Working with adolescents in correctional institutions, (social) pedagogues face demanding, individually specific work, based on their relationship with youngsters, giving them enough structure to keep a sense of safety and support while empowering them at their daily tasks through this challenging adolescent stage. Due to learning deficits, youngsters spend the majority of their free time learning – regular free time activities are quite rare.
Using an action qualitative research in a correctional institution, I aimed to find out, whether structured art therapy techniques can be transferred to the social pedagogy work field. In addition, which and what kind of techniques have proven to be the most useful and accepted amongst the youngsters. I used different visual, music, play and drama techniques.
I focused also on the pedagogues’ opinion on implementing such techniques in their work and on their previous experiences with creative media. I was interested in the possible outcome of the creative workshops I gave and their opinion on the effectiveness of structured art therapy techniques amongst youngsters in a correctional institution.
Structured art therapy techniques were well accepted amongst the adolescents and they turned out to be very useful. Some of the pedagogues were a bit held back, others showed a great interest in working with creative media. Regarding their usefulness, techniques based on music and play stood out, great importance was shown in the diversity of used techniques and their non-resemblance to school activities.
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