Open Sentences allows us to honor our pain with each other as we embark on healing. Open Sentences may be done in the context of organizations, families, and community groups. All involved respond to a prompt that allows them to honestly state their reactions in a simple sentence. Examples of prompts include:
I feel most distressed at work when …
My values are contradicted when I have to …
I am demoralized when working on this effort because …
The person speaking is given a minute or so to continue while the others remain silent. Then another person speaks. This practice allows deeply held issues to be shared in trust that they will be acknowledged and validated. There is no attempt to argue, advise, or fix. Honoring the pain expressed, the group can measure any intervention meant to heal divides by assessing whether it respects the particular pain points of those affected.
— Jennie A. McLaurin in How to Heal Our Divides, Volume 2 by Brian Allain (editor), Adam Thomas (editor)