Positive psychology and managing serious diseases
August 18, 2007
As you may know I am struggling through a difficult period with an
autoimmune illness, Wegener’s disease. I dislike being a “patient” in every sense of the word but I have had to learn new adaptive skills to weather the storm.
Managing this illness has been life changing to say the least, and my
training in positive psychology has never been more useful. I am no stranger to stress caused by serious disease processes. I’ve been managing much too much stress, especially during the past two years due to my husband’s recurrence of cancer.
I also have many mothering demands and a really full practice to manage. Well, God had other plans and most of the way my life was structured has been turned upside down. I have had to close my psychotherapy practice for now which saddens me greatly. I am taking powerful immune suppressant drugs to put this disease back into remission. If I even catch a cold, its not good!
Its hard to watch yourself transform from a person of relatively good health into a patient. Not fun but temporary! I hate being dependent on others but I am learning. Illness is a wonderful teacher when God can’t get your attention in other ways!! There are so many gifts and blessings, even for “slow-learners” like me! 
. . . So on many levels, things are really transforming! I have been using all the wonderful things I’ve learned over the years from Positive Psychology. I meditate each day, use guided imagery and hypnosis and practice all the “learned optimism” and cognitive techniques to get me through! Helping facilitate mind-body communication is key!
When it comes to medical decisions and taking tests, too much Optimism is not good. Marty Seligman suggests realistic, accurate optimism (maybe even pessimism) when making medical decisions. This makes a lot of sense to me now.
Gratitude and forgiveness of self are key to moving through! I love to
learn and do research on new things and I have marshaled all sorts of help from integrative and alternative medicine. It’s so exciting and I am VERY open to using all sorts of cutting-edge information. Curiosity is a good strength to have at this time!
Thanks for your good wishes, prayers and love… onward!
Positive Psychology in Education
August 3, 2007
What happens when positive psychology principles are truly applied in an educational setting? Answering this question invites at least two tactics: 1st, identifying which principles are in question; and 2nd, considering schools which may not identify with the label “positive psychology”.
Let’s consider that the underlying principle of positive psychology as applied to education is simply focusing on what’s right with individual students while recognizing their learning difficulties and challenges. A school that successfully applies that method is Landmark School (http://www.landmarkschool.org), a school for elementary, middle- and high-school students with verbal learning disabilities. Practically speaking, this means that students who are not able to perform at their grade level in reading, writing, or arithmetic are not penalized for what they are not achieving. Instead, they are rewarded (generally with praise or encouragement) for every accomplishment, whether academic or social behavior, and regardless of its scope. Each step forward, no matter how small, is celebrated.
What happens when students begin to receive this new sort of response after years of low test grades, frequent reprimands, and continuous failure for their efforts? After a few months, they begin to respond differently, to take risks in class by volunteering for board work or asking a question. Put another way, the students begin to feel hope. The challenge to the teacher is to design the tasks to be small enough for student success, yet large enough to maintain student interest.
Landmark School includes micro-structure of tasks as one of their basic teaching principles, yet does not self-identify as a school based on positive psychology. It is my opinion that Landmark exemplifies positive psychology in education.
Please share your perspective! If you have experience of principles of positive psychology applied in another educational setting, let us know.