Participant Centered facilitate group discussion (FGD):

Talk, Listen, and Connect (TLC)

Sinki Ho

WIC Head Nutritionist

Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

Your thoughts on FGD

• What does an effective group mean to you?

• What are your concern and challenge?

From traditional to new approach in WIC

• Provide fact-based information vs. emotion-based

• Remain professional like a teacher vs. group discussions to connect participants

• Distribute handouts to use images to connect

Characteristics of Effective Groups

• Clear and consistent group goal

• Active participation

• Clear communication

• Listen to others

• Share ideas

• Safety and trust

• Good leadership

Purpose of FGD

• Provide an opportunity for participants to learn in a pleasant, informal atmosphere

• Encourage participants to educate each other by discussing their knowledge of a topic and sharing real-life experience

• Built self-esteem

• Enable participants to give and receive support about their concern and make desired behavior change

Role of the Facilitator

• Make others what they need to do easily

Create a safe and comfortable environment

As a person to initiate and moderate the group

Guides the discussion

Mindful participants needs and interests

Clear with the compents of FGD

Well-prepared

Components of FGD/TLC

Take about 15-20 minutes long

4-8 participants but can be 2-10

• Open

• Share and Connect

• Summarize and Act

• Emphasis on feelings and experiences

Opening the session

• Introduction: greeting, introduce yourself and the group

• Conversation Starters: ask Open-Ended Questions

– Can not be answered with a ‘yes’ and ‘no’ or a specific question

– Sample starters: What…When…How…Where…Tell me about…

Share and Connect

Affirmation: validate speaker’s effort, experience, and strength -> encourage sharing- ‘Thank you for sharing. Good job! Keep it up!’

Generalizing: normalize speaker’s experience, feeling and perception -> help challenging questions or statements, encourage sharing- ‘A lot of participants…’

Paraphrasing: use your own words to restate message -> check understanding, validate the participant- ‘Do you mean…? What I heard from you…?’

Summarizing

• Bring ideas together

• Facilitator can highlight ideas and points made in the group

• Repeat relevant information

• Get back on focus

Act

• Ask participants for something they are taking away from the group

– What may you try this week/month?

– What is one new thing you heard or learnt today?

Group behaviors

• Emotion triggers behavior change

• We want them to change their challenging behaviors but not the person

• We encourage a positive experience for participants

Preparation

• Topic

• Introduction

• Conversation starter

• Statement of ACT

Any Question?

Thank You for your listening and participation!