Juice and Doughnuts: Group Process Workwith Teen-agers

We arrived at this local Portland public high school a few minutes before 8 in the morning. The halls were strangely quiet; we discovered that school officially started at 8:30 am and that the students were asked to come half an hour early to take part in the group work we were to facilitate.

Jan Dworkin and I had been invited to work with a group of forty high school students who met regularly. They were called peer-helpers, meaning they help other kids at school who have troubles.

We found our way to the meeting room. At 8:10 we were the only ones present. That was when we were informed by one of the teachers that the group was asked to come in half an hour early. They gradually trickled in and headed straight for the doughnuts and juice, one of the rewards for coming so early and participating, I imagined.

At 8:30 most of the group had arrived and the atmosphere was quite social. Clusters of students hung out around the doughnuts and juice; others huddled together catching up on the latest gossip. A few sat in chairs in the circle, slumped over, looking like they were still fighting with the parents who had gotten them out of bed that morning. Every so often another colorful student would make a big entrance to cheers and jokes and then make a bee-line for those doughnuts.

Jan and I sat in the circle wondering how we were going to get started. We were no competition for the juice and doughnuts. We also noticed that we were two white women in a group of forty teens who were black or mixed races. We were definitely the outsiders. The group was obviously more interested in

having a free morning off from classes than in giving us their attention.

We were not prepared for this situation and braced ourselves for the surprise and new learning. We had worked in this school before, but those groups were smaller, more overfly obedient and were part of a class structure. Additionally, those classes were more racially mixed. I wish we had been more internally prepared. At that time we didn't really know how to work with our own feelings of being white and feeling like we didn't belong. How could this group be open to the facilitation of two white women?

We struggled, repeatedly calling the group together, and when everyone was more or less in their seats we tried to begin. Their attention was a precious commodity so we quickly discarded our initial introductions and agenda and jumped into their scene. We tried to pace the informal and social mood and to join them as best we could. We brought up the obvious fact that we were two white women but didn't know how to go further with that. There was no reaction and we dropped it like a hot potato.

We asked them what the gossip was in their school. What kinds of issues were hot and what did people talk about in the halls? People shouted out or mumbled various themes, but rarely would one person come forward and commit herself to having suggested that theme. Jan and I were struggling; our voices were hoarse from screaming so much so early in the morning. It was terribly difficult to be heard or to have the group's attention. Constant chatter and gossip pervaded in the background. Finally, one of the supervisors of this group, a large black man with a booming voice, got their attention. He scolded them

Juice and Doughnuts: Group Process Work With Teen-agers

and told them that we were their guests and they better treat us with respect and give us their undivided attention; otherwise they should leave.

We were embarrassed that Jiml had to scold them and advocate for us. However, we also realized that he was doing something that we needed to do. We were being too meek and insecure and needed to have that kind of authority and roughness. We integrated his behavior immediately. We went back to gathering issues and Jan told the class to shut up when she couldn't hear someone.

In five minutes the entire chalkboard was covered with various issues: suicide, parental problems, pregnancies, jealousy, how to help others who have problems, gangs and girl fights were among the many topics that they mentioned. Since the group was so noisy we decided to use sound to determine consensus. We asked the group to make a sound to show support for each issue as we suggested each one separately. The issue of "girl fights" had the most energy and the strongest feedback.

We discovered that each week there were at least three physical fights between girls at the school. Boys, apparently, rarely had physical altercations. Amidst the constant chatter we asked them what the girl fights were about. We were told that a girl usually came between a couple, a boy and girl who were going together. Girls were jealous of each other and were fighting over boys.

We suggested that we act out one of the scenarios. Some of the vocal people in the group immediately began to do the casting, shouting out who should portray the couple and who should be the girl trying to come between them. It seemed as if the group was casting individuals who really had been in this situation. The three young people seemed embarrassed, standing in the center of a room filled with laughter and anticipation.

They began to act out the scene with assistance from Jan and me, but the role play quickly lost its energy. There was more energy on the outside of the circle than on the inside. Kids were screaming things out that they thought should be said in the role play. Others were socializing, flirting and making plans for the day. Suddenly, those who had gotten up to participate in the role play took their seats and one young man was left standing in the center of the circle.

