Global Soaringwords' SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiative to Impact Community Well-Being

Global Soaringwords' SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiative to Impact Community Well-Being

Global Soaringwords' SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiative to Impact Community Well-Being (#268)

Lisa Buksbaum ¹ , Stacey Flanagan ² , Richard Tedeschi ³

CEO & Founder, Soaringwords, Soaringwords, New York, United States
Director , Jersey City Dept. Health & Human Services, Jersey City, New Jersey, United States
Distinguished Chair , Boulder Crest Institute for Post Traumatic Growth, Bluemont, VA, United States

Symposium Summary:

The COVID pandemic exacerbated health inequity among marginalized individuals. To mitigate suffering and enhance physical, emotional, and mental well-being for individuals in systemically disparate communities worldwide, Soaringwords collaborated with health and human service departments, municipalities, and non-profit organizations in Lima, Peru; Haifa, Israel; Jersey City, US; Silicon Valley, US; and Tampa, US. Using a post-traumatic growth framework, Soaringwords has motivated more than 500,000 people from all walks of life to take active roles in self-healing through immersive SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiatives. Lisa Buksbaum, CEO & Founder of Soaringwords; Dr. Richard Tedeschi, pioneering psychologist and researcher who coined the term post-traumatic growth; and Stacey Flanagan, director of the Jersey City Health & Human Services Department, will present a case study based on an integrative positive health workshop initiative featuring Positive Psychology thought leaders (including Rich Tedeschi, post-traumatic growth; James Pennebaker, positive narrative; Tal Ben-Shahar, optimism; Angela Duckworth, resilience/grit; Jane Dutton, altruism/high-quality connections; and Kristin Neff, self-compassion). Each module includes several Positive Psychology interventions and companion “positive dose effect” immersive exercises. The Soaringwords SOARING into Strength model is a strength-based approach which encompasses: Shifting mental models from helplessness to strength, building Optimism, encouraging Altruism through pay-it-forward activities, learning strategies to recognize and amplify Resilience, and integrating the healing power of Imagery, positive Narrative and Gratitude. The team will present qualitative and quantitative findings that demonstrate the impact of positive interventions on strengths-finding, the five domains of Posttraumatic growth, and altruistic interventions.

Symposium Presentation 1: Scalable, replicable cross-cultural interventions for global communities

Presenter: Lisa Honig Buksbaum, CEO & Founder of Soaringwords

Abstract: Lisa will present findings from a one-year Silicon Valley SOARING into Strength Positive Health initiative among leading community non-profit organizations; data from a study conducted in the largest pediatric hospital in South America, located in Lima, Peru; data from a three-year-study in the Tampa Bay Community in collaboration with several health service agencies and community foundations; and findings from a recent study in Israel’s leading trauma hospital. This presentation illuminates the impact that positive interventions can have on individuals, organizations, and at the communal level as suggested by the work of Niemiec, R. Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners (Hogrefe, 2017); Tedeschi, R. Transformed by Trauma: Stories of Posttraumatic Growth (Tedeschi, 2020); and Tedeschi. R. Posttraumatic Growth: Theory, Research, and Applications (Tedeschi et al., 2018).

Symposium Presentation 2: Elevating well-being with post-traumatic growth

Presenter: Dr. Richard Tedeschi, pioneering psychologist who coined the term Posttraumatic growth

Abstract: Dr. Tedeschi will discuss the importance of teaching and modeling the five domains of post-traumatic growth (relatedness to people/valuing relationships more; personal strength/feeling stronger than ever before; heightened appreciation of life; new possibilities; and renewed spirituality/religious connection/existential experiences) and present the findings from health care professionals and the clients of social service agencies.

Symposium Presentation 3: Scaling well-being initiatives for global communities

Presenter: Stacey Flanagan, Director of Jersey City Department of Health & Human Services; and Lisa Honig Buksbaum, CEO & Founder of Soaringwords

Abstract: Director Flanagan and Lisa Buksbaum will co-present inputs, obstacles, and findings from implementing a successful multi-year community mental health initiative offered to the 270,000 Jersey City residents featuring the following components: 1) professional training initiative that was part of the World Economic Forum Healthy Cities and Communities pilot designed to bolster well-being and mental health resources for Jersey City Health & Human Service professionals; 2) an eight-week summer series for Jersey City residents; 3) a series for leaders of Jersey City faith-based communities; and 4) a targeted initiative funded by the NJ State Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Disaster and Terrorism Branch to support 600 Jersey City students in several schools who witnessed a mass shooting/terror attack.

Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Health and Medicine, Mental Illness, Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth

#IPPAWorldCongress

Authors contributing to this presentation.

Buksbaum, L

Lisa Honig Buksbaum, MAPP, MBA CEO & Founder, Soaringwords Professional Speaker Biography Lisa Honig Buksbaum is a passionary: a visionary driven by great passion and action. An intuitive healer, well-loved inspirational speaker, workshop leader and facilitator, Lisa has shared her wisdom with thousands of people throughout the world. Three experiences with death and illness in her family during a ten-month period motivated her to launch Soaringwords, a not-for-profit organization she founded to inspire ill children, families, adults, and healthcare professionals to take active roles in self-healing. Since 2001, Lisa has shared Soaringwords’ SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiatives with more than 500,000 people. She’s been featured as an expert on ABC News, Fortune Small Business, USA Today, Delta Sky Magazine, and CEO to Watch in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Lisa graduated with honors from The University of Pennsylvania; holds an MBA in Marketing from Columbia University Graduate School of Business; and a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from The University of Pennsylvania. She has a certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and a certificate from the American Institute for Mental Imagery. Lisa has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist at dozens of professional and scientific conferences including the International Positive Psychology Association (2019, 2015, 2013), European Positive Psychology Conference (2018, 2016, 2014), Canadian Positive Psychology Conference (2018, 2016, 2014), and International Positive Education Network (2018, 2016). Lisa has led workshops as a scholar in residence and at grand rounds at leading universities, medical schools and nursing schools, including University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, UVA School of Medicine & UVA School of Nursing, NYU, Columbia University, Tecmilienio University in Mexico, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. She has spoken at Advertising Women of New York, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, MGM Grand Women of Color Conference, and Working Mother Media Diversity & Inclusion Conference. She has led professional development workshops at dozens of Fortune 50 companies such as Accenture, Cigna, Cisco, Eli Lilly, Facebook, Google, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan Chase, New York Life, SONY, Verizon, and Viacom. Lisa lives in New York City with her husband, Jacob. Her pride and joy are her two grown sons, Jonathan and Joshua, daughter-in-law Evelyn, and delicious grandbaby Charlotte. She gets her energy from swimming each day and connecting with people in meaningful ways. Soaringwords’ SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiative is delivered through 24 virtual workshops embedded with customized video content from leading Positive Psychology practitioners anchored with several empirically-valid behavioral exercises. The SOARING into Strength Initiative has been chosen as the mental health component for the global pilot launch of the World Economic Forum’s Healthy Cities and Communities Initiative. The SOARING into Strength initiative has been launched in Jersey City, Silicon Valley, Tampa, and the State of New Jersey. SOARING into Strength Scientific Model: After inspiring thousands of children to take active roles in their own healing in 196 hospitals around the world, Soaringwords codified its unique approach into a scientific prototype called the SOARING into Strength positive health model to enhance the well-being of ill children, families and adults grappling with challenges and trauma. The model stands for Shifting, Optimism, Altruism, Resilience, Imagery, Narrative, & Gratitude based on seven empirically- valid Positive Psychology components. To date, the SOARING into Strength model provides globally-replicable interventions that result in a positive elevation in mental, physical, and emotional health to accelerate transformative healing for thousands of children, families and healthcare professionals.

Flanagan, S

Tedeschi, R

Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychological Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Distinguished Chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth, in Bluemont, Virginia, where he has been one of the developers of programs based on posttraumatic growth principles to help combat veterans and first responders. He has published several books and numerous professional articles on posttraumatic growth, an area of research that he developed while at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Tedeschi serves as a consultant to the American Psychological Association on trauma and resilience, is a Fellow of the Division of Trauma Psychology and the Division of Psychotherapy, and is Past President of the North Carolina Psychological Association.

Global Soaringwords' SOARING into Strength Positive Health Initiative to Impact Community Well-Being (#268)

Symposium Summary:

Add notes

Buksbaum, L

Flanagan, S

Tedeschi, R

Login