Facilitator Code of Conduct

1. Scope of the Role

A Heart iQ facilitator offers experiential, educational, and somatic work grounded in the Heart iQ methodology. Our role is to create the conditions in which participants can meet themselves more honestly. Our role is not to diagnose mental health conditions, prescribe or alter medication, provide psychotherapy in the clinical sense, or offer legal, medical, or financial advice.

Where a participant presents a concern that exceeds our scope, we are required to name the limit of what we can offer and support the participant in accessing appropriate care, including qualified clinical support, medical attention, or crisis services. Staying inside our scope is not a failure of warmth. It is a protection.

Facilitators hold themselves to the edges of their own training. A facilitator who has not completed specific trauma training does not offer trauma therapy. A facilitator who has not completed bodywork training does not offer bodywork. When in doubt, we refer.

2. Boundaries Between Facilitator and Participant

2.1 Sexual and romantic conduct

Facilitators do not initiate, pursue, or accept sexual, romantic, or dating relationships with current participants. This applies during programs, retreats, residencies, coaching engagements, and any period in which the facilitator holds an active teaching or supervisory role with the participant.

A minimum twelve (12) month no-contact window applies between the end of a formal facilitator-participant relationship and the beginning of any personal, romantic, or sexual relationship. The no-contact window is a floor, not a ceiling; longer windows may apply where the power differential was especially pronounced, such as with lead teachers of multi-year trainings.

The responsibility for maintaining this boundary rests fully with the facilitator, regardless of who initiates. "The participant said yes" is not a defence.

2.2 Dual relationships

Facilitators avoid dual relationships with participants wherever possible. A dual relationship exists when the facilitator holds a role beyond teaching (business partner, employer, landlord, close personal friend, family member) with someone they are also facilitating.

Where a pre-existing dual relationship is unavoidable (for example, facilitating inside an organisation the participant belongs to), the facilitator names it openly, discusses it in supervision, and where appropriate arranges for a colleague to take the lead on the participant's direct work.

2.3 Financial conduct

A facilitator does not use the teaching relationship as leverage. That means no soliciting loans, investments, or significant personal gifts from current or recent participants, and no recruiting participants into a facilitator's unrelated business ventures, MLM structures, or personal projects during an active teaching engagement.

Gifts of nominal value offered at the close of a program are acceptable. Gifts of non-nominal value (cash, property, vehicles, jewellery, international travel) are declined.

Separately from this, the broader Heart iQ community may from time to time invite members to contribute to community initiatives, join a community cooperative, support community-led projects, or participate in gifting / reciprocal-benefit arrangements among themselves. Those are community activities held at the community level, not an extension of the facilitator-participant relationship. Facilitators do not personally solicit, and the standards above apply to any individual teaching relationship regardless of parallel community activity.

2.4 Touch and physical contact

All facilitator-initiated touch is preceded by explicit, verbal, on-the-spot consent, not blanket consent signed at registration. Consent is understood as ongoing, revisable, and revocable without justification. A participant's "no" or non-response is treated as a "no" and is met without negotiation, explanation, or consequence.

Touch that is sexual in nature, or that would reasonably be interpreted as sexual, is outside the scope of facilitation at Heart iQ, regardless of perceived therapeutic framing.

2.5 Confidentiality

What participants share in programs stays in programs. Facilitators do not disclose participant-identifying material to other participants, to social or professional networks, or in teaching contexts (even anonymised) without clear prior consent. Exceptions apply where disclosure is required by law (mandatory reporting of imminent harm, abuse of a minor, safeguarding duties) and these exceptions are named to participants at intake.

3. Power and Accountability

3.1 Naming the power differential

Facilitators hold meaningful asymmetric power in the participant relationship. We acknowledge this explicitly rather than flatten it with language like "we're all just human" or "there's no hierarchy here." Horizontality is a value; it is not a fact of the room.

We are particularly attentive to the additional layers of power that show up across lines of race, gender, class, sexuality, disability, language, immigration status, and age. A facilitator who does not see those dynamics is a facilitator who cannot hold them.

3.2 Supervision and peer review

We are moving toward a model in which every Heart iQ facilitator is in active supervision — a named supervisor, regular recurring sessions, and case discussion that is honest rather than performative — with lead facilitators additionally engaging in peer review of their practice: observation, feedback, and challenge from respected colleagues.

We're not fully there yet. What we can say today is that Christian supervises the current facilitation team directly, and that building out formal external supervision and structured peer review is one of our active priorities for 2026.

See Supervision & Accreditation for where this is heading and what's in place right now.

3.3 Personal practice

Facilitators maintain their own therapy, coaching, or inner-work practice. We do not expect of participants what we will not undertake ourselves. A facilitator who has not been in the participant seat recently is a facilitator who has forgotten how much the seat asks.

3.4 Self-disclosure and use of story

Facilitator self-disclosure serves the participant, not the facilitator. We share our stories when they illuminate the work and invite participants into their own experience, not to process our own material, win approval, or re-centre ourselves in a participant's moment.

4. Breach and Remedy

Where a facilitator becomes aware that they have fallen short of this code, the expectation is self-disclosure to their supervisor and, where warranted, to Heart iQ leadership. Concealment is treated as a more serious breach than the original conduct.

Where a participant, colleague, or third party raises a concern about a facilitator's conduct, the matter is handled through the Heart iQ Grievance Process. Outcomes may include: required additional supervision or training, restrictions on the facilitator's role, suspension from teaching, termination of contract, and, in cases involving illegal conduct or serious safeguarding failures, referral to relevant authorities and accrediting bodies.

Retaliation against anyone who raises a concern, supports someone who has raised a concern, or cooperates with an investigation is itself a breach of this code. We do not investigate anonymously-submitted concerns quietly and forget about them; we document, we respond, and where the reporter has given a contact route, we close the loop.

5. Signing and Review

This code is signed at the start of every facilitator contract, at the start of every residency cohort, and at the start of every training intake. It is reviewed annually, and updates are published at heartiq.org/ethics with change notes.

If you believe a Heart iQ facilitator has breached this code, please reach out via the Grievance Process or email connect@heartiq.org.