All of the names of teachers, supervisors, counselors and

Tyrone was about sixteen, very handsome and very cool. He stood silently in the center with his head bent down to his chest.

We realized that Tyrone was still out there because he probably had something to say. We acknowledged his presence and encouraged him to speak. Looking down and holding his heart, he spoke very personally about being with two girls. Suddenly the room was quiet and all eyes were on him. He spoke slowly and carefully and told us that he loved both of the girls and that they were forcing him to choose one over the other. His voice became shaky as he told us that he had chosen to be with one girl but also still loved the other girl. He then put his hands over his face and began to cry, and walked to the edge of the circle. We admired his courage, and Jim, the supervisor, came to his side and put his arm around him.

The atmosphere had suddenly changed and a girl who had been quiet asked one of the adult counselors to come to her side. She said that she needed Brace's support to speak. He stood by her while she told the group that she was fourteen and that she was an alcoholic. She told us a story that when she was thirteen she had taken so many drugs and drunk so much alcohol that she almost died. She burst out crying and we could barely understand what she was saying. Before the group could digest her story another young woman began to speak.

Gripping the sides of her chair and staring fixedly at the floor, Theresa spoke rapidly and blurted out her story. "I can't stand my mother and I hate her boyfriend and he came after me and I stabbed him." She held herself up by her arms, still gripping the chair, and rocked back and forth. We asked how many people in the room had trouble with their parents and almost everyone raised a hand. Theresa looked at all the raised hands and Bruce put his arm on her shoulder.

There was a special quiet in the room and a lot of pain. I said that I wanted to come closer to hug people but something was holding me back and I didn't know what. Did anyone know? At that point, Jim, the supervisor, wanted to suggest a group activity. He then told everyone to get up and hug one another. To our surprise, everyone got up and started to hug each other.

>n-agers have been changed to protect their identities.

It was clear to us that these young adults needed lots of love and support and they also wanted to give it. As peer-helpers they were primarily interested in finding techniques to work with each other's problems, but it seemed like their natural good feeling and loving support was the secondary element they were searching for.

Right when we were about to break up, one of the older students, who had been loud and clowning around, strongly came forward and said that she had something to say. "Some of you-all might know, but if you don't I'm pregnant and no one better say nothing to no one. I just want to let you-all know but you better not say nothing." Her statement seemed incomplete, like she needed something from the others, so we helped her to ask for help and students came forward offering their support to her.

The session ended with more hugs and lots of congratulations to the group for their courage. We were very touched by their openness and how they were able to support one another.

Jan and I walked out of the school deeply moved by these young people. In fact, there was a message here that we had seen many times before in our work with groups of young people. I think in all of the groups we have been a part of there has been a tremendous need for young people to create family and support each other. So many of them come from families where they have been hurt, put down and unappreciated. The family that they are longing for and that they subsequently create together is beautiful and inspiring.

Ethnocentricity and Agism

One of the strongest things I have learned has to do with my own ethnocentricity. With a group of rowdy teen-agers the communication style is much different than with the groups of adults that I have facilitated. Additionally, styles differ with African American, Hispanic, Asian, Native American and white North American or European groups. Two years ago when this group process occurred, I had been back in the United States for only a year, after ten years of living in Switzerland, and was just beginning to experience the great diversity of this country. As a white North American woman in her thirties, I didn't know how to appreciate a style where everyone spoke at once and where one central thing didn't necessarily command the group's attention.

When I look back at the initial role play in this group process, I notice my own ethnocentric expectations of a role play in which the process is taking

place within the role play, not outside of it. In this group, there was little energy for the role play itself, but lots of energy in the group commenting on the outside about the role play. Teen-agers were directing their peers in the center, yelling out instructions to the players, cracking jokes and laughing at those in the center; everyone was vocally involved in the theme of the role play all at once. However, focusing on a group of people in the center held little interest.

I have been more accustomed to noticing negative feedback to a role play, when the energy is dead, and/or when no one participates. This group had a different style; they did not sit back politely waiting for it to end, but exuberantly altered the role play to include the kind of participation they were looking for. My own background inhibited me from appreciating and unfolding the powerful leadership of the raucous audience.

