Thriving in the Wilderness of Adolescence
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| Kyle Borowski was one of the alumni presenters for the MAPC Professional Day held last November, where he answered questions related to the degree and his career in counseling. |
eing a teenager was once explained to me as a “period of brief psychosis” as teens struggle to formulate their identity, in the midst of a maelstrom of family, friend, culture, and societal expectations. Parents are pushing for teens to think about the future and to be successful. Peers are pushing for teens to think about the moment. Society is pushing for teens to forego thinking entirely. And all this comes just as a teen is attempting to define for him or her self who he or she is and what he or she stands for in this world.
Families often want to see teens muscle through these times of tumult and discovery. Successfully define your identity and place in this world and move on up the ladder of development by developing and honing skill sets that are conducive to success. Or in terms of a wilderness experience: get through to the other side. However, in the wilderness experience that is being a teen today, what teens need most is someone to journey with them through their wilderness. As I journey with my teen clients through their personal wildernesses, I have come to notice that God wants more for these teens than survival; God wants them to thrive.
...I have come to notice that God wants more for
these teens than survival; God wants them to thrive.
Part of my job involves utilizing adventure-based therapy and a ropes course to teach teens to thrive in their wilderness. One particular rope element is called the Giant’s Ladder. The goal of this element is to journey with another person up rungs of a ladder spaced five to six feet apart to reach the top thirty feet in the air. I have seen teens approach this ladder in numerous ways, but the way that stands out the most when I see it is when a teen tries to maneuver the ladder without help from his or her partner. They fight and they strain and they try every trick in the book to traverse distances they can barely reach when standing on their toes. This is surviving the wilderness, but it is not thriving.
Thriving in the wilderness comes through utilizing those on the journey with you to help you through the trials and tribulations. Thriving is reaching out to your partner on the Giant’s Ladder and asking for and giving help so that when the summit is reached, it can be enjoyed instead of dismissed out of exhaustion.
The education I received at MTS as part of my own wilderness experience has helped me to thrive as a therapist working with teens and their families. What I feel sets me apart from my peers in the counseling field are the things that I feel make an MAPC different from other counseling or social work degrees. It is finding what our Divine Parent wishes for our lives, free from the fears of how our behaviors and choices will reflect on how we were parented. It is being attuned to how God is moving and working in their lives and helping them find meaning in their wilderness experience in order to do more than just survive. The needs of the soul are as great as the needs of the mind and the body, and should never be ignored, for where the soul thrives, so does life and health. |
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