We’re trying out using hand gestures as a way of responding to what someone is saying without interrupting them. Sometimes when someone is describing their experience we want to let them know that we feel sympathy for them, or that we’ve shared similar experiences. That’s really welcome, but it can result in attention being pulled away from the speaker, or the conversation getting side-tracked. We’re trying out using some simple hand gestures that hopefully, will allow us to express how we feel without drawing attention from the person speaking. The hand gestures are most useful when we are taking it in turns to give short answers, or describe an experience. The facilitator should explain and demonstrate the gestures at least once each meeting.
The hand gestures:
- a hand on the heart to convey empathy
- jazz hands to show agreement or enthusiasm
- a waggled hand to indicate you’re not sure if this is still on topic