emphasised, it is proactively lived. Modifications to the exercise are suggested, alternative ideas are offered, as well as the option to take a break or to experience the exercise as a witnessing person. Participants should always be allowed to take a consciously chosen step into the exercise and not automatically find themselves in it. Sitting out exercises should be normalised. This means that, as a general rule, no one is asked why they are not participating in an exercise — this is understood as a self-evident choice. Additionally, it is repeatedly emphasised that stopping at any time during the exercise is also always permitted.

6) Clear Communication About Mandatory Parts of the Workshop: It should be clear from what point onwards participants will no longer be admitted, and which segments must not be missed. This usually includes the introductory circle, as well as safety-specific instructions and group-dynamics-sensitive segments that must be heard or witnessed, so that the workshop feels as stable as possible. This means that if someone is absent for certain parts, that person should leave the workshop entirely.

7) Opening the Space: At the beginning, the most important rules and procedures of the course are discussed. The following points are important to us:
● Zwischenwelten Rules and Glossary as the Foundation The foundation for our time together are the rules and glossary from the Zwischenwelten website, and we refer to these in cases of discrimination or similar issues.
● I-Statements (& Curious Questions) Everyone speaks for themselves, not for one another, not ‘one’, not ‘us’. This also guards against generalisations, boundary violations, etc.
● Keeping Track of Speaking Time Inform the group that you may intervene if the time or topic of sharings exceeds the given frame.
● Confidentiality Participants respect and protect the identities, personal processes and stories of other participants and do not share these with others. Participants may share about their workshop experience, in particular the content and structure of the course and what facilitators say. If applicable, you may wish participants to handle materials mindfully (copyright) or to cite you, this is of course your own decision to make and to address.

8) Closing the Space: At the end of the workshop, we close the space and set the rules for the exit / transition for participants. We recommend the following:
● Feedback Welcome The facilitator is available for processing, discussion, support, feedback or questions after the workshop. Invitation to fill in the feedback form or to send an email (with no time limit — it can even be in 2 years). → Feedback can fulfil different needs. Participants share it as a form of appreciation, as an act of care for the facilitator, the organisation, future participants or the community. It can also be written as an act of self-care (for self-reflection, venting, connection with the facilitator, etc.)
● Contact: No requests for contact details. Let the workshop sink in for now. If you later wish to get in touch with someone you met at the workshop, you can write a message to that person and send it to the facilitator. They will forward the message to the desired person.
● Space for Transition: Transitioning back into one’s own lived reality can be intense or emotionally challenging. Seek support if the transition does not go well for you. If something is still emotionally needed, reach out to the facilitator for this, and not to other participants. Give other participants space to find their way back into their personal reality. Do not push anyone physically or emotionally into corners or conversations, or unilaterally re-open reflections about the workshop. Do not wait for someone outside the door to walk to the train together, etc. Open offers based on mindful mutuality are fine: ‘I’m going for a drink — if anyone / you would like to join, come and find me.’ ‘I’m heading to the station in 5 minutes. If anyone wants to walk along, let me know.’ ‘There is something from the workshop that is still with me — perhaps we could exchange about it sometime. Feel free to send a message to the organisation to forward, if you are interested.’

9) Emergency Management During or After a Workshop:
● If someone is in crisis, it is important that they are supported on a human level. This includes: troubleshooting, acknowledgement of mistakes that have led to harm, confusion or rule violations, offering empathy, helping to contextualise and make sense of the situation. People in crisis should not be left alone. If necessary, a trusted person or psychological / medical professional should be called upon for support.
● If a participant needs something as part of or in integration of the workshop, the contact must be professionally and clearly defined: setting a framework for support, feedback and repair processes — how long, what is the topic, what format are we using? All exchanges are treated confidentially by the facilitator.
● Clarity About Limits: Facilitators do not engage in (trauma-)therapeutic work and also maintain boundaries in order to prevent projections, re-traumatisation and chaotic processes.

Structural Responsibility of the Course Facilitator

There are very few role models in our society for anti-hierarchical learning settings. We want to uphold our role, make use of our power, and at the same time remain authentic and relationship-oriented. We understand that this is a trial and error process and wish our facilitators to take a stance for justice, authenticity and communal appreciation.

