How well did the facilitator lead the group and create a safe space? Please explain and give examples.
Very well, indeed. Good presence, warm welcome. Thoughtful, affirming, reciprocal and encouraging feedback of participant input. Good, collegial acknowledgement of co-facilitator. All of these factors help create a space in which participants feel free to be themselves and share freely. Good going to group for question from participant, communicating the value of their input and insights.
How well did the facilitator explain this Skill using the PowerPoint presentation? Please give examples.
Good going to group first for definition of empathy, and good returning to the CIT definition after a bit of a wide arc as people struggled with confusion over the differences between sympathy and empathy. Good reminder of the innate/biological component of affective empathy (good use of yawning and running in response to another's unknown fear reaction as examples of empathy contagion) and the connection to/difference between cognitive empathy. Good use of personal struggle (with firefighter tragedy in your community), which can create safety through a sense of authenticity, and avoided potential triggering by focusing in on the resilience that had been re-discovered/maintained as a result of using CIT skills.
How well did the facilitator explain and lead the activities in this Skill? Please explain and give specific examples.
Good set up of Empathy Line activity as well as safe space reminder about withholding judgment of others for where they choose to locate themselves along the empathy continuum.
How well did the facilitator lead the Mindful Dialogues and Reflective Writing Exercises in this Skill? Please explain and give specific examples.
Very well, especially for Mindful Dialogues. The set up was clear and included reminders for both maintaining a safe space and that MD pairs would be accountability partners for the upcoming week.
What aspects of this Skill did you think the facilitator did exceptionally well? Please give examples.
Good "moving on" when a pause was available and group sharing could have derailed getting through the material. Hard, but necessary, to do sometimes. Excellent engagement of participants, including going to them first for input when introducing new slides/material, affirming their feedback, and asking "anything else" each time, repeatedly and naturally. Excellent going back to previous skills and their applicability in taking us from Empathic Distress to Empathic Concern.
And, totally and completely rocked it in light of the fact you weren't feeling well.
How well did the facilitator lead the Contemplative Practice in this Skill? Please explain and give specific examples.
NA
What aspects of this Skill could the facilitator improve? Please give examples.
Empathy Line exercise might have better benefited participants understanding of malleability of empathy by asking about their reasons for positioning themselves as they did on the continuum. Sharing of firefighter tragedy could have benefitted from a trigger warning but this was mitigated by the excellent use of CIT skills in restoring and maintaining resilience even in the face of tragedy. Could have benefitted from relating back to Skills 2-4, in addition to Skill 1 (where we tend to get stuck because it's the first one we learn and is so helpful).
With regard to participant equating self-focused Empathic Distress with shaming people for being self-focused, could have been emphasized that Empathic Distress is natural, born of self-protection, and there is no need to connect it with shame.