Consensus

Looking through my own ethnocentric blinders, I also failed to notice the different ways in which groups come to consensus. My own inclination for conscious rational and verbal agreement could be experienced as a Eurocentric communication style that is imposed on others. I have become open and appreciative to consensus which comes forward without being explicitly stated. Group focus is consensus, whether this comes about by the sheer power of an individual who captures the group's attention by her emotional intensity, by a group all speaking loudly at once, or by verbal group agreement to focus on a particular issue.

I have been in many groups where people speak at once, or cut each other off, each suggesting a different idea or direction. In such instances, coming to consensus is difficult and discovering leadership has always been an essential background process.

Juice and Doughnuts: Group Process Work With Teen-agers

Leadership was also an important process occurring in this high school group process. In fact, in the last three years every group of teens that Jan and I have facilitated has a strong process in developing their own leadership and power in a world that denies them. However, in the above group process, the raucous participation was not only a leadership dynamic, it was also a style in and of itself, one which I also enjoy when I expand my own limited forms of communication. I am still searching for ways to creatively use that style of communication in group process.

Working with the Powers that Be

Jan and I presented this group process in one of Amy Mindell's2 supervision classes. The point that we especially wanted to learn more about was the beginning, when we could hardly get anyone's attention and when Jim, the supervisor, came in powerfully with his authority. After hearing our description, Amy gave the supervision class a research exercise, splitting us up into small groups and encouraging all but one person in each group to play the rowdy and disinterested teens. The one remaining person had the task of trying to facilitate and discover how they might intervene.

The class discovered that a teacher could get the group's attention by being charismatic, powerful or outrageous. However, this too had its long-term shortcomings. Amy noted that it was a good beginning, but that the leader must eventually give this up. The leader who doesn't give the power and leadership back to the group is in danger of being killed or annihilated.

Jan and I learned that we were not quite respecting the governing powers of this group and needed to pace the primary leadership process. Amy saw that we needed to have invited Jim and the other teachers who had brought us to the school to sit with us,

thereby creating a coalition and respecting the powers that be. How relieved I felt when Amy suggested that. Just imagining Jim and Bruce sitting by my side made me feel less lonely and less on the outside. We needed their support and we needed to bow down before the powers of their organization. Jim was the one who could get the group's attention and who could suggest a group hug. I do not think that if I had directly suggested a group hug, that it would have been followed. Amy shared that he had learned this from Native American elders, Ma and Pop Stogan, who insist on other leaders sitting by their side and thereby creating a symbolic council of elders.

Racial and Ethnic Awareness

Conflict between ethnic or racial groups is a background issue in all of the youth groups I have facilitated, but unlike adult groups it is rarely directly brought up. In adult groups, the issue is still not addressed sufficiently in my mind, but adults do raise the theme. My limited experience with youth is that cliques are formed, mostly based on ethnic and racial background, and each keeps to its own. (One could say this is also true for adult groups.) Teens seem to publicly joke more about ethnic groups and styles. Behavior is less polished, more abrasive, and very indirect. In every teenage group I have facilitated, gays and lesbians are the minority group which all youth, regardless of ethnicity, feel free to slander or insult. It is easier to come out with prejudice towards gays and lesbians because they are mostly invisible, especially in high schools. However, the pattern of prejudice is the same and Amy pointed out to us that if the gays and lesbians are being trashed, so too are the Mexicans, the Blacks, the Whites, and the Native Americans, but these opinions are not as safe to express publicly without a major confrontation.

Arnold Mindell is the founder of Process-Oriented Psychology and Group Process Work. He will be referred to as "Amy" throughout this article in reference to consultations and class experiences that I had with him.

