Facilitator Guide

About Soul Seated Journey

Soul Seated Journey is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting emerging adults ages 18–29 from underserved and marginalized communities as they navigate a pivotal stage of life. We create experiences that help people better understand themselves, build meaningful connections, and move through the world with greater compassion, clarity, and steadiness. Grounded in both science and wisdom traditions, our approach brings together community, guided learning, and real-life practice.

We believe there is no one-size-fits-all path to growth. Soul Seated is designed as a connected ecosystem that brings together in-person immersive experiences, dedicated human support through our Care Team and guides, ongoing community, and thoughtfully built technology, to meet people where they are and support them over time.

We are committed to expanding access to spaces of belonging and growth, particularly for young adults who have had less access to the kinds of support, community, and guidance that make this stage of life more navigable. We design our work to be inclusive, culturally responsive, and grounded in the realities people are living.

About the Role

The Facilitator-Guide is the connective thread of Soul Seated Journey’s Care Team, a role that simultaneously holds the large group container and individual member relationships. You are equally skilled as a group facilitator who builds sacred, emotionally safe spaces for cohorts of emerging adults, and as a personal guide who walks alongside individual members through the most vulnerable passages of their journey. Reporting to the Training Lead and co-managed by the Practice Supervisor, you move fluidly across all of our program phases, bringing a consistent, trusted presence from a member’s very first encounter with SSJ through their life beyond the program.

You are also SSJ’s familiar face and caring heart in the wider community. The Discover Experiences you lead are not recruitment events; they are SSJ’s permanent community presence, genuinely valuable on their own terms and always open. Over time, you will also deliver these experiences at partner organizations, bringing SSJ’s approach into existing communities rather than waiting for people to find us.

What You’ll Do

Community Presence & Discover Experience Facilitation (25%)

You are often our first face in a person’s experience of Soul Seated Journey, a warm, skilled practitioner who ensures every person who steps into a Discover Experience walks away with something real, regardless of whether they return.

• Deliver ongoing SSJ Discover Experiences (60–90 minutes) for emerging adults in the San Jose / Bay Area community; ensure each session is complete and valuable on its own terms
• Build Discover community over time: recognize repeat attendees by name, create space for peer connection, and hold the essential 1:1 personal connection moment with each participant
• Expand SSJ’s community presence over time by delivering Discover Experiences at partner organizations, meeting people in existing communities rather than waiting for them to find us

Threshold Stewardship & Prepare (15%)

You convert fragile enrollment into grounded readiness — reducing the documented dropout risk between enrollment and Day 1 through relational presence.

• Lead the personal welcome and 1:1 check-in for each newly enrolled member, addressing remaining concerns and beginning the relational foundation
• Help members arrive at Day 1 with intention and courage, grounded in a genuine relationship with you
• Identify and respond to risk signals between enrollment and program start with attentive, warm outreach

Group Facilitation & Immerse (35%)

You hold the group container for the full 8-week immersion, building community, delivering core teachings, and guiding the cohort through both the opening trust arc and the transformative “messy middle.”

• Serve as the primary host and consistent group presence across all immersion sessions, creating and sustaining a sacred, emotionally safe container for learning and communal exploration
• Deliver core teachings in partnership with your co-Facilitator-Guide and guest instructors; lead rituals, establish group norms, and hold the cohort through trust-building and resistance
• Concurrently maintain your 1:1 Guide relationship with assigned members: check-ins focused on integration, meaning-making, and the inner work of the journey
• Leverage the dual role, group facilitation and individual guidance reinforce each other, and both are more effective because you hold them simultaneously

Integration Support & Activation (15%)

As members return to daily life, your role shifts from leading to supporting, helping them translate the program into lasting change rather than a closed chapter.

• Reduce session frequency and shift focus: from “what did you experience in the program?” to “how is the translation into your life actually going?”
• Surface accountability and application without driving; be available and present without taking over the member’s agency

Community Leadership & Contribution (5%)

As members step into peer advocacy and community leadership roles, you provide light-touch guidance that shapes what comes next for SSJ.

