Toolbox — For Training and Youth Work
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Group Building Activity
Somatic Movement: A Body-Oriented Toolkit for the Stages of Group Development
A practical toolkit that pairs each stage of the Tuckman group-development model with a body-oriented (somatic) practice that youth workers can use to support and strengthen the groups they facilitate. Includes an interactive video component.
Aims of the tool
To equip youth workers, trainers and facilitators with concrete, body-based tools for recognising and supporting each stage of a group's development.
To introduce somatic and movement-based practices (dance, mindfulness, grounding, forest bathing, physical-connection exercises) as accessible, low-barrier methods for building cohesion, preventing and managing conflict, and fostering resilience and well-being in youth groups.
To promote a more embodied, mental-health-informed approach to non-formal education and youth work.
Description of the tool
This toolkit was co-created by youth workers from eight European countries during the Erasmus+ training course "Somatic Movement" (KA153-YOU). It is structured around the five stages of the Tuckman model of group development. For each stage — forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning — the toolkit offers a practical, ready-to-use body-oriented activity designed to help facilitators respond to the specific dynamics of that stage: building trust and safety in the forming stage, navigating tension in the storming stage, consolidating cohesion in norming, sustaining collaboration in performing, and closing the group experience meaningfully in adjourning. Each tool includes step-by-step facilitation guidance and is complemented by an interactive video that demonstrates the practice. The methods are transferable across age groups and contexts, require minimal materials, and rely on the universal language of movement, breath, and embodied presence — making them especially suitable for working with vulnerable or marginalised young people and in multilingual settings.
Disclaimer
SALTO cannot be held responsible for the inappropriate use of these training tools. Always adapt training tools to your aims, context, target group and to your own skills! These tools have been used in a variety of formats and situations. Please notify SALTO should you know about the origin of or copyright on this tool.
Tool overview
http://toolbox.salto-youth.net/5764
This tool is for
Youth workers, group facilitators, trainers and educators working with groups of young people in non-formal education settings — including those working with vulnerable, marginalised or fewer-opportunity youth. Indirectly, the young people taking part in the groups these practitioners facilitate.
and addresses
Social Inclusion, Group Dynamics
Behind the tool
The tool was created by
Developed collaboratively by the eight partner organisations of the Erasmus+ project "Somatic Movement" (KA153-YOU), coordinated by Avec Nous la Fabrique des Territoires (France). Copyright owner: Avec Nous la Fabrique des Territoires / the project consor
The tool was published to the Toolbox by
Hanane Kesraoui (on 10 June 2026)
and last modified
9 June 2026
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