This supervision class took place in the Spring of 1991 on the Oregon coast. \ In winter 1992, at another of Amy Mindell's supervision classes, Jan Dworkin and I presented a group process of high

school teen-agers in which he made this point. The insults to gays and lesbians were so painful that we had engaged

with the group on that specific issue. However, our interaction was not satisfying because it had the effect of only

momentarily quieting the group, but not really processing the issue. Amy pointed out that one of the background

processes in this situation is to express strong opinions. The teen-agers are attempting to be strong and bring out their

own opinions. Amy suggested to neutrally encourage the strong opinions in a way which simultaneously elicits

differing opinions. He demonstrated how to be something like a sportscaster. "Wow, the gays are getting it! They've

been knocked out. Will they be able to respond or will someone dream about it at night? I wonder who will get it next,

When Jan and I facilitated the peer-helper group two years ago, we were very aware of our white skin and the darker skins of most of the others. As I mentioned, we were unprepared in ourselves. We tentatively brought up the theme of race, naively expecting or hoping for the group to respond. We were insufficiently aware of our own issues and privilege. It is a privilege to be in a collectively accepted power group (white, teachers, adults); from this position, those in power have more freedom in bringing up issues that are dangerous and risky for those with less societal power. Therefore, our hope that the group would engage with us was due to the gaping hole we had in our own awareness around privilege and the way we were perceived as members of a power group.

At the last Worldwork seminar in Stoos, Switzerland, Amy spoke about the need to be aware of one's ethnicity and how that is perceived in the larger world.5 Speaking to a group of over 250 people from 30 countries, Amy reminded us that until we all knew each other personally, the group would identify individuals with a difficult aspect of the country they came from, and that it belongs to our collective Worldwork awareness to know this. For example, a white woman from South Africa will be identified with the difficult political and social situation of that country, regardless of her own personal beliefs.

When Jan and I walk into the high school classroom, we need to be aware that we will be seen as teachers who are white and female; who we are as individuals will not initially be perceived. Because the world is racist and hierarchical we should expect tension, rage and mistrust around issues of authority and race. Until the world changes, it is naive to go into this situation thinking otherwise. What could we have done in this group process if we had been more aware of our own privilege? We consulted with Amy, who recommended that we bring up the issue of being

white, but that we do it in such a way that we expect nothing from the group. He suggested that we work on ourselves publicly in front of the group, if the group would allow it, and focus on our own issues around race.

The inclination that we all have to identify each other with our respective countries, races, genders, religions, ages or sexual orientations is often an unconscious attempt to bring up differences and to process the issues that then arise. Individuals who are part of groups that have been historically oppressed already have this awareness; they always feel the critical eye of the public and are well aware of collective projections. Those individuals who come from groups that have had more privilege face the great challenge of developing this awareness.

Inner Work and the Facilitator

During the past few years, having worked with various ethnically and racially diverse youth groups, I have learned a lot and have been stretched in my own personal growth. My own insecurities have led me to much inner work and many questions about Worldwork. One of the more painful issues that I have focused on is the feeling of not being wanted. Going into a group and having people look at me critically, suspiciously and disapprovingly has been difficult, yet stimulating for my own personal and collective growth. I have experienced this in business groups where I felt devalued because of my gender or age. As a white North American woman I have felt well-justified mistrust when I have worked with groups of black people. With teen-agers, my authority and social power have put me on the outside. Teaching in many groups I have been tentative to be public about my relationship with my female partner for fear of disapproval.

All of these situations have fueled my inner critic and have then challenged me to learn. I have thought

the Mexicans?! Wow, it looks like they are gathering forces to come back." The following week Jan and I went back to this classroom and used this intervention. We noted the power and the strong opinions as they emerged. To our pleasant surprise, a courageous young woman stood up and defended everyone's right to have their own sexual orientation. It was beautiful to see these young adults interact and strongly bring out all of their opinions, both sides of the issue now represented. The conversation then turned to the issue of prejudice and discrimination and ended up centering around tensions between whites and blacks. As teachers, we learned that bringing forth strong opinions in reaction to those of students has the effect of disempowering students, making them feel scolded and that their opinions are wrong. This intervention brought out their leadership and encouraged their strength as the group processed these issues. The Worldwork seminar took place in Stoos, Switzerland, a small mountain village, in June-July, 1992.

Juice and Doughnuts: Group Process Work With Teen-agers

at different times,"why should I work with groups where I am not really wanted?"

