by Dr. Danny Recio, PhD

Once physiological needs are met, people crave: safety, belonging and mattering, before they can reach self-actualization. Self-actualization is the fulfillment of one's mission, a fuller knowledge of the person's intrinsic nature, and the unceasing trend toward integration within the person. Many of us have privilege of experiencing the safest time in human history when it comes to physical health, violence and ability to fend against natural disasters and disease; however, belonging and mattering is much more difficult than ever before. Societies are immensely large, not just because of the sheer number of people on the planet, but also because they are extremely interconnected. This "global" perspective makes the existence of one single individual appear insignificant, especially in comparison to the images and narratives the media portray. People seek happiness, success and peace in a world so fast, complex and impersonal that people even struggle to find the self that could potentially be happy, succesful and peaceful.
The dissatisfaction of such important needs as belonging and mattering provokes nihilism, exaggerated attempts at asserting a self (selfishness, histrionic tendencies, etc.) and many other unhealthy behaviors (bullying, drug-use, anxiety, depression). The deficiency in belonging and mattering trickle down in the hierarchy and shake up the foundation, leading to loss in safety (e.g. anxiety) and physiological health (e.g. illness due to stress). This deficiency also prevents reaching upward in the hierarchy toward 
self-actualization, inhibiting people from transcending themselves. In other words, they cannot grow as a person, and thus remain stunted, immature, and even perhaps child-like.


This seems to lead people to feeling lost, adrift without a captain of their own ship, without the lead in the script of their own lives. This is much more the case in younger generations, because they are growing up in an exponentially larger (i.e. interconnected) world, who needs them less (due to advances in technology), demands more (because of trends in economy and perfectionism), and connects with them less (because of tendencies toward decreased face to face time between people). Thus, one could say younger generations might not have even lost themselves, as they have not even created themselves. They are not adrift in the ocean of life, because the ship hasn’t even sailed. 


When asked, adolescents and emerging adults will say that the markers of reaching adulthood are financial independence, independence in decision-making, and acceptance of responsibility. The direction of the idea makes sense, but the use of the concept of independence is inaccurate. Independence, dependence or even interdependence are not at the core of the issue, as they speak of the degree of influence or control from others in one’s actions. This is important, but what truly makes a difference here is the degree ofself-generation, which speaks of how much is originating from within. Reaching the point of adulthood should mean that one is making the transition from having all aspects of one’s life originate from the outside, to originating more from within. Motivation, finances, problem-solving, learning, the satisfaction of basic and complex needs, all of these ought to move from a place of outer-generation when we are younger, to a place of self-generation as we develop. The variable of independence does not matter here, as one is always interconnected with the environment, always needs it, and always draws resources from it, and hopefully gives as much back as well. Self-generation, instead, is about where the initial force, energy and motion are coming from when taking care of a need or fulfilling a goal, and who is keeping the process going toward completion.


Integrative growth is the type of learning that leads to self-generation. In learning experiences or processes, especially those that are facilitated by others, there is a strong tendency to facilitate growth that is induced and where the learner remains passive -- being a patient, like in psychiatry or psychology. Facilitating learning that leads to self-generation requires a sophisticated and careful approach, especially because the tendency in our culture is to focus on content outcomes, like grades in education, or symptom reduction in psychotherapy. Passive learners are good for business, because they’ll always need facilitators, but not good for social development. 

Integrative growth is not just about self-generating, it is also coherent, so the person grows as a whole and not just parts at the expense of others. For example, one doesn’t grow financially but at the expense of diminished health. Integrative growth is also inclusive, so as the person grows, others around grow as well: his family, community, etc. Finally, integrative growth is sustainable, so the growth now makes growth more likely in the future. These three elements are possible because of the self-generating nature of integrative growth, as without this characteristic one cannot permeate growth toward one’s whole being, toward others and perpetuate it toward the future. 


All living beings are biologically self-generating; they combine inert elements and activate them in combination in order to grow in a self-generating way. Machines cannot do this, as they require external forces to induce action and keep it going. People in learning processes must function like organisms, and not machines, and must combine different elements to activate self-generated learning. The elements that when activated lead to self-generating growth are: proactive purposefulness, resilience, open collaboration, problem-solving creativity, and self-governance. These five working together are called the integrative function, and are signs that self-generation and hence integrative growth is taking place.


Supportive Immersion / Supported Immersion ©2017
​ Dr. Danny Recio, PhD & Dr. Heather Tracy, EdD

Dr. Danny Recio, PhD, and Dr. Heather Tracy, Ed.D - Presentation at Young Adult Transition Association Conference in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, in October 2017. 

Enjoy an edited version of Dr. Danny Recio and Andy Myers' presentation given at the Young Adult Transition Association conference in Idaho in October, 2016. You'll learn a lot about how humans learn, coming of age experiences during adolescence and young adulthood, and how appropriately designed cultural immersion experiences can be most efficient and effective in creating integrative growth experiences to enhance cognitive complexity. Enjoy!

by Danny Recio, Ph.D. 
Cultural immersions have been historically perceived and studied as a negative, kind of shocking experience (aka “culture shock”), but research now tells us quite the opposite: that these experiences can help us grow beyond what we ever imagined! Intercultural encounters can help us shift and restructure our mental structures, allowing us to make significant growth and life changes.
 
In our brain, learning happens through the creation of mental structures called schemas. These structures are very useful because they allow us to be more efficient in processing and making meaning of the world around us, which in turn allows us to respond more efficiently to life’s challenges. On the other hand, schemas create blindspots. As we use existing schemas to assess new situations, our brains may ignore or overlook important incoming information and misjudge it, thus behaving in ways that ignore or overlook more beneficial alternatives.
 