• Support members who are beginning to give back to the SSJ community as peer advocates and emerging leaders
• Contribute your on-the-ground perspective as a co-author of how this phase of the program evolves

Team Collaboration & Co-Creation (5%)

You work in close coordination with the full Care Team and contribute your field perspective to the iterative improvement of program quality.

• Coordinate with your co-Facilitator-Guide, Integrative Guides, Practice Supervisor, Community Manager, and Program Development leads
• Participate in pre-session briefings, weekly debriefs, and practice supervision
• Actively contribute to the testing and refinement of program materials, job aids, and digital tools based on direct member experience

What You Bring

Beyond credentials, we hire for how you show up. These are the qualities that make someone exceptional in this role: the things you cannot train or credential.

• You Hold Both Rooms: You Thrive with Groups and 1:1 Work

You are equally at home leading a room of 50 people through a transformative group experience and sitting one-on-one with a member in their most vulnerable moment. Your presence is what makes both more effective.

• You Live What You Teach: Your Presence Transmits

Your own practice is active, honest, and evolving. Members feel the difference between someone on a genuine path and someone performing wisdom. 

Embodied Compassion: People Feel Your Care

You are a practitioner of compassion and mindfulness as a way of being, not a technique. You bring a grounded, warm, and open presence to every interaction, and members feel the difference from the first session.

• Liberation Orientation: Liberation Orientation

Your practice actively centers equity and cultural safety. You hold a sophisticated, lived understanding of intersectional needs and the ways wellness spaces can harm as well as heal.

• You Thrive in the Alpha Stage: You Adaptable and Open to Uncertainty

You are energized by building something new, not just delivering something established. Evolving protocols, co-creation, and iteration are invitations, not liabilities, and you bring that spirit into every debrief, every session, and every contribution to what SSJ is becoming.

What We’re Looking For

The following qualifications describe what we expect in a successful candidate. These are skills and experiences — not personality traits.

Must-Have

• Minimum 10 years of professional facilitation experience in wellness, healing arts, spiritual development, or a closely related field
• Demonstrated lived experience within and in service of BIPOC or LGBTQ communities, particularly youth and emerging adults
• Proven experience facilitating in trauma-informed frameworks across both group and individual settings
• Demonstrated range across multiple modalities — facilitation, coaching, spiritual accompaniment, expressive arts, or similar — with genuine depth, not a generalist breadth
• Strong written and verbal communication: the ability to hold warmth, depth, and clarity simultaneously across all touchpoints

Experience & Capabilities

• Group Facilitation: Proven ability to build and sustain emotionally safe containers for groups of varying sizes, backgrounds, and readiness levels across multi-week program arcs
• Cultural Attunement: Demonstrated experience in culturally responsive, healing-centered practice with BIPOC or LGBTQ communities in community-based or spiritual settings
• Individual Guidance: Documented experience in 1:1 supportive relationship structures — including integration-focused check-ins, meaning-making conversations, and accompaniment through life transitions
• Program Collaboration: History of working within team-based delivery models, including co-facilitation, structured peer supervision, and collaborative curriculum refinement

Nice to Have

• Experience working specifically with Gen Z or emerging adult (ages 18–29) populations in structured program contexts
• Existing relationships with Bay Area community organizations, wellness spaces, or spiritual communities
• Familiarity with digital community platforms (Circle, Slack, or similar) for participant communication and engagement
• Background in expressive arts, somatic modalities, or other body-centered practices

Application

To apply, please complete our application form:  https://forms.gle/X6nkoR4i1ByisZvK6

Our Commitment to Equity

Soul Seated Journey is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from BIPOC, LGBTQ , and other historically underrepresented communities. We believe personal transformation is for everyone, and our team should reflect the diverse communities we serve. We intentionally seek to build a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. Practitioners with demonstrated depth and non-linear career histories are strongly encouraged to apply.