This question has led me to study my own self-importance and desire to be loved; I have had to work with the part of myself that wants to be a great facilitator, to be respected and feel important. Consequently, I have learned a great deal about leadership. I have learned from Amy over the years that leadership is a role in the group field that can be and should be occupied by many people. The leader is not a person, but awareness, and whoever has awareness in the moment leads. Yet, even with that knowledge, I have felt hurt and insulted when my leadership has been threatened. My personal work has led me to a greater understanding of the collective.

Growing up in a world where people have power over others indoctrinates all of us into a system in which we have been put down. Being personally put down makes us want to rise up, and in so doing, we dominate others. This is not only the collectively accepted mode of world leadership, but is a strong pattern for how we approach our inner psychology as well. Amy has written that individuals are not truly democratic because certain parts of ourselves reject other parts. With most of us, internal life is not democracy, but tyranny. This psychological portrait encourages leaders to be central; appearing not to be the center insults their individual self esteem.

Each time I am faced with a group where I don't feel wanted, I am challenged to grow out of this system, to freely give up leadership without feeling hurt, and to support the group in my annihilation, because it is an attempt to share leadership. Amy is a beautiful role model, like an ancient Chinese sage, powerfully present but constantly yielding, and thus at times, almost absent.

Leadership and Social Roles

In addition to learning about leadership in relationship to my own inner growth, I have also been challenged to learn about leadership in relation to social roles. For example, I have noticed that I have had the tendency to feel hurt when my leadership has been threatened, in most groups, regardless of their makeup. However, there is another element to certain

Arnold Mindell, The Leader as Martial Artist: an 1992)49-69. 1Ibid., 7.

challenges to my leadership which not only has to do with a group needing to challenge a leader, but has to do with issues that emerge around power differences in areas such as race, social status, gender, age, sexual orientation, nationality, etc. Such differences help to constellate real social issues. It is at these moments when things really heat up, and when my first response is often to want to run away. I think to myself, "I am not wanted here. These people don't want a woman, a white person, a young person, an older person, etc."

I had a very strong dose of this a year and a half ago. The Process Work Center of Portland opened its doors to a local youth group, which came weekly over a period of four months. The group was facilitated by the counselors of this youth group, together with a group of Portland process workers: Lane Arye, Julie Diamond, Jan Dworkin, Sonja Straub and myself. There was also a faithful group of Process Work students who attended and helped to create a strong sense of community for our work together. The youth group was racially mixed; some of them were homeless, some of them were affiliated with gangs, some of them were on probation, and all of them had issues around abuse, drugs and alcohol. Some of the youth attended this group voluntarily and some of them were required to attend as part of a probation or parole agreement. The Process Work group were of various ages and nationalities and were all white. One black man and two white women led this group regularly, offered counseling, and assisted the young people with various social tasks.

We had already been meeting regularly for a couple of months on this January afternoon. Trying to encourage the strong but indirect leadership among the youth, we asked if there were others in the group who would be responsible for the facilitation that day. Ben and Ed volunteered. There was an uncomfortable silence that was sometimes interrupted by small clusters of the youth group who were whispering and laughing. When someone did speak, the chatter continued. People from the Process Work group and one of the female counselors said that they were disturbed by the chatter. The male counselor said he was used to it and understood it as an adolescent phenomenon

ion to Deep Democracy (San Francisco: HarperCollins,

that one always had to fight through. Someone said they felt that something explosive lay just beneath the surface.

The atmosphere was tense; it was an effort to speak, to risk not being listened to. This was an atmosphere that was familiar to me in this group. It was the one where I would slip into many of my own complexes and it was where I felt specifically unwanted because of my social role. Since I wasn't the identified facilitator, I decided to take a risk and bring out my upset feelings about the group's chattering. This group had also challenged the Process Work facilitators numerous times to be real and not so psychological. I felt encouraged to express my upset. I pointed to a couple of clusters and strongly expressed how I couldn't stand the constant group chatter. Little did I know what that would set off. Nicole, a black sixteen year old who was new to the group, immediately flew into a rage. She looked at me with intense fury and disgust and screamed at me for pointing in her direction. Lloyd, the male counselor, was happy to see something real happen and began to support the conflict This set off many of the black males, who felt he was provoking violence, and in a few short seconds a group of ten were standing up ready for a brawl. One of the young men came right up to my face, screaming at me, not letting me get a word in edgewise. His friends came quickly to his side ready for a showdown, expecting that a white man would come to my aid. No one did. I was shaking, listening to his screaming, while many stood around waiting to jump in. Lloyd quickly came to his feet and then tried to calm people down. The group immediately dispersed into sub-groups, and I ended up in a conversation with Ben and Lloyd and a few others.

