«GABRIELS GARTEN»: ERFAHRUNGEN EINES NATUR COACHES IN DER ARBEIT MIT ASYLWERBENDEN

Abstract

The article is devoted to the work of the adult education company “Gabriels Garten” which was established in 2014 in Salzburg. The objectives of the project are to orient a person in knowledge about stress, to teach how to find his/her own way in life, to search, to go – hence, to strengthen the man in challenges.

When the author started to cooperate with the immigrants, among all the proposed projects, the priority of the project “Gabriels Garten” was chosen. The idea to give this project such a name appeared in 2013 after attending the courses with the similar subjects. This all means that it is necessary to search for natural “green” opportunities to support people in difficult situations.

The author tries to answer the questions: “What makes a person happy, what can help a person to recover from a catastrophe?” The author of the article proposes to find the answers to these questions and some practical ways to solve the problems of resocialization: both with the help of psychological methods (through specialists in the field of neurology and psychotherapy) and through the Slavic scholars.

During the period 2014–2016 there were held numerous events such as: conversational practices, communicated “guarding”, excursions to the forest, to the bank of the stream in the Salzburg outskirts, excursions to the mountains, castles, joint cooking of dishes and drinks made of herbs, going on picnics.

The atmosphere of these events contributed, as a rule, to the fact that the participants (mostly immigrants) calmed down in the countryside. There was some need to talk specifically with some of the participants about the problems that concerned them.

Communication with nature, according to the author, has a healing effect on the human psyche, positively influences his relations with other people and paraphrasing the words of Erich Fromm, we can add that natural practices can help us as people to develop the “art of love”.

Key words: immigrants, resocialization, psychological methods, conversational practices, communicated “guarding”, outdoor practices, excursions.