Challenges in sociotherapeutic work with children and youth The perspective of group leaders

• Main Authors: Barbara Jankowiak, Emilia Soroko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fundacja Pedagagium 2020-12-01
• Series: Polish Journal of Social Rehabilitation
• Subjects: sociotherapy; sociotherapists; challenges in professional work; psychological and pedagogical assistance for children and youth
• Online Access: http://resocjalizacjapolska.pl/index.php/rp/article/view/316

Sociotherapy is often offered in Poland as a form of help for children and youth with psychosocial difficulties. The work of sociotherapists and sociotherapists relies on social trust and requires functioning in many complex conditions. The aim of this analysis was to discover the perspective of sociotherapists on difficulties and challenges in their everyday sociotherapeutic work. For this purpose, 37 written statements were obtained from sociotherapists working in various institutions, mainly schools and sociotherapeutic community centers. The statements were analyzed by means of thematic analysis (in Braun and Clarke’s approach), allowing to generate five themes that include the experience of challenges: 1) the challenge is the participant; 2) caring for the group as an effective therapeutic environment; 3) working „with an open heart”; 4) balancing between certainty and uncertainty; 5) working despite the feeling that „not everyone is heading in the same direction”. These themes may open up a discussion on how to support the professionals in their daily work, for example by introducing activities that may increase their sense of influence and control over the sociotherapeutic process. At the same time, sociotherapeutic work appears as requiring the integration of different objectives associated with the contexts of functioning of the participant, the group and the institution in which the sociotherapy takes place.