The EEC Alumni learning community has held the workshop "Accompanying the adolescent's identity without judgement".The event, offered by the coach and coordinator of the adolescent and family programme in EECRosa María Barriuso. During the workshop, the expert invited the participants to reflect on the importance of fostering the identity and self-esteem of adolescents in their growth process and the complexity of talking about identity without talking about self-esteem.
The expert highlighted the the importance of accompanying adolescents in their identity exploration process and build their self-esteem, as this allows them to discover who they are and what they want to be. He also raised the difficulty for adults not to judge the decisions of adolescents and to accept that they may choose something other than what is expected of them.
Questions for adolescent self-esteem
The challenge, said the expert, is "to be aware of my judgements and to become aware of the extent to which I am looking at what I want the adolescent to be, versus what they are". Rosa Barriuso also explained how, on occasions, parents "believe that to abandon our expectations is to stop sharing a view of growth, of management, from the idea that often what we want is to push rather than accompany".
Through various dynamics that put the participants into practice in addition to the presentation itself, the MCC coach and expert in adolescents, offered the participants powerful questions about the impact on the self-esteem of the adolescent, such as "How do I accompany the adolescent to freedom in the responsibilities that exist? What things are beyond what I know, beyond what I judge, beyond my opinions? Am I accompanying them to discover who they are or am I accompanying them to discover what I want them to be?
The alternative is tremendously inspiring and was also a powerful question. "What if we started to cultivate curiosity?". With it, Rosa Mª Barriuso proposed to adults the exercise of connecting with this look of curiosity "which is what allows us to understand" and to do so open to surprise "from what is there and not only from fears".
This workshop of EEC Alumni It culminated in a space for dialogue and questions among the participants, which allowed them to share different opinions and expectations about the process of accompanying adolescents on their path towards identity, which are also key elements of the training given by Rosa Barriuso at Escuela Europea de Coaching.
