BUILDING
RESILIENCE
IN CHILDREN
THROUGH
POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
CHILD ABUSE COUNCIL
SPRING CONFERENCE 2014
Dr. Michael J. Lucido
Clinical Supervisor
North Country CMH
Vikki Seger
Behavior Consultant
Char-Em ISD
Laughter Yoga with Dr. Madan Kataria
Children up to preschool age laugh 300xs/day compared to adults who laugh 15xs/day
Unfortunately, kids start losing this positive experience by kindergarten and onward.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EGTETc5oFU&list=TLzu8TLmwCe3p_6A35JalAW0RvVGEeYzdp
RESILIENCE:
DEFINED
• The capacity to deal effectively with stress and
pressure, to cope with everyday challenges, to
rebound from disappointment, mistakes,
trauma, and adversity, to develop clear and
realistic goals, to solve problems, to interact
comfortably with others and to treat oneself
and others with respect and dignity”.
Goldstein and Brooks (2005)
WHAT ARE THE
POSITIVES?
WHAT IS HIS
POTENTIAL?
WHO IS THIS?
• He was born following a complicated birth that
nearly killed his mother
• Moved around from state to state and city to city
without staying in a house for more than a year
• Mother had addiction and charges of abuse/neglect
• Was bullied and was a minority in his community
• Beat up so badly that he suffered a head injury
• Father never spoke to him despite sending letters
• Truant and had poor grades- dropped out of high
school
• Got in trouble with the law
• Worked odd jobs to help with his mother’s bills
• Dealing with prescription drug dependence
• Uncle committed suicide and was responsible for
helping him to have interest in writing
• Writes about killing people, rape, incest, violence,
drugs
STATS ON TRAUMA
• A report of child abuse is made every 10 seconds
• 90% of sexual abuse are children who know their perpetrator in some way
• 30% of abused and neglected children will later abuse their own children
• 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children had at least one psychological disorder
• 15 times more likely to attempt suicide
• 4 times more likely to become an alcoholic
• 4 times more likely to develop a sexually transmitted disease
• 4 times more likely to inject drugs
• 3 times more likely to use antidepressant medication
• 3 times more likely to be absent from work
• 3 times more likely to experience depression
• 3 times more likely to have serious job problems
• 2.5 times more likely to smoke
• 2 times more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• 2 times more likely to have a serious financial problem
From Recognizetrauma.org and Childhelp.org
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL
IMPLICATIONS OF TRAUMA
• Amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex are
impacted in trauma related stress, and is associated with
increased cortisol and norepinephrine
• Patients with (PTSD) have smaller hippocampal and
anterior cingulate volumes, increased amygdala function,
and decreased medial prefrontal/anterior cingulate
function.
• Increased cortisol and norepinephrine responses to stress.
• Animal studies have proven that treatment for PTSD
improves neurogenesis particularly with memory and
increased hippocampal volume
Bremner (2006) Traumatic Stress: Effects in the Brain from the Dialogues of Clinical Neuroscience
THERE
IS
HOPE
FAILURES =
FUTURE
SUCCESSES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWKhye0vJcQ
• Some failures allow us to grow
HISTORY OF
POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
MARTIN
SELIGMAN
THOUGHT THIS WAS A
COOL PICTURE OF MARTY

• John Stuart Mill- moral actions create happiness for
the most number of people
• Thomas Jefferson- Life, liberty and pursuit of
happiness
• William James- humanism
– Optimal human functioning has to consider the
subjective experience of an individual
• VA and NIMH in 194os- psychology heals diseases
• Maslow’s 1954 book Motivation and Personality
– Positive psychology with self-actualization
– Against disorder and disease model
• Seligman- helping to lead productive, fulfilling lives,
and identifying and nurturing high talent
• Positive Psychology Center at the University of
Pennsylvania, first Positive Psychology Summit, and
special issue of the American Psychologist
• Chris Peterson- Values-in-Action project
Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Positive Psychology Network 2004 progress report.
Seligman, M.E.P. Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
THREE LEVELS
OF POSITIVE
PSYCHOLOGY
• Subjective experiences
– contentment and satisfaction (in the past)
– flow and happiness (in the present)
– hope and optimism (for the future)
• Individual level- ‘good life’ and ‘good person’
– capacity for love and vocation
– Courage
– interpersonal skill
– aesthetic sensibility
– perseverance
– forgiveness
– originality
– future mindedness
– spirituality high talent
– wisdom
• Group level
– Responsibility
– Nurturance
– Altruism
– Civility
– Moderation
– Tolerance
– work ethic
Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi (2000)
PLEASANT
LIFE
ENGAGED
LIFE
• Hedonic-past, present, future
• Positive emotion (joy, love, contentment, pleasure)
• Slow down eating-mindfulness strategy
(Seligman, 2002)
•
•
•
•
•
State of flow and ‘Engaged Life’
Consists in a loss of consciousness and time
Flow occurs in strengths and talents
Flow facilitates learning
Pick up an instrument, write a poem, create a story
(Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Seligman et al., 2009)
MEANINGFUL
LIFE
• meaning is increased through our connections to
others, future generations or causes that transcend
the self
• Meaning consists in knowing highest strengths and
using them to belong to and serve something you
believe is larger than the self
(Seligman, 2002)
In 2 words or less what do you
want most for the children
that you work with?
