Fascinating research by Amy Cuddy, social psychologist at Harvard Business School, has important implications for restorative justice interventions and for healing.
Feeling powerful enough that we believe we can cope with trauma is vital for developing resiliency. For many years since I was harmed by abuse as a child and young adult, I knew that it was simply in the “trying of different things” that changed the course of my life. I went from high school dropout, teen mom, imprisoned juvenile to college graduate, mother of three wonderful children, doing work I love, and being athletic into my “golden years.”
Change your posture and change your life.
No matter what has happen to us, we control how we respond and taking a powerful pose will help push us into a better place in times of hardship.
Sorry I forgot to save correctly including mentioning how consistent Cuddy’s work is with Goethe the 16th century philosopher; with Ellen Langer’s work in psychology of possibility; and Insoo Kim Berg and Steve deShazer’s work in solution-focused brief therapy.
I will stand up straight in spite of my errors and try and fix later!
Aloha, Lorenn
I’m working with an organization in DC called ACCESSYouth- we work with the DC public school system using facilitative mediation and restorative justice. I would love to talk to you about possibly joining forces and collaborating if you’re interested.
Sorry for this very late reply Katherine! Would love to connect if you are still interested: lorenn@hawaii.edu