Format
Panel
First Presenter's Institution
University of West Georgia
First Presenter’s Email Address
drwes@eternalstrength.com
First Presenter's Brief Biography
Dr. Weston Robins: Founder, President and CEO of Eternal Strength, Dr. Weston Robins, is a licensed professional counselor and a visionary leader in the realm of Psychology. Dr. Robins holds a PhD in Consciousness and Society from the University of West Georgia. Dr. Robins has been an advocate both in practice and in academia for a truly humanistic and person-centered approach since he has been in the field-- serving youth across levels of care from emergency stabilization to finding their own purpose and spiritual path. Dr. Robins has spent more than a decade dreaming of a place where youth and clinicians can experience mutual liberation and come into greater mental freedom together, a center where the binds of standardized sociological pressures are cut away and every youth’s inner wisdom can rise up as an undimmable beacon of light and joy. Dr. Robins serves the team at Eternal Strength with the same value system as he does the families that come to the center, building sacred space, bolstering each individual’s divine strengths, and creating space for synchronicity and enlightenment. In addition to his work at Eternal Strength, Dr. Robins teaches at University and is actively engaged in research and study in the arenas of radical youth work, family systems work and the field of Psychology, Counseling & Psychotherapy as a whole.
Location
Session Six
Strand #1
Home: Family & Community Engagement
Strand #2
Health: Mental & Physical Health
Relevance
This presentation will cover working with holistic mental health support of youth, young adults and families and focusing heavily on experiential engagement, humanistic counseling and community engagement.
Brief Program Description
Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach to Working with Youth, Young Adults and Families
A focus on experiential mentoring, humanistic counseling and community engagement as a way to work with youth, young adults and families to provide true holistic therapeutic support and guidance.
Summary
This panel will present on the development of a community-based program dealing with adolescent substance abuse and mental health issues. The program, Eternal Strength, is based on principles derived from scholarship developed by Hans Skott-Myhre (Human Services KSU) and Kathleen Skott-Myhre, (Psychology UWG) (H. Skott-Myhre 2020, 2008a, Skott-Myhre and Skott-Myhre, 2015, 2011, 2008b, 2008c and K. Skott-Myhre 2016) in their work on Radical Youth Work. Radical Youth Work is defined in the work of the Skott-Myhre’s, as youth and adults working together for common political purpose.
Evidence
While the key conceptual frameworks of Radical Youth Work have been used in bits and pieces by various agencies nationally and internationally, Eternal Strength is the only agency we are aware of who has used the concepts as a basis for their entire approach to working with young people. Blending elements found in the Skott-Myhre’s work on Radical Youth Work, such as humanistic psychology (Watts, 2017 , Rogers, 2015) the radical systems theory of Gregory Bateson (2000), the postmodern thought of Deleuze and Guattari (1988), the nomadic feminism of Rosie Braidotti (2011), and the theoretical work of anti-psychiatrist R.D. Laing (2018), Robins has put into practice a radical approach to working with young people who struggle with their relationship with substances. Robins defines his approach to working with young people as “seeing youth, not as a separate developmental period, but rather as a creative, living, breathing, lifeforce that flows through each of us always. Key to the Eternal Strength model is a flattening of hierarchy between the adult staff and the young people they engage. In addition, the program does not use diagnosis or traditional developmental frameworks. Instead, the approach is fundamentally relational and collaborative.
Learning Objective 1
Learn about Radical Youth Work as a methodology
Learning Objective 2
Understand mutual liberation and co collaborative work between youth and adults
Learning Objective 3
Holistically understand a humanistic approach to working with youth struggling with anxiety, depression, substance abuse, self harm and suicidality
Keyword Descriptors
radical youth work, humanistic, person centered, community, hazardous youth work, mutual liberation, co-collaborative, community youth center
Presentation Year
2024
Start Date
3-5-2024 11:30 AM
Recommended Citation
Robins, Weston J., "Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach to Working with Youth, Young Adults and Families" (2024). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 63.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2024/2024/63
Included in
Ceramic Arts Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Counseling Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Social Justice Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Transpersonal Psychology Commons
Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach to Working with Youth, Young Adults and Families
Session Six
Radical Youth Work: A Community Based Approach to Working with Youth, Young Adults and Families
A focus on experiential mentoring, humanistic counseling and community engagement as a way to work with youth, young adults and families to provide true holistic therapeutic support and guidance.
