Difficult Dialogue
I had a great experience facilitating the Difficult Dialogue event in the Fall of 2011. I was taking Comm 105P, Self and Society, with Professor Holopainen. Part of the curriculum included getting into groups with other students to organize a discussion about important topics that are rarely explored. Topics ranged from suicide, depression to campus safety or things like racism. We had a lot of freedom choosing what we wanted to talk about, so we ended up designing our event around the discussion of alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses.
The purpose of this event was not to debate the ethics or legality of the issue, but to facilitate a better understand of a topic by having a safe environment for discussion. Students were encouraged to disclose their thoughts or experiences knowing that they would not be judged for what they say, as their experiences would contribute to the group's collective understanding. While participators were encouraged to talk and share experiences, the facilitator's, like myself and fellow students, were in charge of keeping the converstation productive and all inclusive.
This reminded me of the discussion of Self Disclosure in Chapter 8 of the textbook. In our discussions, people were initially reluctant in sharing experiences with drugs or alcohol. We were all strangers at a table, and it was up to the facilitator to invoke a "sense of feeling as though you both contribute to and benefit by the relationship. (154)" After introductions and some general questions, people began to trust one another. After establishing the sense of interdependency, participators began to open up about themselves.
