1. Facilitation is ‘voluntary’, with the benefits of supporting and witnessing the stories of others, and having the opportunity to further fill out your own journaling. It is hoped that perhaps two/three participants out of each group might be willing to facilitate further groups. It would be good if facilitators will encourage this idea from the start to ‘keep the ball rolling’
2. This course has been created in the spirit of ‘sharing’ and not as an ‘expensive, fee-paying workshop’, so that all can benefit, whatever their circumstances. If any person feels they wish to receive some remuneration for facilitation, this should be discussed with CCC before proceeding.
3. A facilitator would preferably have been a participant in a previous Gathering Threads course, and should have the approval of your own course facilitator as someone suitable to guide others in this process. In the absence of that/any reference (course facilitator moved away, illness, death?) you should obtain reference from one CCC representative.
4.  Facilitation can be one person or two. The ideal number of participants has been found to be 5 + two facilitators.
5. If, for any reason, Facilitators wish to actively participate in journaling and sharing in the group held, their first responsibility is as the group facilitator. It would be ideal to reduce the number of participants accordingly.
6. Feedback forms should be given out at the penultimate session to be returned completed in the final session. After reading, they should be passed to ‘CCC-Education coordinator’ for archiving, and comments will be taken into account for any review of the course structure & guidelines.
7. The Facilitator(s) of each group is (are) responsible for organising the logistics of their group, and for its fulfilment to completion. A single facilitator should identify (to CCC and to the group) a willing reserve/deputy facilitator to step in in the event of sudden illness or similar event, and organise this if dates cannot be rescheduled.
8. It would also be helpful to the whole ToL project if Facilitators will write a brief report on your own facilitation experience after completion, to submit for CCC.
9. Facilitators are responsible for collecting fees from prospective participants and passing to CCC Education coordinator. Each participant pays (preferably) up-front, non-refundable sum e.g. £75 for the whole course of sessions (for 5 participants = £350). Bursary application may be possible (apply CCC). It is important that people understand that to drop out of such an intimate group midway has an effect on the whole group, and a new person cannot be brought in. Payment up front represents commitment to the whole process and to the group.

Example budget : £350 covers the cost of venue @ £10 per hour (eg. Sunshine room – which pilot group used = £210 for 7 sessions of 3hrs each). This fee should be irrespective of venue choice, which means there is no pressure to use private homes. £5 is need for roll of thick wallpaper lining paper (submit receipt to ToL for reimbursement). Crayons, paints etc which might be used, to be brought by participants or facilitator. Refreshments should be provided by the group (pot luck or individually).

TUNE IN (5 mins)
CHECK IN – “How am I now?” (5 mins; 1 min per person)
LOGISTICS & AGREEMENTS – (10 mins)

• Dates, Location & Time of all sessions. The first group planned fortnightly sessions to enable journaling between sessions; the second group had weekly session which brought an intensity and focus, but feedback indicated that it was a little short. 10-14 day intervals preferable. The disadvantage is that people tend to renege on commitment and want to change dates; this proved very difficult in first group. Commitment to the group process is vital.
• Break arrangements; refreshments etc.
• Punctuality – crucial because of time pressure. Better that people bring breakfast with them than be late.
• Peer support group not Therapy session; check that everyone has access to a therapist if needed.
• Confidentiality and sacredness – Vital and sacrosanct, even after death. We also had an agreement that people would not extend the sessions by conversing about stories that had come up on departing, so as to preserve the possibility of further ‘digestion’ and healing.
• 3 aids – timeline, journal (could be tape, video, drawing, writing, computer, handwritten etc), notebook (to express thoughts which a person knows they don’t want to pass into perpetuity – ie to be destroyed). The 2nd group facilitators found it preferable to prepare timeline templates ahead of time, to hand out, with decades demarcated so that participants only had to infill.
• Important to emphasise that it’s highly unlikely that any one will complete their journaling to date by the end of the course; the amount that is done depends entirely on the person; self-responsibility.
• It may be necessary to limit the number of photographs shown (to say 6 per person relevant to the particular life segment they are sharing). The second group found this necessary.

INTRODUCTION to JOURNALING.
(Approx 30 mins for 1-4)

1. Emphasize that this process is about ‘living’ and not about ‘dying’.
2. Suggested attunement:
   “We are about to enter a journey in which we walk back into our lives to gather the fruits in our  arms, and bring them into the present, to nourish, inform and beautify our ongoing lives”.
   May the over lighting qualities / angels gather round us to enrich our endeavours –courage, insight, joy, gratitude, compassion, friendship, support, willingness ….. as contributed by others in group.
3. Invitation for all to choose an angel for their own journey but not to look at it (place it face down on the table), and one angel chosen for the group.
4. Take notebook; answer the following questions:
   a) What do (I) hope / expect to get from this process?
   b) Who is this for?
   c) On a scale of 1-10 how do (I) rate my level of Excitement; of Enthusiasm;
   of Fear/trepidation?
   d) Can (I) put a name to the fears?
5. Sharing – 5 mins each person. (30 mins in all) Need to have some way of gently calling ‘Time’ on a sharing; we used cards for 5 min and 2 min warning before indicating closure of Time by a hand gesture.
6. Angels turned; sharing about response to angel selection. (10-15 mins)

BREAK (20mins.)

