Imagine an angry detached teenager sitting in your office. His parents thought it would be a good idea for him to see you to work on his failing grades, oppositional behavior, and seemingly addictive use of the internet and text messaging. You meet with him over the course of the next month – joining, empathizing, and focusing on his strengths. But, little movement is made and he appears “stuck” in his angst and malaise.
Now imagine meeting that same teenager outside of your office. You are sitting next to him, a structural intervention that allows him to work with you (not engaged in an adversarial position), and looking out over a beautiful mountainous view. After a check-in you begin the process of educating them with enough information about rock climbing to reassure his safety, but not too much information to give away any of the upcoming experience. When asked about how this is going for him in the preset, he replies with the responses you have come to expect from teenagers: fine, ok, good. That’s fine that his replies are terse – your thoughts are to move away from cerebral engagement and work with him to connect his body with his emotions, through rock climbing. This connection will allow you to open up a dialogue that allows you to discuss unique outcomes to his own problem saturated story line.
