(Instructor America Young creates a full moon pose with children in a yoga/mindfulness class at the Salmon Center for Early Education in Worcester. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Friday, March 16, 2012

Enter a classroom full of preschoolers and you might expect a frenzy of activity; running, jumping, playing and shouting.

But if Rose Pavlov and America Young are in the room, it will be a different story: children sitting calmly in a circle, breathing deeply or doing yoga, pretending to be a butterfly. Or a bear or a flower, or whatever their young minds can imagine. It’s all part of Ms. Pavlov’s yoga and mindfulness program for preschoolers, which she presents along with Clark University yoga instructor America Young, at preschools wherever requested. The program includes children from Worcester, Shrewsbury, Westboro, Northboro, Auburn and Paxton.

And why do children 2-1/2 through 5 need yoga and relaxation? “There’s been a nationwide increase in aggression among children,” Ms. Pavlov said. “Stabbing with writing utensils, beyond pushing and pulling and biting; really aggressive incidents in preschool.” Ms. Pavlov’s knowledge on this subject comes from research by Ivy Child International, a Worcester-based nonprofit founded by Ms. Pavlov and devoted to “cross-cultural, positive psychological services.”

Research there also showed that such aggressive behavior was because of stress. Further research and clinical experience also showed an antidote. 

“With the research that we conducted with pediatric cancer patients, it showed that children had a multitude of benefits when dealing with stress through mindfulness and yoga,” Ms. Pavlov said. “Our theory was that if it can help with coping with physiological stressors, it may also help with environmental stressors.”In short, learning to deal with stress in ways other than lashing out could benefit everyone.

“We all deal with stressors, but how we respond and cope is really essential,” she said. “If we teach children how to cope with stressors and how to self-regulate their emotions by identifying triggers of negative emotion and identifying appropriate and constructive outlets, they may better have the opportunity to thrive when facing challenges,” she said.

Just how does this work for young children?

Ms. Pavlov teaches mindfulness first, deep breathing and calmness. Children then move on to traditional yoga and finally on to a portion of the program that gives their imaginations free rein: They transform into something from nature, a butterfly or a tree. They discuss nature and where their imaginations can take them.

Part of the mindfulness portion includes an activity Ms. Pavlov created to help focus and calm children, called the Calming Hands technique. Children in stress learn to place their hands on a copy of their own hand with the fingers numbered and count and breathe. The activity helps calm and focus them.

The children respond well to the program, Ms. Pavlov said. She hears from teachers and parents that the long-term goal of the program is working: Children are taking away from the 16-week program, currently being taught at the Salmon Center for Early Education on Plantation Street, the skills they need to deal with stress. They stop, breathe, think and then act.

Part of the program is also teaching children to identify feelings such as anger, frustration and confusion that often impel the young to act quickly in destructive ways. But also to identify the good feelings.

She’s astounded at how easily that lesson takes root with children. Her own test group — her son, Noah, 6, and Laiya, 4 — have shown her just how easily children can learn to identify feelings and deal with them.

At the end of the course, children are encouraged to talk about their experience, an eye-opening experience for the adults around them. “It’s really incredible to see the world through their lens, and what they’re experiencing and what they find are their areas of difficulty,” Ms. Pavlov said.

Ms. Pavlov, a licensed mental health provider and founder of Ivy, began her journey in India in 1995, working with Mother Teresa and her group in the slums of cities in India. “That’s the experience that really changed my life,” she said.

There, children living under the most adverse circumstances could be brought some peace, Ms. Pavlov found, through yoga and mindfulness . . . and music. Ms. Pavlov is also a musician and in India learned to play the veena, an Indian string instrument. “I always had a passion for working with children,” she said. In India, she not only indulged that passion and joined it with music, but she began to focus her future on working with children and helping them deal with their stress as well.

In the United States, Ms. Pavlov founded Ivy to focus on bringing nonpharmaceutical solutions to the stress that children labor under.

The yoga and mindfulness program is one of three new programs by Ivy, the other two focusing on bullying and multicultural and music education. Ivy provides the programs to schools, groups and individuals, and Ms. Pavlov hopes to see sustainable funding sources soon so that more and more children will learn to stop and take a deep breath, not just now, but in their future.

To learn more, visit www.ivychild.org.

Rose Pavlov, GoLocalWorcester Child Expert

Rose Pavlov, GoLocalWorcester Child Expert

The phrase “being in the zone” describes a state of energized, focused attention when deeply engaged in a task or activity. During that time, we experience positive emotions from using our optimum potential in a productive way.

How can we sustain that “zone” to live a fulfilling life?

That’s what Positive Psychology explores.

Some of us are burdened by a painful past. Some of us are struggling with challenges in the here and now. And some of us are troubled by the uncertainties that lie ahead. These are universal realities. But how can we respond to situations and experiences in a way that gives us ownership of our lives or to redirect ourselves on a new path?

That’s what Positive Psychology explores.

A Brief History

The origin of positive psychology is often attributed to American professor of psychology, Abraham Maslow, in his 1954 book, “Motivation and Personality.”  He thought the field of psychology had “revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological height.” There were/are many other influential thinkers who have since contributed to the field, the most notable being University of Pennsylvania professor and founding father of positive psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman.

