Resilience and the importance of relationships – part 2

Resilience and the importance of relationships – part 2

More than a year ago, in this post, I’ve announced that I was going to study resilience in teachers in at-risk contexts in my master’s thesis[1]. I will now share with you the results of this research. Teachers in at-risk contexts The study was conducted with a group of teachers who teaches an alternative education program (PIEF). This program is aimed at young people at risk of dropping out of school. One of the most surprising outcomes is that these teachers do not consider that teaching in this program contributes to their occupational stress. This is a surprise, because this is one of those programs that most teachers run away from! Resilience in Relationships One of the explanations may lie in the ability of these teachers to trigger a set of resources to respond to the program’s challenges. Among the various resources identified, interpersonal relationships are highlighted, both inside and outside the school. For example, a teacher, referring to a member of the school board, says, “She has helped me a lot, maybe even without realizing the other emotional side I have”. Interpersonal relationships help teachers to remain resilient on a daily basis: “Friends and my family are my balance”, says another. Cultivating relationships in the school Cultivating relationships, both at work and elsewhere, thus seems to play an important role in building resilience. Informal contexts, such as the school bar, seem to be particularly good for bringing people together, facilitating, among other things, problem solving: “And as we drink coffee in the bar, we are talking about the class. (…) We are sharing many things about the class...
Seeding Values In School Settings

Seeding Values In School Settings

“Seeding Values” & Positive Education “Semear Valores”/ Seeding Values (“SV”) is the premise and the name of the program that is being implemented in a school in Cascais, Portugal, with 50 children. The program is born from the will of a mother – with an Executive Master in Applied Positive Psychology (EMAPP)[1] – to bring Positive Psychology to the education of the youth and a whole strength based language. Positive Education is based on building children’s strengths, enabling them to reach their full potential[2]. School is the best place for initiatives that promote children’s happiness and well-being[3]. Children spend a great amount of their time there and the experiences they live in school have a significant impact on their well-being[4]. Positive education programs have several benefits, namely, they contribute to resilience, positive emotions, assertiveness, creativity and optimism and to the prevention of depression[2]. “Seeding Values”, Forces of Character & Values Based on Peterson and Seligman’s Model of Virtues and Character Strengths[5], “SV” aims to promote the use of character strengths in the service of values ​​in children from 1st to 4th grade (6 to 10 years old). The decision to work with virtues and character strengths was made because: first, they are related with well-being and flourishing among children[6], and second, it is possible to cultivate and strengthen them through regular practice[7]. In this program, the use of character strengths is grounded in universally accepted human values ​​(e.g., Peace)[8] and is headed to contexts where children can apply them (e.g., Family). Value-based education is associated with the question of “what makes a ‘good’ citizen?” and allows us to address...
Flourishing – Embrace The Wholeness Of Life

Flourishing – Embrace The Wholeness Of Life

If it is true that positive emotions and positive thinking are beneficial to happiness, making them universal and indispensable requirements for flourishing is reducing the importance of human emotions repertoire. Too much focus on positive thinking and optimism, for example, may even have counterproductive effects leading to the development of feelings of frustration and discouragement for those who do not meet these conditions when in fact challenges and setbacks can also take place in a flourishing life. Effectively, positive emotions have no basis in all situations. Thus, the path to individual flourishing implies accepting the complexity of life which means the acceptance of the entire repertoire of human emotions and feelings, even those commonly tagged as negatives. But after all, what is positive and negative in life? Context matters Positive psychology as the science that studies the conditions and processes that contribute to the flourishing and optimal functioning of people, groups and institutions (1), has been placing the context as a central point of the conception of positive. In this perspective, positive and negative are dynamic concepts anchored in the notion of dialectics rather than the traditional dichotomous approach where positivity and negativity arise as opposing poles. Thus the positive and the negative are associated with the context and not bound to a conceptual immutability which means that what is positive now may not be in another circumstance. This means that the notion of well-being is quite comprehensive and can embrace negative emotions as long as they serve the purpose of making individuals feel and function better (2). Appreciate the wholeness of life For me it has been meaningful...
Resilience and the importance of relationships

