The Art of Connecting

In today’s fast-paced world, creating meaningful relationships with young people is more crucial than ever. They are essential for fostering a sense of safety, acceptance and belonging and thus lie at the very heart of the youth work.

When we form authentic connections with others, we create a foundation of trust and mutual understanding, which leads to more fulfilling and supportive interactions.

The Art of Connecting is a 7-day training program, designed to equip youth workers with skills and knowledge needed to foster genuine connections through an exploration of self-awareness, nurturing, self-compassion, and emotional regulation.

It aims to provide participants with the insight, experience and necessary knowledge to successfully apply experiential and body-oriented learning in a broad range of youth activities.

This includes understanding:

• the value of and how to explore the relation to oneself, others and surrounding;
• the principles of self and co-regulation;
• conditions for a safe and fun working environment;
• the function of body orientation in a broader range of learning activities for youth;
• ones own focus, strengths, weaknesses and curiosities;
• how empowerment can be achieved through experiential, body-oriented experiences/interventions;
• healthy boundaries and how to strengthen them in oneself, one on one contact and a group;
• the potential of play with power dynamics, co-leading, co-creating and horizontal relationships;
• clear and ready to apply psycho-somatic theory for guiding youth, groups and oneselves.

The program offers a range of playful, seemingly simple interventions that play with the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch) in such a way that they strengthen youth (workers) in their professional activities.

We will listen to silence, each other, nature, breath, our own deeper knowing and the sound of laughter.

We will look into the campfire, close our eyes, practice seeing and being seen by the other and become aware of our personal and cultural focus points.

We will smell summer, our own sweat, the cup of tea, the adventure.

We will taste the wonderful food of our chef, and the feeling of living in a community.

We will sense how proximity can be safe and fun, explore (self)regulation through touch, how our hands can speak beyond words and a bunch of interactive games and principles that strengthen trust, self confidence, playfulness and learning.

LEARN MORE: The Art of Connecting PARTICIPANT CALL