Listen to thisEver since I started working in this field, it seems to me that we have been ‘problem focussed’. And, in a way, I guess that makes sense. After all, young people are referred to our programs, typically, because they are seen as having, or being, a problem.
But this issue, for me, is not that they are, or have, a problem. The issue is how we respond to it.
I want to leave aside for the moment, young people who ‘have’ a problem – like, for example, they have a cognitive issue, or a physically limiting issue. Instead, I want to focus on young people who are considered to ‘be’ a problem to others or themselves.
Historically in our field, when a young person presents with a problem like, for example, running away, not going to school, or hurting others our response has been to ‘stop the behaviour’ typically with consequences, punishments, etc. Whatever it takes to ‘stop the behaviour’.
And if we stopped the behaviour we were considered, by others and ourselves, to have been successful in our work. And, for many years that was our focus.
B. F. Skinner, the godfather of behavioural modification, in the novel Walden 2 (1948), where he was the protagonist challenged to change society’s behaviour, said, basically, that he could stop any behaviour, but that if we did not deal with what was the underlaying cause of the behaviour, it would just show up somewhere else.
Following on this, consider the following … I can stop any young person from running away. Simple. Just lock them up. But when we do that – and we do – what we find is that the young person begins to express different behaviours – like hurting themselves, or others. Because we have not dealt with what ‘underlays the behaviour’ the need to express the pain is still there, and it just shows up differently.
Perhaps we need to look at ‘problems’ differently. Perhaps what we, and society, perceive as problems are the young person’s solutions to problems they are experiencing.
Think, for a moment, about your own actions when you are faced with a problem. Like me today, for example. We are having heavy snowstorms – 75 centimeters in 3 days and the end of my driveway is piled high from the snowplough. But I have to go out to the store. So, I am annoyed as I put on my boots and head out into the blizzard, cursing at the snowplough driver who has just passed.
Now, I don’t normally curse as I go to the car but today is different – I have a problem (snow blocked driveway) – and I am not happy, but I need to solve the problem (clear a space for my car to exit the driveway).
When we have a problem, we try to solve it and are not always happy about what we have to do.
Now imagine a young person who is being abused in a care facility. They have a problem (they are not safe), so they have to solve the problem.
“Fuck you,” they scream as they take off from the program. And it happens again, and then, again.
They have a problem, and they are solving it.
We may not like their solution until we realize that they are actually solving a problem which we have not.
Relational practice encourages us, when looking at a ‘problem behaviour’ to ask, “To what problem is this behaviour a solution?” and when we do, our direction is often much clearer.
Reference
Skinner, B. F. (1948). Walden Two. Macmillan.