Resilience and the importance of relationships

Resilience was the most researched word in 2015 in the online dictionary Priberam[1] both by the Portuguese and Brazilian users. This clearly shows the curiosity that the concept is causing in people from Lusophone-speaking countries. Resilience can be understood as “the human capacity to deal with, overcome, learn from, or even been transformed by the experiences of adversity”[2]. Crossing paths with resilience… My curiosity about resilience was triggered several years ago when I was working with young people in vulnerable communities; was felt after a very adverse experience in 2014; studied 6 months later in the Executive Master of Applied Positive Psychology and is now being explored as part of my master’s thesis on resilience in teachers that work with students with school failure, truancy and dropout. And why has “resilience” become so important in my life? As the writer and poet Maya Angelou, I believe that “words are things” and, if on one hand they have the power to hurt others, on the other hand they can be enablers. Words such as “resilience” can be a counterweight to others such as “risk”, “adversity”, “stress” or “trauma”. They can help us reframe and restructure our life experiences, rescuing us from the burden of negative labels. Resilience in teachers Going back to my thesis project on teacher resilience, I want to explore the influence of relationships in its construction. Suniya Luthar[3] says “resilience rests, fundamentally, on relationships”. The relationships that teachers establish daily with their students; colleagues and other professionals; with their friends and family contain an amazing potential for the daily construction of their resilience[4,5]. But how? The main...
Your Strengths Narrative

Your Strengths Narrative

From the stories you tell to your strengths narrative “The more we share our own stories, the closer we all become.”[1] Who did you get those strengths from? What stories have you been told about yourself that relate to your strengths? Have your strengths always been there or have they grown in you? How does it feel to know you will be passing them on to the next generation? Perhaps you’ve answered most of these questions as you reflected upon your character strengths (those positive traits shown in feelings, thoughts, and actions, which are the foundation of optimal life-long development and thriving[2]). But what would you discover if you directed these questions towards your friends and family? What if you used them on your coaching or therapy sessions? From wondering to working Lately, I have wondered about these questions as well as the potential of considering our character strengths a part of our identity and life narrative. So based on the idea that our experiences gain significance from being embedded in our narrative[3] and that positive questions are a powerful means towards positive change[4]. I developed a Narrative-Appreciative Character Strengths Interview. Inspired by David Epston and Kay Ingamells[5] I aim at fostering a positive perspective of the interviewees on their character strengths as idiosyncratic traits which have a story, a legacy (both inherited and transferable) and a future to be framed in a coherent narrative wholeness. The narrative-appreciative interview into practice Before I empirically tested this interview on a group, measuring participants’ happiness and strengths use before and after applying it, I tested it on my father. It was...
Wishes for 2016 – EMAPP Team

Wishes for 2016 – EMAPP Team

Dan Collinson, our Positive Psychology People “liason” has challenged the Portuguese team to write the January post on the theme: “wishes for 2016”. We’ve loved the idea and based on the “gratitude exercise”, we’ve decided to add to our wishes, the things that we feel blessed for in the past year, 2015. So each member was invited to do this exercise and we are very happy to share it with you. I’m grateful to 2015, because… HAM: We organized, with great success and impact, the II Portuguese Congress on Positive Psychology; We opened the 4th Edition of our Executive Master on Applied Positive Psychology, with another fabulous group of students and scholars; We had wonderful invited scholars from around the world, that are top specialists on Positive Psychology, visiting our school and sharing cutting edge data; But most of all, I am grateful for those I love and those who love me, and for the richness of my Relational Goods. AVA: I have a beautiful family. Home is my place and is where I like to be. Also it is where I like to see my five lovely children fulfilled and happy. Their well-being is oxygen for me. Being around them makes me remember every day the essential… To be more and more present. Gratitude for every friend and every moment spent with friends. I am grateful because I’ve started my PhD in Social Sciences, with specialisation in social policy and learning is always a source of great joy. PS: One of my biggest dreams was planted: I got pregnant and I’m about to become a mom! I’ve postgraduated...