In 1998, Dr. Seligman (“Learned Optimism” and “Authentic Happiness”) revived Maslow’s thinking and shaped it into a credible and recognizable area of study. It has gained popularity outside of the field and its techniques are used to teach mindfulness in schools, stress management in the workplace, and even for combating trauma in conflict zones.

Building Capacity Through Positiveness

Positive psychology’s mission is to bridge the Ivory Tower, or the rigor of academic research, to Main Street, or practical self-help counsel. So, it is a serious science that is backed by numerous studies and yet believes that positive life habits can be taught and learned through daily exercises and personalized goal setting.  Examples would be gratitude journals, meditation, music and movement, and so forth.

Most importantly, a person’s unique qualities and abilities (personal assets) are identified and utilized to help them overcome life’s many challenges. Essentially, it is about building capacity within people so they can thrive by strengthening their psychological immune system.

The Critical Need For A Positive Model

Behavioral and mental issues are being detected among adolescents and young children at an alarming rate at this time in the U.S. and around the world. The significance and urgency of equipping youth with the coping skills to overcome adversity is undeniable.

In the U.S., depression is 10 times greater today than in 1960, and the average age for depression today is 14.5 as compared to 29.5 in 1960. According to UNICEF’s 2011 “State of the World’s Children Report”:

• Depression is the single largest contributor to the global burden of disease for people aged 15–19.
•  Suicide is one of the three leading causes of mortality among people aged 15–35.
•  Roughly [50 percent] of lifetime mental disorders begin before age 14, and 70% [develop] by age 24.

A LOCAL RESOURCE

Among other facilities, the University of Massachusetts Medical School Center for Mindfulness in Worcester, founded in 1995 by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, offers classes (primarily for adults) to build awareness, perception, resilience, and compassion.  Highlights include the Stress Reduction Program, Mindful Leadership Program, and Schools and Teachers Program. However, the Center has expanded its offerings to young people through a pilot program.

Rose Pavlov is a Cross-Cultural Child Specialist and founder of Ivy Child International in Worcester.

This article originally appeared here.

Child-Centered Mental Health Care Focusing On The Positives

Ivy Child International (ICI), based in Worcester, Massachusetts, is the brainchild of Rose Pavlov, a Cross-Cultural Positive Child Specialist. ICI attained its nonprofit 501 (c) (3) status in 2011 and provides quality, individualized cross-cultural positive psychological services to children, families, and communities worldwide. It achieves this through personalized consultations, assessments, trainings, and research.  Its mission is to “help each child achieve their best by recognizing and enhancing their unique strengths and abilities while encouraging and enabling families to participate in the growth of their child.”

“From a young age, I knew it was my passion to work with children. Beginning in 1995, my work with Mother Theresa and the Sisters of Charity serving slum dwellers in India to now working in Haiti with victims of natural devastation, have reinforced my belief in the positive impact one person can have on the life of another,” says Pavlov.

In response to those beliefs, she has created her own Cross-Cultural Positive Psychological Method and is pioneering it through ICI. The method combines a culturally sensitive approach with that of Positive Psychology in its client-centered care, research, and training. Pavlov utilizes an understanding of cultural nuances specific to a client’s background that too often are overlooked or not known.

As she explains, “Cultural competence is an essential and an ongoing developmental process. It involves the continual acquisition of knowledge, clinically astute fine-tuning of skills, and graduated self-evaluation. It is an aspiration to strive for.  It does not occur as a result of a one-day training or reading of a self-help book but is an evolving process that leads to discovery of one’s self and the world.”

In order for her clients to achieve and experience positive emotions, Pavlov formulates a positive psychological plan (PPP) for each client.

“The purpose of the PPP is to create an action-oriented plan of exercises and applications that individuals can implement in their daily lives so they have clear ownership of their progress, in addition to the monitoring and feedback provided by ICI’s professionals,” she states.

Positive individual traits are identified through strengths and virtues, such as the capacity for love and work, compassion, resilience, creativity, curiosity, integrity, self knowledge, and self control, thereby broadening and enhancing a child’s overall well-being.

Pavlov has been inspired by the work of Abraham Maslow, the founder of humanistic psychology, who states, “The science of psychology has been far more successful on the negative than on the positive side; it has revealed to us much about man’s shortcomings, his illnesses, his sins, but little about his potentialities, his virtues, his achievable aspirations, or his psychological height.”

Depression is 10 times greater today than in 1960 and the average age for depression today is 14.5 as compared to 29.5 in 1960.  So, current mental health statistics speak to a critical need for a different approach by psychological service providers.  To support this, Pavlov cites the findings of Dr. Martin Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, presented at a meeting on preventing depression sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. “He revealed that the ‘use of positive psychology techniques halved the rate of depression in three studies of young adults and children that included as much as 10 years of follow-up’.”

As such, Pavlov’s work is well founded and relevant for today’s youth who are battling a range of issues.  She looks at the whole child and helps build healthy habits to last a lifetime. Also, ICI serves as a gateway for children and their families to a professional network of experts in nutrition, exercise, alternative medicine, art therapy, etc.  Though Ivy Child International is based in Worcester, Massachusetts, it is poised to expand virtual access to services to a worldwide audience.

For further information, call 508-299-7905, email rpavlov@ivychild.org or log on to www.ivychild.org.

[Note: updated since original distribution (August 2011) for accuracy - revised November 2011]

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