The following points are important to us
1. Transparency and Clarity: When you are teaching at a workshop, you are transparent about your sources, your wealth of experience, the fields of expertise and processes that led to your knowledge. You are also clear about what you do not know. You distinguish between your beliefs, opinions, your cognitive knowledge and your personal experiences, and are careful not to formulate ‘universal truths’. You communicate using I-statements as a general principle.’My xyz teacher, with whom I took weekly classes for 3 years, explained to me that…’
‘In the book xyz I read that…’
‘Practising xyz over the years, I repeatedly noticed the pattern that…’
‘There is a documentary that claims that…’
‘I hold the belief that…’ etc.

3) Clarity of your role:
You recognise the power that your role as a facilitator gives you. You use this power to shape the workshop and make decisions, and you inhabit this power in a responsible and professional manner. You understand workshop spaces as relational spaces and practise appropriate, role-conscious communication within them.

Course Facilitation and Exercise Participation During Workshops
As a course facilitator or assistant, you may, if you find it appropriate, make yourself available to act as an exercise partner. In this role, you should never make an offer or a request to join an exercise out of self-interest. You should also decline requests that seem to have a ‘relationship-seeking’ nature (when the participant makes it clear that they only want to do the exercise with you because they find you attractive, or you are concerned that they are placing you on a pedestal due to your facilitator role). Additionally, you should be vigilant about empowering people to NOT do the exercise with you, or to stop an exercise that does not feel regulated or congruent.
When you participate in the exercise, you do so authentically and in a regulated manner at the same time. Do not run your emotions — such as desire, enjoyment, joy, sadness, anger — up to 100%, but rather keep them at around 60%. If attraction towards course participants exists, this should remain concealed and not be discussed or implied. In group exercises, you only participate when your participation supports the group. When you do participate, you do so neutrally.

Clarity About Power structures
You are aware of the structures of violence in the outside world (colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, etc.) and how they can also shape human nervous systems.

You are aware of your structural privileges and marginalisations and can address these when necessary, and recognise when difficulties arise within the group. At the same time, you also keep the power dynamic of your role in mind. You understand the workshop as a microcosm where, for example, school traumas, resistance to authority, peer pressure and people-pleasing can become relevant. An active stance is taken to protect marginalised people. Justice is more important than harmony in our spaces.

You use your life experience and intuition as a compass. You keep an eye on the room and the non-verbal signals of participants, and proactively check in when something feels unsafe.

You are able to distinguish between tolerable clumsiness and clear discrimination. In cases of generalised statements, racism, misgendering, ableism, sexism, queerphobia and transphobia, you feel ready and practised to intervene. When in doubt, you position yourself against marginalisation and in favour of structural protection.

No emotional labour or explanatory work should be demanded from victims or marginalised people. The greater part of the work and processing should firstly be carried by the course facilitator, and secondly conducted with those who caused harm. People who have been harmed receive apologies, offers of support and, where appropriate, updates on steps taken or mistakes made but they should not be required to respond if they do not wish to.

You have an awareness of stress responses (your own and those of others) and are mindful to place structural factors above the ‘intensity’ of a reaction (see: White Fragility / Male Fragility). You are familiar with common manipulation patterns (such as DARVO or Tone Policing) in order to prevent them as much as possible.”

Behaviour of Course Facilitators Towards Participants After the Workshop
Facilitators do not initiate personal contact with participants after the workshop that cannot be concluded within 1–2 exchanges (brief messages after the workshop or a short email exchange afterwards). This may be a message of appreciation, a reference to books / articles / online shops, or a check-in regarding a personal dynamic arising from the workshop. It should be clear that these sharings are offers and do not require a response.

Status as a Course Facilitator: Your status as an ‘expert’ in the field you teach carries over into other spaces. Be aware of this when navigating new social or relational dynamics. In social settings (including both physical and digital exchanges), allow former participants to approach you, and not the other way around.

Slow Growth of Relationship Changes: Allow relationships with people who know you primarily from a facilitation context to grow slowly and intentionally, in order to give the transition time. Between a facilitator–participant relationship and a private, romantic, emotional or sexual relationship, there should be a period of time and several platonic meetings in between, based on mutual personal interest, where both sides show initiative and are actively choosing to engage freely.

Disclaimer: Like everything on our website, this text is the intellectual property of Zwischenwelten and you do not have permission to copy or reproduce it without authorisation. You are welcome to use the text or parts of it, but always credit us as the original source.