Method guide · Progress through phases
Feelings meeting
Listen to first-person feelings without decisions, advice, or diagnosis, in a voluntary and confidential session with exit and support choices.
- People
- 3–12
- Base procedure time
- 90 minutes
- Recording
- No record
Purpose: Explore through dialogue; Build working relationships.
English guide
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How this method works
A dialogue method for setting decisions and advice aside and listening to one another's first-person feelings only. First agree confidentiality, passing, breaks, stopping, leaving, and how to move to professional support. Begin by speaking or passing about life outside the group, then move to feelings within the group. Do not assess whether feelings are right, pursue causes, or begin developing action proposals. The shared object indicates only speaking order; do not record contributions, passing, or use of support. Even at the end, do not decide actions; check only rest and support services. Do not use this during a psychological crisis, where confidentiality cannot be maintained, or where participation is mandatory as an employment requirement.
Phase schedule
Minutes are cumulative from the start of the base plan, not a live timer. Read scaling for any additional time. Phase controls do not advance automatically.
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- Confirm the purpose of attending only to feelings0–10 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Check. Participation: One voluntarily participating group.
No record
- Agree confidentiality, passing, and leaving10–20 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Agree. Participation: One voluntarily participating group.
No record
- Speak in the first person about life outside the group20–45 minutes from the start (25 minutes)
Action: Speak. Participation: One voluntarily participating group.
No record
- Listen to feelings within the group45–80 minutes from the start (35 minutes)
Action: Listen. Participation: One voluntarily participating group.
No record
- Close without decisions, checking only support routes80–90 minutes from the start (10 minutes)
Action: Close. Participation: One voluntarily participating group.
No record
Facilitation steps
- For 10 minutes, confirm the purpose of listening only to feelings, without decisions, advice, or diagnosis.
- For 10 minutes, agree confidentiality, passing, breaks, stopping, leaving, and how to move to professional support.
- For 25 minutes, speak in the first person about life outside the group or pass, listening without evaluating one another.
- For 35 minutes, move to feelings within the group and speak or pass in the order indicated by the shared object.
- For 10 minutes, do not decide actions; check only needed rest and professional support, and close without recording content.
If something changes
If
Even one person shows a pass, break, or leave card.
Then
Accept the choice without asking why, leaving whether to return and the time of resumption to that person too.
If
There is even one disclosure of severe distress, self-harm, harm to others, or abuse.
Then
Stop the meeting. Do not leave the facilitator to handle it alone; connect to the professional support and safety procedures decided beforehand.
If
There is at least one call for an employment decision or immediate decision based on a contribution.
Then
Move the decision to another meeting, and do not record the contribution or repurpose it as decision evidence without the person's consent.
Preparation
Materials
- One shared object per group to indicate speaking order
- One pass/break/leave card per person
- One professional-support and advice-service notice per group
Room and setup
- A place where people can choose leaving or a break and conversations cannot be overheard from outside
Adjust for people and time
One session consists of 3–12 voluntary participants. Do not allocate 13 or more people to small groups on the day. Only if units with existing relationships of trust separately request this, run them at separate times with separate facilitators. Do not take contributions, groupings, passing, leaving, or use of support outside the session, or combine feelings from several sessions into one conclusion.
Safety and non-applicable situations
Participation must be voluntary, with confidentiality and choices to pass, rest, stop, or leave, without explaining why. Do not diagnose, judge feelings, or turn the session into decisions or action planning. Do not use this for a psychological crisis or mandatory employment participation. Stop for severe distress, self-harm, harm to others, or abuse and connect to pre-arranged professional support and safety procedures. Do not record or share contributions or support use, and do not repurpose contributions as decision evidence without consent.
Historical translation and source notes
These original notes are retained verbatim with their fixed source versions. This historical label does not resolve a source-specific concern or establish current acceptance.
- The guide prohibits recording contributions, while the third branch prohibits recording or decision reuse without consent. The source does not explicitly say that consent overrides the general no-recording rule, and the translation does not infer such an exception.
Manuscript's recorded references
These translate the original manuscript's source and rights claims. They remain separate from any current-page notice below; they do not establish new verification.
- Seeds for Change Facilitation Tools: Feelings meeting
https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/tools
anti-copyright adaptation; changes made
- Conditions for applying anti-copyright
https://www.seedsforchange.org.uk/resources
anti-copyright
Seeds for Change: source and reuse conditions
This page adapts the Seeds for Change facilitation guide linked in the manuscript's references. This site's wording, facilitation plan and illustrations are adaptations, not an official Seeds publication. The English text translates this site's Japanese adaptation.
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The source also asks translators to let Seeds know so it can link to their translations. No contact or notification has been made for this candidate; this notice does not imply one.
Seeds for Change — Facilitation Tools / Official reuse conditions
Diagram, print, and video language
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Editorial provenance
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