Ben was a gang leader, a well respected member of this group, and someone I had developed a relationship with over the past couple of months. Our relationship had begun strongly when I'd called him an asshole and he'd called me a white bitch. Since that strong and real interaction we had developed a trust and respect for each other.

Ben told me that Nicole and I don't understand each other and are coming from different worlds. He said he understood both of us and that we each felt disrespected by the other. I felt disrespected because people weren't listening to each other and I expressed it. Nicole, he explained, coming from her world, only sees a white woman yelling at her. As soon as he said that I saw the painful issue that my initial reaction had set off. The picture of a white woman in a power

position reproaching a black woman brought up centuries of white domination and racial inequality. I felt pained to see the scene that I had naively stumbled into and realized that our conflict was a world problem.

I was enormously touched by Ben's insight and encouraged his leadership. I asked him to please bring the group together and bring out his perceptions. After a cigarette, Ben and his friends got the group together and began to talk about cultural differences. I was surprised to see that no one had actually left the group; even Nicole was present. The group was attentive now. I apologized to Nicole for disrespecting her and told her that I also didn't like the cultural picture of white women putting black women down. Ben and his cousin showed me that I had felt disrespected and then in turn had disrespected others. Their leadership made me feel incredibly well. I agreed that they were right and apologized to those whom I had inadvertently scolded. The group work then turned to a discussion about black and white women.

byRendRuppen

Social Callings

I had a lot to think about after this group process and I was shaken by many of the strong emotional interactions that I had had. I thought about how just the fact that I am white and am facilitating is a strong statement. I cannot change this, but am challenged to be aware of my own role. I am white, I am older than the members of this group, and I am seen in a particular role. As much as I would like to get out of this role or to show that I am not an oppressive white person, I cannot. I am called to be in this role. I can run from facilitating such groups, but each time I am faced with such a group I am faced with the very real racial conflicts that none of us can ever leave until the entire

Juice and Doughnuts: Group Process Work With Teen-agers

system changes. In these groups, I am not simply a facilitator, but a trigger to an explosive process that is waiting to happen. This process is what I am called to facilitate. My own social role is an essential element and presses me to engage in very real social issues. My own naivete and stumbling have brought me into situations that have constellated important issues and have often left me trembling with both fear and excitement.

Failure

I often feel in group work that I have failed. For example, I criticized myself for days after the above group process. I thought I should have been aware that my outburst in the group would have set off such a storm. Today, at least in this moment, I think differently. I feel that if I am aware of everything then I am too slick and deserve to be mistrusted. My humanity helps to create genuine interaction and raises real issues. Because issues like racism are based not only on prejudice, but institutionalized power, the role of white facilitation has to fail. My presence in this role has to constellate this issue; and if I leave the role too soon, I abandon my social responsibility.

Group Process and Social Work

There is so much more to learn. I go through old notes and jog my memory, recalling all sorts of interactions that left me dumbfounded and perplexed. A whole area of uncertainty for me has to do with the social aspect of working with young adults. Group Process Work seems to expand into the area of social work and continuous relationship. There is a tremendous need for real on-going relationship and help with outer worldly tasks, needs that go beyond the boundaries of the group room. I often heard from these people, "we don't need group work, just find us a job." These young adults needed assistance with school, work, the police, and their families. They needed food and medical attention and always asked us for money.

