What Happened To Adolescent Rites Of Passage?

Publié par Unknown on lundi 2 décembre 2013

By Saleem Rana


Patrick Barrasso, Founder of In Balance Continuum of Care, Az, and Molly McGinn, Learning Specialist and Founder of Bloomtree Learning Communities and Treehouse Learning Community, Az. discussed adolescent rites of passage with host Lon Woodbury on L.A. Talk Radio. Lon Woodbury is the owner and founder of Woodbury Reports, Inc. He has worked with families and struggling teens since 1984 and is the host of Parent Choices for Struggling Teens.

Visitor History

Patrick Barrasso is the founder and Executive Director of In Harmony Adolescent Intensive Outpatient Program, as well as the founder of the In Balance Ranch Academy. As a psychotherapist with over 25 years of extensive training in teen and adult drug abuse and mental health treatment, he has actually given lectures at the U.S. Journal Training National conferences, as well as at FACES, an acronym for Family and Addiction Conferences and Educational Seminars, speaking on a wide variety of teen treatment subjects, especially the difficulties of conquering teen substance abuse.

Meanwhile Dr. Molly McGinn is an internationally renowned learning specialist that has actually owned her very own business as a consultant for well over 17 years. She develops and assists in the management and the administration of learning training programs for companies around the world. Dr. McGinn holds an MA and a Ph.D. from UCLA in Cultural Anthropology. She taught at the Academy of Science in Sichuan Province in China for two years, in addition to working in Tibet after the Chinese takeover. A polylinguist, she is is fluent in Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish and English.

Adolescent Rites of Passage

The interview began with Patrick explaining teen initiation rites as something practiced by tribal societies. Ceremonies helped young people mark the difference between childhood years and adulthood. But more than just a ceremony, an initiation rite demarcates the shift from one state to another. Basically, it's symbolic of the death of childhood and the birth of adult years. Ceremonies of passages have to be unique and affirmative to leave familiar habits behind and learn brand-new habits.

Patrick explained that there were three phases. The first stage marked separation. The second phase marked crossing a limit. This was a time of considerable unrest and confusion. Finally, the third stage marked acknowledgement, a time when the brand-new maturation was accepted.

Molly explained ceremonies of initiation from her standpoint as an anthropologist. She highlighted the role of mentors to assist youth to experience the initiation rites. Because contemporary culture usually did not have seniors to initiate youths, youth often tended to launch their own rites of passages by joining street gangs.

The show concluded with the agreement that if formal adolescent rites of passages were introduced in our current culture, it would create an enormous shift for the better as youth took on a greater sense of responsibility.




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