Working with groups is not necessarily facilitation, though many people use this term to describe what they do. Facilitation involves understanding what the group are trying to achieve, i.e. the group's purpose, and then helping the group to do what it wants, with the minimum of interference in the group process.

I strongly believe that facilitation, as defined above, is more about the way the facilitator is, and less about what they do; more about attending to what is happening in the group, than making things happen; more about increasing the group's awareness of their own process, than determining what that process should be.

So a simple definition might be -

It might be useful at this point to define what I mean by group process and how this differs from group dynamics. Group process is the way that the group members interrelate and focus on what they are doing, and this develops over time. Group dynamics covers the moment-to-moment events that happen and emerge from and within the group process.

Gestalt facilitation enables connection, interrupts unhelpful patterns of behaviour, and allows the group to build the foundations they need for progress and growth. We tend to focus on:

Presence; the essence of facilitation
Working with what the group brings, rather than our own agenda
Working in the moment with the unfolding group process
Creating an atmosphere of engagement - building a relationship with the group