What does it mean to experience and to learn from it?
Learning through experience integrates thinking, feeling and volition as basic mental processes with the physical body into a personal challenge which is beyond the boundaries of our daily lives, and this brings us into the zone of self-knowledge, courage, unexpected personal abilities, compassion and mutual help, rediscovering values and self-perfection.
This makes experiential learning an all-encompassing method which involves the whole physical-mental body of a person and creates inner impulses for growth, and this allows for greater depth of the occurring processes, for truthfulness, for long-term effects.
We know that social change starts with the personal perfection of every individual – by being connected with ourselves we can attain connectedness with other people and nature.
The method is used all over the world, in various fields that involve group and individual work – from ice-breaking activities at youth seminars to integrated programmes for social work in Norway and Sweden where the method has been adopted at state level with 100% effectiveness.
Who is it suitable for and in which fields
- informal education;
- as a complementary method in informal education;
- for environmental education and sustainable living;
- group work;
- personal development;
- for team buildings;
- social work with children and youths in residential care, children and youths with a complex family background, children and youths with antisocial behaviour, adults with similar problems, marginal groups;
- as a therapeutic method;
etc.
Fields of impact on a personal level –
what skills can be developed
- personal growth (positive concept of the self);
- self-knowledge – weaknesses, strengths, values;
- self-awareness and conscious choices in life;
- setting goals, planning, realisation and evaluation;
- learning specific material;
- group dynamics;
- trust and helping others;
- personal values and assets (compassion, courage);
- knowledge about others and the world;
- emotional intelligence;
- finding one’s place in the world, personal tasks, goals;
- knowledge about nature, sustainable life;
- replenishing energy from nature and the cosmos;
- live interaction with the natural world and gaining strength and love from this;
- developing values: friendship, respect for all living creatures and people, trust, mutual help, courage;
- conflict management;
- giving and receiving feedback;
- letting loose to create amateur art;
- looking for the truth as a unifier of all points of view;
- psychotherapy.