Trainers with less experience are particularly afraid of silence during a workshop, but there is no need for fear. If you do not understand why the group is silent, ask them, don’t make presumptions. If everyone becomes quiet after a powerful experiential exercise, they are probably processing their emotions and you will need to choose the method best suited to continuing work and enabling people to become involved again. Sometimes the silence comes from a lack of motivation to deal with a topic, but this is rarely the case. Most often, it’s a matter of matching the method to the energy level in the room. It is also worth noting that when individuals keep quiet during a workshop, that need not mean that they are passive; on the contrary, it may be a sign of internal turmoil.
