In 2016, in Switzerland, we filmed an open city meeting where residents of the city, with the help of psychologists-facilitators, discussed their fears about accepting refugees in the city. We were impressed by the work of psychologists, the ability of a group to come to an experience of cohesion through the expression of different points of view and feelings. As a result, we wanted to learn more about the method. In the summer of 2022, we visited psychologist Rainey Hauser and asked in detail about the format of such work with a group called the open forum. Rainey Hauser and his wife, psychologist Ekaterina Skvortsova, shared their theory, experience, feelings and hopes with us.

Facilitation services (from the English facilitate — to help, facilitate, promote). Facilitation differs from management in that its method is non-directive and does not go beyond the self-organization of the system. Facilitation, as a psychological technique, helps to reveal in the group and the client the natural abilities that they use unconsciously.
Open forums — these are public meetings aimed at developing public dialogue and addressing issues that cause polarization, creating a community by bringing together different people and points of view.

This space is created in order to listen, agree and disagree, and support direct nonviolent interactions between participants. Open forums draw attention to the need for relationships between people with opposing viewpoints to increase understanding of others ' experiences and reduce hostility in society.
The methodology for facilitating open forums was developed in detail by Arnold Mindell, a Doctor of psychology from the USA. The facilitator's focus is on realizing that helping the world is about learning about yourself, not seeking change.
Open forums are one of the most powerful forms of dialogue that have come from ancient times. This is a free space between "truth" and "untruth", "right" and "wrong", "bad" and "good", "our" and "enemy", where each person involved has the opportunity to express their thoughts and emotions, express their pain, aggression, depression, joy, anger, gratitude is everything that will allow the group to express different voices and opinions, discover hot spots, clarify polarities, overcome conflicts, get closer to each other and move on. Open forums are internal work for groups. Maintaining an open forum requires a special skill of the moderator.
You can read about how to prepare and conduct open forums in A. Mindell's book "DEEP DEMOCRACY OF OPEN FORUMS".