Friluftsliv in Therapeutic Residential Care: When Staff Take Youth Out to Find a Way In

A core idea in therapeutic residential care is the notion that youth`s development can be promoted through developing deep, trusting relationships with staff. We examine the friluftsliv context´s potential to support youth – staff relationship building. Nine care workers were interviewed about their experiences with friluftsliv at therapeutic residential care homes in Norway. A thematic analysis shows that staff perceive the friluftsliv context as a setting where staff and youth interact on a level playing field, where youth open up for care from staff, and where relational attentiveness allows for social bonding. We combine theories of attachment (Bowlby) and interpersonal trust (Simpson & Vieth) with affordance theory (Gibson) to examine how qualities of the friluftsliv context influence social interactions. We find that the friluftsliv context affords situations where youth trust staff. Staff need youth to trust them in order to provide care, develop quality relationships and change youths` prior negative relational patterns. We argue that interdependence explains how friluftsliv brings about these changes. Practical implications include the importance of trusting youth and involving them in solving shared challenges, and to seek out contexts that enable staff to respond attentively when youth seek care and proximity.