Hjarta mitt sló með þessum krökkum : reynsla leiðbeinenda af hópvinnu með ungmennum úti í náttúrunni

Abstract

Á síðustu árum hefur krafa aukist um fagmennsku og árangur í faglegu starfi leiðbeinenda í hópvinnu. Starfrækt hafa verið hér á landi tvö meðferðarúrræði fyrir börn og unglinga tengd hugmyndafræði ævintýrameðferðar. Úrræðin hafa verið kennd við aðferðir reynslunáms sem felast í því að hópurinn vinnur helst úti í náttúrunni og er ígrundun viðamikill þáttur starfsins. Markmiðið er að hópurinn og einstaklingarnir þroskist með því að taka þátt í ferli og læri af þeirri reynslu sem þar býðst. Að lokum er reynslan ígrunduð og yfirfærð á önnur lífsverkefni. Leiðbeinendur sem beita aðferðum reynslunáms úti undir berum himni þurfa að búa yfir fjölþættri hæfni og reynslu af starfi með fólki. Í greininni er leitast við að svara því hvaða þekkingu og tilfinningalegu hæfni leiðbeinendur sem vinna hópvinnu úti í náttúrunni þurfi að búa yfir til þess að ná árangri. Greinin er byggð á niðurstöðum rannsóknar á reynslu fagmanna sem hafa leitt meðferðarhópa fyrir börn og unglinga. Í niðurstöðum kom fram að samspil góðrar menntunar, reynslu og persónulegra eiginleika, eins og seiglu og þess að búa yfir eldmóði, væru þættir sem líklegir væru til að skila árangri. Viðmælendur voru sammála um að það væri krefjandi en jafnframt mjög gefandi verkefni að vinna meðferðarvinnu úti í náttúrunni með hópi unglinga sem væru að kljást við sálfélagslega erfiðleika. Áhrif starfsins væru slík að segja mætti að enginn kæmi samur til baka eftir slíka reynslu. Niðurstöðurnar mætti hafa til hliðsjónar þegar verið er að byggja upp starfsmenntun fyrir verðandi fagmenn sem koma til með að starfa með börnum og ungmennum.

In Iceland, two programs for young people that can be called adventure therapy have been run successfully. Adventure therapy is used here as aconcept that includes therapy methods that are based on experiential learning. Adventure therapy is defined in various ways but has the common denominator is that the therapy takes place outdoors, in nature.In Iceland there have been run two programs that can be called adventure therapy. Firstly there has been the Highlanders group, run by the city of Reykja-vík and secondly a Adventure group run by the childrens and youth psychiatry department of the national hospital. The programs have been based on methods of experiential learning that include working mainly in the outdoors with great emphasize on reflection. The goal for the group and the individual participants is to grow by taking part in a process and learning from the experience. Finally the experience is reflected on and the learning from that is transferred to other life tasks. The youth workers who base their work on experiential learning usually have multiple skills and experience. The article attempts to identify what sort of knowledge and emotional compe-tence group facilitators who work in natural surroundings need to have in order for programs to have good outcomes. The article is based on findings from re-search with group facilitators on their experience in leading children’s and young people’s therapy groups. The findings indicate that the interplay between quality eduation, experience and personal qualities such as resilience and passion for working with children and young people are factors that likely influence good program outcomes.Data was collected autumn 2014 with semistructured focus groups interviewing. The goal of the research was to analyse what qualities youth workers need, according to themselves, when working with groups on the basis of experiential learning. What qualities do they think are important and how do they deal with their own emotions while the therapy work is going on? Participants of the research were chosen through purposeful sampling. They had all experienced working as youth workers in therapy work with groups of young people in experiential learning. Findings show that integration of quality education, ex-perience and personal qualities such as resilience and inner strength were factors likely to deliver good results. The participants of the research reported that trust played a major role when working with other youth workers. They depended completely on each other, and through trust positive results were achieved. By trusting each other they could be honest with each other and receive appropriate support, especially when therapy work was going on. Participants of the research agreed that doing therapy work in nature with young people who where dealing with phsyco-social problems was a demanding task, but at the same time very rewarding. The job did change you and no one came back the same after the experience. Good practice in therapy is based on the skills and competence of each worker and therefore it was interesting to bring forward what understanding they have of their own job and how they use their skills and competence. During the last few years there has been an increased demand for professionalism and better out-comes from professional group facilitation work. Good results depend on qualifi-ed workers and therefore it is important to look at their experience and use the results to develop professionalism and education in the field. The results can help when building up professional education and training for future profession-als who will work with children and young people.