Processing an experience helps create meaning and understanding. Here's how to do it.

Processing an experience helps create meaning and understanding both personally and between those who sharted it. 

Had a fight about getting lost? Summitted a long-sough-after peak? Someone got injured? Finished a big trip? Good or bad, debriefing is an important part of the experience. 

Use I statements to avoid making assumptions. about others’ perspectives: ‘I felt…’, ‘I saw…’, ‘For me…’.

In difficult situations, writing down or reflecting alone before coming together as a group can stop your perspective of events being warped by others.

So What?

The meaning in what happened. How did it make you feel? How did people treat other? What was the significance of the event? 

Now what?

Moving forward. What did you learn? What would you change next time? What did you do well? What support might you need now? 

What?

Objective statements. The facts. What happened? What did you see? What was the timeline?