• Most parents and educators see the
promotion of well-being and character
as an important, if not central, aspect of
schooling.
• Surveys of American parents over the
past 30 years indicate that what’s
most important is that their children
become responsible citizens.
-Cohen (2006)
In 2 words or less what do we
teach in schools ?
What do we look at in therapy?
TAKE A
CHANCE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMjmzhF5320
RESILIENCE
RESEARCH:
THE PENN
RESILIENCY
PROJECT
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
PRP is a group intervention-elementary, M.S.
Cognitive-behavioral/social problem-solving
Ellis' Activating Events, Beliefs, Consequences
Learn to detect inaccurate thoughts, evaluate
for accuracy, and challenge negative beliefs
Problem solving, coping , assertiveness,
negotiation, decision-making, and relaxation
Improve relationships, academics or other
activities
Improved strengths related to learning
Improved social skills
Increased students’ reports of enjoyment and
engagement in school
Gillham & Reivich
VIA
SIGNATURE
TEST FOR
CHILDREN
• Reflects on character strengths
• Focus on helping students to identify
characters strengths in self and others
• Learn to use strengths to overcome
challenges
• Example- wrote narratives about times
when they were at their very best
• Administer VIA with 96 or 198 questions
– Free reports available
• Following results, students reread their
narratives looking to identify strengths
• Nearly every student found at least 2 of
their signature strengths in writings
http://www.viacharacter.org/www/The-Survey
www.authentichappiness.org
FAMILY
STRENGTHS
• Opposite of genogram
looking at negative
interactions and
pathology
• Consider other
interviewing family
members to develop a
‘family tree’ of strengths
• Learning how to use
strengths to overcome
challenges, and
developing a strength
that was not among an
individual’s top five
THINGS TO
CONSIDER
WHEN
WRITING
REPORTS
• Think of all the reports written that did not list
one positive attribute of a child/adolescent
• Although strengths may be included, it often
includes a few short and brief strengths
• Consider the influence a report has on
perceptions of the child with
negative/pathological statements only
• Ask the parent:
– Describe the best things about your child?
– What are her/his most highly developed
skills?
– Give a time when you saw your child
overcome a problem and what help
her/him?
– What does she/he like or enjoy?
– What are you proud of in your child’s life?
POSITIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY
INTERVENTIONS
1. Using Your Strengths: Take the VIA-IS strengths questionnaire to assess your top 5
strengths, and think of ways to use those strengths more in your daily life.
2. Three Good Things/Blessings: Each evening, write down three good things that
happened and why they happened.
3. Obituary/Biography : Imagine that you have passed away after living a fruitful and
satisfying life. What would you want your obituary to say? Write a 1–2 page essay
summarizing what you would like to be remembered for the most.
4. Gratitude Visit: Think of someone to whom you are very grateful, but who you have
never properly thanked. Compose a letter to them describing your gratitude, and
read the letter to that person by phone or in person.
5. Active/Constructive Responding: An active-constructive response is one where you
react in a visibly positive and enthusiastic way to good news from someone else. At
least once a day, respond actively and constructively to someone you know.
6. Savoring: Once a day, take the time to enjoy something that you usually hurry
through (examples: eating a meal, taking a shower, walking to class). When it’s over,
write down what you did, how you did it differently, and how it felt compared to
when you rush through it.
GRATITUDE
LETTERS
• After Signature Strengths,
the next series of lessons for
the 10th grade focused on
building positive emotion.
• Students wrote gratitude
letters to parents, learned
how to savor good memories,
how to overcome negativity
bias, and how gratifying
kindness
• The blessings journal, in
which students nightly kept
track of what went well
(WWW) that day
SHARING
YOUR
THOUGHTS
TO
SOMEONE
YOU LOVE
• Take the time to thank someone you
know and encourage your
clients/students/children to do the same
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx0EtPqDwqk
THREE
GOOD
THINGS
• We instruct the students to write
down three good things that
happened each day for a week. The
three things students list can be
relatively small in importance
Next Three Process Questions:
• Why did this good thing happen?
• What does this mean to you?
• How can you increase the
likelihood of having more of this
good thing in the future?
CONTRIBUTING
• Not just paper shredding and
garbage clean up!
• What could Marcus do for
volunteerism?
• What could Hannah provide to
the community?
• Think outside the box!
RESEARCH
OUTCOMES
• Happy teenagers earn substantially
more income 15 years later than less
happy teens
• Experience more flow at work than
home
• Externalities such as weather , money
or health added marriage religion
together account for no more than
15% of satisfaction
• Pursuit of meaning and engagement
are much more predictive of life
satisfaction than the pursuit of
pleasure
• Growing scientific basis for positive
emotion, engagement and meaning
provide more life satisfaction,
promote learning, creative learning
and well being should be taught
FENWAY
FAITHFUL
HELPS OUT
PERSON
WITH
AUTISM
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhcZRFcjbhw
• Brave, perseverance through the support of the
community
YOU
NEVER
KNOW
WHAT
THEY
WILL
BECOME
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x_F
l3NQVd4#aid=P8qVQVmqSbg
FROM ALL THE
CHILDREN YOU
WORK WITHTHANK YOU FOR
BEING THERE
FOR ME!