How I Learned to Hold Space (and what changed everything)

When I first stepped into the role of facilitator, I thought my job was to stay in control and keep things moving. What I’ve learned since is that great facilitation isn’t about control at all - it’s about valuing people, building trust, and creating the conditions where genuine connection can happen.

About ten years ago, I pivoted School of the Wild away from running nature-based activities for individuals, to creating programmes for teams - and stepped, somewhat nervously, into the role of facilitator.

I hadn’t had any formal facilitation training. I did have a mentor, Kanada Gorla, who helped me plan sessions and who introduced me to the dimensions of facilitation - though that didn’t really make sense to me at the time.

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