FTHub ACADEMY COURSE
Facilitating Groups in Nature: Managing Dynamics in Open Spaces
- THEME 3
- TRACK 5
SELF-PACED · ONLINE
- 3–5 hours
- 5 modules
- 1 video
- Certificate of Completion
- 1-year access
- Level: Intermediate
- English
99 €
49 €
Curated by
Marta Grabowska
By the end of this course, you will be able to design and facilitate group sessions that hold cohesion, audibility, and equal contribution for groups of 8 to 28 participants in open, unbounded outdoor environments.
Outcomes
What you'll gain
- Read an open outdoor space for facilitation: measure your unraised and raised voice radius, identify the gathering point, the visible zone, and the drift gradient of any site before designing a session.
- Apply Hall’s Proxemic Zones and Tuckman’s Group Development Stages to choose spacing, sequencing, and verbal cues that suit groups of 8 to 28 in unbounded environments.
- Design a complete session that oscillates deliberately between gathered, close, spoken phases and dispersed, silent phases, using a structured dispersal and reconvening sequence.
- Manage dominance, withdrawal, and social loafing through structural choices (sharing format, defined radius, reconvening signal) rather than personal interventions in the moment.
- Communicate the evidence base for outdoor group facilitation to hosts, referrers, and commissioners using a one-page Evidence Summary Card and pre-session briefings for clinical, educational, and outdoor or tourism contexts.
Audience
Who is this course for?
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Forest Bathing and Forest Therapy guides: Deepen your ability to hold cohesion in larger outdoor groups, with structural tools that work in open environments where close-circle methods do not apply.
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Retreat leaders and wellness tourism guides: Add structured group-facilitation skills to your nature-based programs, with ready-to-use session designs and pre-session briefings for clinical, educational, and outdoor or tourism contexts.
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Outdoor educators and nature-based group facilitators: Bring evidence-informed group management (proxemics, voice acoustics, group development) into your outdoor sessions, with a Professional Tools Package you can use with real groups from the next session onward.
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Prerequisite: an existing qualification in nature-based facilitation (Forest Bathing Guide, Forest Therapy Practitioner, or equivalent) and prior experience facilitating groups outdoors.
Course Framework
Course structure
Experience first, then evidence, then application, then commitment. The module structure is the product.
0Orientation
- Course overview and the skill you will produce
- How to use the course (sequence, practice log, professional intention)
- Self-assessment of your current group facilitation baseline
- Setting your professional intention
- Practice log template
1Foundation
- The Open-Space Reading Walk: a 25-minute field exercise
- Reflection on what you observed, written before reading the theory
- Proxemics and the geometry of outdoor groups (Hall, 1966)
- Group development and social facilitation in open spaces (Tuckman; Zajonc)
- Knowledge check
2Deep Dive
- Voice, acoustics, and the audibility radius (Truax; Schafer)
- Reading and redirecting group dynamics: dominance, withdrawal, social loafing (Bales, Latane, Forsyth)
- Extended practice: dispersal and reconvening
- Reflection and Professional Context Worksheet
- Knowledge check
3Application
- Worked example: a fully annotated 60-minute session in a real open park
- Design Your Own session for your named group and site
- Integrative practice: rehearsing your design
- Reflection on your design choices
- Self-Assessment Rubric (unlocks the Professional Tools Package)
4Integration
- Integration reading: holding a group in an open space
- Final reflection compared with your Module 0 baseline
- 30-day action plan with three dated commitments
- What I Learned competency checklist
- Certificate of completion
5Module
6Module
7Module
8Module
9Module
10Module
COURSE TOOLS
Professional Tools Package
Included in every course. These are not learning exercises — they are working documents you use with your clients, referrers, and colleagues. Available from Module 3.
-
Activity Template
Complete facilitation script with timing, safety notes, and debrief questions. Three duration variants. -
Evidence Summary
Plain-language summary of findings and citations. For clients, HR, and referrers. -
Adaptation Framework
Checklist for adapting across client populations, environments (nature/urban/indoor), and group sizes. -
Client Communication Template
Ready-to-use briefing text for three professional contexts: clinical/health, educational, and tourism/outdoor.
Learning Pathway
Theme & Tracks
Where this course sits — and where it takes you next. This course is part of the following Theme and Professional Track(s).
Theme 3: Outdoor Session Design and Facilitation
Curator
About the instructor
Marta Grabowska
Trainer (Poland)
Marta holds a degree in Social Sciences from Warsaw University and a postgraduate qualification in Coaching and Mentoring. She is a certified Breathworker, Holistic Trainer, and Forest Bathing Guide. As the founder of House of Breath, she helps people discover the transformative benefits of conscious breathing through both online and in-person experiences. Marta created Breathwork Circles for Women to foster acceptance, freedom, and trust, while promoting wellbeing through breath and nature connection. With several years of experience in international business environments, she brings a multicultural perspective to her work and is fluent in both Polish and English.
Evidence Base
Grounded in peer-reviewed science
Why this matters for your practice
FTHub Academy courses are evidence-informed at every step. The evidence is not decorative — each module connects theory to field practice using the same scientific frameworks underpinning the FTHub Method.
SELF-PACED · ONLINE
- 3–5 hours
- 5 modules
- 1 video
- Certificate of Completion
- 1-year access
- Level: Intermediate
- English
99 €
49 €
Curated by
Marta Grabowska
Access
How to access this course
Three entry points — choose the one that fits where you are right now.
Individual purchase
49 €
99 €
- 1-year access
- Completion certificate
- Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
FTHub Academy Pro Monthly
60 €
/mo
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FTHub Academy Pro Annual
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/yr
- Full library + Theme 11
- Completion certificate
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- Downloadable practice materials + Professional Tools Package
- Monthly Live Online Call
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Student Reviews
Ratings & Testimonials
4.9
Based on 312 reviews
5
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"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
“
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
“
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
"Placeholder — short, outcome-specific quote from a practitioner who launched their practice after FBG certification."
Betty Fang
International Projects Director
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