At times I did find myself helping these young adults interact in the outer world. I remember one time walking outside the Process Work Center and a couple of white sixteen year old girls were walking across the street Suddenly the police pulled them over and started to scold them for jaywalking and

Amy Mindell uses the term "city shadow" in his book, City

wanted to check out who they were. The cops treated them as if they had no rights, and were headed for a major confrontation, which was going to be bad news for the girls. I was happy to be there and vouch for them, but furious that my presence would make a difference in how the officers treated them. I approached one of the cops: "Now why do you want to provoke these kids and make such a scene for jaywalking? These young people already have enough very real problems with authority and you make them worse. You teach them to hate you. You set no example that they can emulate and you provoke them unnecessarily. How do you expect them to respect you?" The cop listened, tapped his buddy on the shoulder, got into the car and drove away. Afterwards, the young women approached me and told me how touched they were that I would stand up for them like that. That day the group process centered around how badly these kids are treated by the police. The black males told and acted out awful scenarios when they were pulled over for nothing, intimidated and beaten. The group was furious to hear the racist stories and those of us in the Process Work community wanted to work with the police on the issue. The young men were happy that we would do it but felt it would be too risky for them; if they participated, the cops would find them later and go after them. Working with these groups has opened my eyes to my own social responsibility; my work continues outside of our group even when they are not with me as I interact more with things that I observe in the environment.

Dreams and Messages

In each youth group that I and my colleagues have worked with, I have been touched by the messages that this segment of the population is trying to express. Beneath the anger with the established system and the hopelessness that grows out of being so disempowered, these young people have beautiful dreams about a world they would like to live in.

One of the first times I heard these dreams so clearly expressed was a couple of years ago when Jan and I offered a class at the Process Work Center in Portland that focused on community issues. We took the class out to Pioneer Square in Portland, a hang-out for homeless street kids, who are the city shadow of the Square. In the middle of rush hour noise we

Shadows; Psychological Interventions in Psychiatry.

engaged in a role play between street kids and societal authority. After some time the conflict held little interest as the kids began to speak passionately about their dream of a world that believed in diversity and treated everyone with respect and equal value. They spoke of the need for people to love each other and how they take care of each other on the street.

The theme of love and family generated by these groups constantly repeats itself. I will never forget the teen theater group Jan and I worked with and how one by one each person spoke about a terrible family situation; not feeling loved; hating the way they looked, or parents who were physically and sexually abusive. I remember how one young man told the group that he wanted to kill himself and how the group embraced him. I recall, Lynn, a fifteen year old, half of everyone's height, who had a brain disease in which she only developed physically to the age often. She spoke painfully about being constantly rejected. I sat in tears as she spoke about her life at school and the group then supported and accepted her. And I remember Steve who couldn't speak yet, but just sat crying in pain, unable to trust the group with his big secret. Weeks later, Steve did tell everyone that he was gay and opened the hearts of many of his critics. Jane, a white sixteen year old, cried about the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and how he wouldn't let her go to medical school, which was her biggest dream. Clarence, a black 16 year old, looked her straight in the eye and said he would help her, that he knew someone at a local medical school who would give her a scholarship. Clarence then became the group dreamer, seeing into everyone's future and encouraging them in their wildest dreams.

Our young people are crying out for their messages to be heard, for their leadership to be used. What a waste for us not to encourage it and listen. In all groups, whether they be homeless street kids or youth raised in the suburbs, no matter what race or background, young people are trying to create family amongst themselves, to build a community of love and acceptance and relationship and to express their leadership and highest dreams for a world that they would like to live in.

Dawn Menken has a Ph.D. in psychology and is a certified process worker. She has a private practice in Portland, Oregon, works as a group consultant, and teaches throughout the world. She is passionately interested in Worldwork, and finds working with groups both terrifying and thrilling. Like many of the youth she has worked with, she too dreams of a world of diversity, freedom and love.

(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988). He understands the city shadow as a person who represents qualities that the culture around that individual rejects. The very colorful and outrageous group of homeless teens who make Pioneer Square their hangout are living on the edge of what the mainstream culture around them accepts.

Bibliography

1. Mindell, Arnold. City Shadows: Psychological Interventions in Psychiatry. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1988
2. . The Leader as Martial Art ist:An Introduction to Deep
3. Democracy. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1992.
4. . Supervision Classes, Spring 1991, Winter 1992.
5. . Worlawork Seminar, Summer 1992.