Amit G. Oren, PhD, assistant clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry, has been invited to be a keynote speaker at the 2023 International Positive Psychology Association congress in Vancouver from July 20-23.
Oren will present her treatment program “Permission to Flourish,™" a weeklong healing base camp for Ukrainian refugees that Oren developed last summer when she traveled to Piesendorf, Austria, to meet and help treat Ukrainian refugees.
Permission to Flourish™ is an evidence-based, family-focused approach founded on the principles of Positive Psychology’s PERMA+ model. According to Dr. Martin Seligman, the acronym PERMA stands for the components that make life worth living: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and purpose, and achievement. The + includes biological components such as sleep, physical activity, and nutrition.
Using psychoeducational modules and nature-based activities like mountaineering and hiking, participants are empowered to cultivate their strengths, resilience, positive emotions, meaningful relationships, and a sense of meaning and purpose in order to overcome the devastating effects of war.
Oren plans to return to the Alps in August to set up and implement two more healing base camps. This time the participants will not be Ukranian refugees, but Ukranian Gold Star families still living in Ukraine.
Both gatherings were coordinated by Mountain Seed Foundation, a nonprofit Virginia-based organization founded by an American veteran which works to heal children and families from war-torn countries like Ukraine.