An Ecological-Depth Psychological Approach to Working with Teenage Youth in a School Setting

Betsy Perluss

Introduction

bell hooks writes,

"Home is that place which enables and promotes varied and everchanging perspectives, a place where one discovers new ways of seeing reality, frontiers of difference".

And thus, she writes, "I had to leave that space I called home to move beyond boundaries, yet I needed also to return there".

hooks is speaking both literally and figuratively. In many cases, one must leave the physical home in order to appreciate home. But, even more so, one must move beyond their psychic home - the internal boundaries - in order to broaden their perspective about themselves and the world. - and to return to a place of self-love.

Love for community is contingent upon self-love.

When the Channel Crossings program was first conceptualized, I wanted to help students develop a "sense of place" and a love for their community. I wanted them to feel connected to their home environment.

What I did not take into consideration is that, it is unreasonable to assume that teenagers adopt community ethics when they are not given the opportunity to reach beyond their boundaries and cultivate the ability for self-love.

Channel Crossings

The aim of Channel Crossings is to facilitate cultural and self-awareness by providing experiences that take students beyond their physical, cultural and psychological borders. In other words, we consciously expose students to situations that challenge previously held assumptions about self and others. This is accomplished through various ways - mostly though group interaction, the arts, wilderness and cross-cultural experiences.

The location of our school provides a nice metaphor for our program. Avalon School is actually located on Catalina Island. Islands are isolated bodies of land, surrounded by water. But, metaphorically, I imagine an island as the small conscious ego, surrounding by the vast unconscious.

Channel Crossings aspires to facilitate both the physical transition between island and mainland, but also the psychological transition between self and other, ego and unconscious.

Transitions

Channel Crossings implies:

1. Initiatory Rite of Passage: which includes the three phases of severance (leaving one's place), threshold (entering into the unfamiliar) and reincorporation (literally, taking on the body. Returning and giving back to one's community).

2. The transition between self and other: this literally mans crossing the channel between Catalina Island and the mainland, between cultures and communities - between what is familiar and safe and what is different and unknown.

3. The movement between ego and unconscious - between one's ego perspective and the ability to see the world though multiple perspectives.

As teachers and counselors, we are responsible to serve as guides and mentors for adolescence during this difficult time of transition.

Unfortunately, the move towards standard based education doesn't take this into consideration. Essentially, adolescence is the antithesis of standardized education. The notion of standardization implies that there is a medium norm in education. This is the "one fits all" model, which has proven to be so problematic for many students who don't fit into the standard package. These students are often left feeling left out and marginalized.

Channel Crossings honors the experience of feeling marginalized, for it is in the margins that transformation takes place.

Influences:

My experience and work with the School of Lost Borders has had a profound effect on how I work with teenage youth. The focus of the school is wilderness rite of passage. Young people and adults are guided into the wilderness for 3 or 4 days and nights alone. This experience facilitates the leave from one's familiar boundaries. When a person returns from their solo time, they tell their stories in council. It is in the telling and mirroring of these stories that moves the psyche and brings the transformative aspects of the experience into conscious awareness.

Building Bridges Camp, sponsored by the National Conference of Community of Justice, also facilitates this growth. At this camp, students from all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are brought together for three days of intense dialogue that deal primarily with racism, prejudice and social injustice. But, even more so, it provides an opportunity for students to expand their awareness of themselves. In the context of dialogue groups, students confront their deepest fears and prejudices in an accepting environment. Learning how to accept their feelings allows them to accept others.

Again, love for community is contingent upon self-love.

Simply taking students to various places outside their familiar environment has been powerful. For instance, we have taken students to the Museum of Tolerance, the Japanese-American museum, human rights organizations in Los Angeles, and cultural and artistic institutions. Our students also had the wonderful opportunity to experience a private workshop with Michael Meade and staff from Shadetree.

Leaving one's familiar environment does not necessarily mean physically leaving home. Through storytelling workshops, art projects and poetry, students are often launched into unfamiliar psychic and emotional landscapes.

But, dialogue is the essential ingredient for promoting cultural and self-awareness.

Almost any experience can promote awareness provided it is accompanied by dialogue. It is in the weaving between self-expression, mirroring, and deep listening that expands consciousness and self-acceptance.

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge the help of co-developers and co-coordinators of the Channel Crossings Program: Donna Sharpe and Cindi Alvitre. Without their support and friendship this program would have never been realized. Also, thank you to Becky Davidson for taking on my responsibilities for this program in my absence.

April, 2002