We reinforce schemas through a process called “assimilation”, but can morph or add new schemas through a process called “accommodation”. Accommodative learning contributes more to personal development, as it allows us to change our cognitive structures to adapt to new life conditions and keep on growing. If you want to learn more about schemas, assimilation and accommodation, watch this short video by ByPass Publishing: 

​As people make more and more accommodative leaps, their schemas grow, and the connection between these structures does too, leading to the development of a highly useful cognitive skill called integrative complexity. Those who possess this skill can take in many perspectives on a situation, collect information from all those perspectives, and come up with efficient and effective solutions to life problems. Research has recently revealed that cross-cultural immersions can lead to the development of higher levels of integrative complexity, because when you interact with people with different schemas, traditions, lifestyles, and worldview, these challenge you to expand and adjust your own. Watch our students reflecting on their cultural immersions, and how they have changed their worldview: 

​With regards to psychological and emotional growth, the skill of integrative complexity can be very useful, as when people are struggling in these areas, they are often stuck repeating unhealthy patterns, are failing to see or act on other alternatives and thus their solutions to life problems end up being inefficient. However, when they are deliberately exposed to other cultures through a person-centered therapeutic experiential learning approach such as our supportive immersion model, they discover new ways of being that break through old schemas, and build new and more efficient ones.
 
Through our experience with our students in conjunction with the literature available, we have found four main benefits that come from cross-cultural supportive immersions:

1. a clearer sense of self and future orientation,
2. an ability to function out of the comfort zone and to deal with adversity,
3. an expansion of perspective taking skills, and
4. an increase of authentic self-confidence.

Watch our students talk about each of these four elements in the following four videos:

by Dr. Danny Recio, PhD ​

It is probably not a coincidence that many young men I interview before coming to the Bridge explain that one of their main goals is to “come out of their shell”. This is not only a very powerful metaphor for their struggles, but it also defines, in a nutshell (no pun intended!), one of the key profile characteristics of the students we work with. This metaphorical shell provides a safe place, protecting them from any (perceived) harm or threat in the outside world. The shell is sometimes their parents’ basement, their room, electronic devices, excuses, fronts, or substances. But if this shell is safe and protective, why would they want anything to change?  ​

So, how does one support someone’s desire to come out of the shell and continue to grow? Not by frantically tapping on the shell, which will only reinforce the sense of unsafety in the environment, and not by just feeding the hermit crab so he’s nourished without having to come out of the shell. Why? Because neither of these strategies will help the person fine-tune his neuroception of safety; he will continue to perceive erroneously his capacity to engage the world.  
​
At  The Bridge and our high school program,  New Summit Academy, we believe in a middle-way approach we call supportive immersion.   Supportive Immersion is an approach to learning that focuses less on instruction and product, and more on experience and process. It is highly individualized in that it relies heavily on the lived subjective experience of the learner toward what he’s learning, and it keeps at its center the goal of learning how to learn. The facilitator (teacher, therapist, etc.) of this learning process is both hands-off and very involved at the same time; walking with the learner in the process, but not doing the walking for or just shouting instructions from the sidelines. Empathy is a key element, and it’s used to see the task from the worldview of the learner while also using the facilitator’s own knowledge to guide experiences and invite shifts in the learner’s worldview. It’s teaching how to fish, instead of being given a fish type of approach.

This process is very successful for people that are in the shell, because it provides the feeling (neuroception) of safety coming from the support, guidance and processing of the (often out-of-the-comfort-zone) experiences our students are going through and, at the same time, it allows the learner to walk his own path, and feel what it’s like to poke his head out of the shell, and find his own way to gradually make changes that allow the growth they are seeking.  ​

by Danny Recio, PhD

Alice and the Mad Hatter as an example for Supportive Immersion:

Alice is feeling lost and encounters Mad Hatter and says:
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
Mad Hatter responds: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to”
Alice: “I don’t much care where –"
Mad hatter:  "Then it doesn’t matter which way you go."


Mad Hatter does not jump at the chance of directing Alice as if there is just one path to take, but instead wants to know where she is intending to go. AS many learning experiences begin, the learner may not know exactly how to even get started, so just getting going might be plenty good. In the end, if Mad Hatter is indeed using Supportive Immersion, he knows to favor process, and will encourage starting to walk as part of the process of finding direction.


Let’s imagine Mad Hatter continues the Supportive Immersion growth process. He then proceeds by letting Alice know that they can walk together, and that as they do so, he can support her in finding her way, as well as learn how to find her way in future situations. Mad Hatter pays close attention to Alice’s walking and how she chooses where to go; he wants to tap into how Alice is experiencing the walk. Sometimes he allows her to lead, and at other times, he will offer suggestions and provide useful information toward learning how to navigate the forest. By doing this, Alice begins to understand how Mad Hatter finds his way and makes choices in the forest, and she can, with Mad Hatter’s support, apply and practice those skills so she can creatively develop her own method of navigating the forest.

​After a while of walking, talking, practicing, reflecting, exploring and integrating the experience, Alice has gathered enough applicable information on how to walk in the forest. She is now able to make an intentional, responsible and autonomous choice of where she wants to go, but more importantly, she now knows how to navigate the forest and how to change course if she so needs or desires.

​

by Heather Tracy

I remember John* - sweet and slow. He was a senior in high school but had never actually done much work. I'm not even sure how he made it that far. His processing speed was the lowest I'd seen, and yet he was a bright young man, frozen in anxiety. Schoolwork - after years of struggle - froze him. 

We sat down to work on a history assignment - just a few questions to answer on a reading they had done. He couldn't write a word. So I asked him to just tell me his answers and I wrote them for him. We did that for about 2 weeks. 

*Name was changed to protect privacy.