May need to include some physical exercise as well as sharing refreshments.

TIMELINE PREPARATION: (25mins)
Introduce the concept of the Timeline, which is some kind of chart showing the years, onto which notes, images, reminders can be jotted as they are recalled in memory. Some people used this a lot, others hardly at all, but it helped even to create the Timeline. (Show an example of your own). Give about 20 mins to practical Timeline drawing up; can be finished later. Ask participants to block their lives into 5 segments, which do not have to be in equal numbers of years, by identifying when major turning points were. Some people chose to block their lives into ‘themes’. The Blocking is to apportion the next five sessions for journaling.

GETTING STARTED: (30 mins)
I read a poem about birth to introduce the concept of being conceived and being born. Without discussing further, participants were asked to start journaling their own birth in their notebooks. Time was given for each person to share something about what they had ‘discovered’ / written. The purpose is to get started not to complete, not even this section.

HOMEWORK: before next session (if possible and if wished), to journal the first segment.

Reminder: it’s up to each person what they put in and what they get out. Also that in the time available they will not be able to share all of what they have journaled, and each person will get 15 mins approx. – so need to think what part of their journaling / memories / insights they want to share. Reminder that they are doing this for ?? not for the group.

COMPLETION: Round of quick feedback, Confirm the next meeting date, closing attunement. (10 mins)

These sessions all followed the same format.

ATTUNEMENT

CHECK IN

ORDER OF SHARING – from a ‘pack’ of 6 cards offered face down, each participant drew a card with a placement for sharing. It was made clear that if someone felt strongly they didn’t want to ‘go first’ or ‘go last’ they could request that someone change position. It worked gracefully.

SHARINGS: each person (6) in all, had 15 mins for sharing something of what they had journaled. A timekeeper (2nd group used phone alarm) gave 5min and 2min warning. There was then a 5 mins space for questions / feedback IF the participant welcomed that. A short pause for standing up, shaking off, changing the energy before the next ‘sharing’. At about half time there was a 20 min break with refreshments. (2nd group found 10-15 min break was sufficient with people bringing drinks back to table)

It is important to make participants aware, before journal sharing starts that, for the person sharing, with so many stories re-stimulated, 15 mins will race by, and will seem very short indeed, even feel inadequate and disappointing. On the other hand, for the listeners it is a lot of listening. It is important to re-emphasise that this is an opportunity to share a ‘bite’ of what each has been experiencing, but the main work is not for the group, but for whomever they identified in Session 1.

CONFIRMING DATE, TIME AND VENUE FOR NEXT SESSION.

CLOSING ROUND AND TUNING OUT.

Whilst it was good to have a ‘shake off’ between each sharing, we found we didn’t really want or need a specific exercise or activity break. The intensity of sharing was considerable but the focus was generally very good and we all valued the time for that. Another group might not manage to sustain such a length of time without an activity break. Of course, the refreshment break provides something of that.

SESSION 6 give out feedback forms and ask that they be completed and brought back to the final session. These forms focus on feedback on structure and logistics, and doing it this way, gets it out of the way, and leaves much more time for the important completion process.

To prepare for the final, completion session, I asked each person to email to me as facilitator, by a certain date, a number of questions (eg. 3) they would like to ask about the course journey (not about logistics). I collated those into a list and sent them round, by e-mail, a few days before the completion session to give some focus to the intended completion sharing.

 ATTUNEMENT

CHECK IN ROUND

COLLECT COMPLETED FEEDBACK SHEETS

ORDER of SHARING

SHARINGS, with a 20mins refreshment break in middle. Each person had 10 mins sharing and 5 min change over.

NEXT STEPS?

ANYTHING ELSE?
Please re-iterate a request for others to be willing to lead groups to give the same experience to others.

FINAL CHECK IN

CLOSURE & TUNING OUT.

Send out contact lists of telephone numbers and e-mails if group wishes that.

Give to CCC Education coordinator:

• feedback forms for own learning, pass to CCC coordinator who will store them.
• your own reflective report on the course you led
• list of the names and contact details of participants, which they may want circulated.
• your own contact details
• a list of dates of sessions and venue hire for the records, and payment.
• Future leaders from the group?