The "Hero's Journey" in the reintegration of adolescent former combatants. A pilot experience from Colombia

The article presents a pilot experience of the use of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey to conduct a myth creation and enactment workshop with a group of child soldiers in Colombia. This case study documents that myth creation and enactment methodologies can provided an effective metaphorical space for adolescent former combatants to mark and re-signify their transition from the armed group to civil society. We argue that myth creation and enactment workshops based on the Hero’s Journey constitutes a specific pedagogical dispositive with five key characteristics: projection, distancing, embodiment, containment and mirroring. The synergic interaction of these five characteristics proved effective to accompany the delicate transition period of former combatants from the “Disarmament and Demobilisation” phase to “Reintegration”, including access to tertiary education. In particular, this dispositive produced the following psychosocial results: strengthen the empathy within the group, re-signify the adolescents’ memories of the past, enhance self-esteem and self-efficacy and reduce the anxiety of entering university life.