Psychological considerations for guides working in affinity recreation spaces
Affinity group definition: An affinity space is a safe place for a common identity or social group.
I have been involved with affinity climbing spaces since 2014: women's climbing groups, young people's adventure groups, queer and LGBTQ+ climbing groups, youth outreach and therapy groups, and recovery climbing spaces. In fact, I learned to climb within the safe space of an all women’s affinity group. In the last decade, I have been involved in these spaces as a professional leader, volunteer, and participant. Over many years working in the field, my relationship with climbing has become enmeshed with my identity as a person. It is often difficult to discern where I end and Climbing begins.
When I suddenly lost my dream job as Program Coordinator for an affinity program earlier this year, I was shaken to my core. I felt like I lost sight of who I was as a person and questioned if climbing even belonged in my life anymore. The experience encouraged me to deeply reflect on what climbing meant to me as a person, instead of just an affinity group member.
It is noble to wish to serve others and share adventure sports with underserved populations. These activities can be the source of great positive transformation, but there is much I wished I had known before going into this field. In light of my recent professional heartbreak, I have decided to postpone my Rock Guide Course until I can recalibrate my relationship with climbing and guiding so that is on my own terms.
Please note, these observations are only my singular perspective, and are based on my lived experiences.
Having a shared background can activate your past experiences. How prepared are you to be triggered at work? What type of boundaries do you exercise between yourself and your guests? What is your support system like for when you are inevitably triggered at work? Are you compensated for the time you spend recovering from being triggered at work? Does your program leadership recognize the massive emotional load that this work can carry?
People who self-select to participate in affinity spaces most likely will have a certain level of discomfort in the general population. There is a reason they chose to opt out of the mainstream population. As a guide, how trained and prepared are you to manage that discomfort? Some examples of discomfort I have witnessed are volunteers telling me they are not comfortable riding in cars with men, participants being uncomfortable around other participants due to their substance use, participants telling me about truly horrible events they have experienced, and volunteers telling me they have been kicked out of “mainstream” groups due to personality reasons.
Having a shared background means you will feel more connected to your guests. Are you okay with that? You can’t fix people by exposing them to adventure sports, they have to decide to fix themselves. You may also find that you are more attached to these guests than to guests with whom you do not have a shared background with. Are you okay with that and are you aware how that attachment can affect your judgment? Guides talk about “firing clients” but how will you feel when you inevitably have to “fire” a very emotional member of your affinity group? In my own experience, “firing clients” in a peer support affinity space felt incredibly taxing, and I doubted myself about my decision. Looking back, it is a decision I wish I had done sooner, but because I was emotionally connected with these people, I gave them more chances than they deserved.
Important question: How do you reconcile creating community with managing risk in an outdoor environment where your professional reputation is on the line?
Boundaries get weird in affinity spaces. In my last position, over 50 people had access to my personal email and phone number. It was not until I had been with the program for a year that I was given my own cell phone to use for work. This created a substantial invasion of my personal life and privacy. Imagine walking to yoga and receiving text messages on your direct line from past students begging for help with an unsafe climbing scenario, what a serious invasion of your peace! If your affinity program does not provide staff with resources and training to draw appropriate work/life boundaries, that is something you must advocate for.
Do you also manage volunteers in an affinity space? Volunteers will likely have similar experiences that are common within your affinity group. Ethical volunteer management is quite tricky and I am writing more on this nuanced subject in a coming article. Understand that volunteers who self-select to work in affinity spaces have their own motivations that will likely feel very strong. In these situations, emotional buy-in can be very strong and perhaps overdeveloped. Your job as the guide managing this team is to keep everyone safe while discouraging cult-like mentalities from developing.
Above all, you must champion the best safety practices of your industry. Workplace safety is more important than fostering community.
In addition to your guests, volunteers, and yourself; your employers and board members are also likely part of the same affinity group and will likely bring strong emotional connection to the work you do. While a strong emotional connection to the cause can be inspiring, unchecked emotional connection to the work can create volatile and enmeshed work environments. You may find yourself having to navigate supervisors with strong emotional connections to your affinity group. It is possible that being so emotionally connected to the cause can blunt people’s judgment. Organization leadership can become so mission-focused that they forget to consider the people involved, including you. Your organization should exist to serve the population it is created for, not the egos of leadership.
Affinity spaces are often nonprofits and thus operate at the whim of grant providers. Your job will never be secure. You may find yourself performing tasks that are not in line with your vision because your organization needs the grant money. You may disagree with how leadership and board members go about securing grant funding. Are you okay with your work sites and guests being documented and posted on social media? Are you okay with having to structure your site days so they become elaborate photo shoots? How will you decide between honoring your guests’ privacy and the fact your organization needs cool looking footage for their social media accounts?
On the subject of social media, are you okay with your own personal life and story being shared on social media? As a guide and leader in an affinity space, you exist as a product to be sold to potential guests and donors. Your image and story will be used for marketing. In my experience this can feel extremely invasive and can also be distracting from the work you are doing. Of course, there is also the element of selling yourself in commercial guiding enterprises, but most often those outfitters will want to boast about your technical skills, experience, and positive attitude rather than lived microaggressions and past trauma. After being active in affinity climbing spaces for a decade, I am finding it quite freeing to “opt outside” of the affinity space for a bit. It’s totally okay to ‘just’ be a guide or ‘just’ be a climber.
At the end of the day, my advice is this: don’t give yourself away for free. Demand competitive wages and benefits. You do not need to be reachable 24/7/365. You do not need to do all of your recreating in affinity spaces. It is okay to take breaks from affinity spaces. It is okay to have professional boundaries. It is okay to just climb for yourself. In fact, I encourage it.