Rony Berger, Ph.D.
Ben Gurion University, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Rony Berger is a senior clinical psychologist and a family and child therapist who is an internationally recognized expert in dealing with the psychological preparation for and aftermath of terrorism and other major disasters. Dr. Berger is on the faculty of Emergency Medicine at Ben Gurion University, a senior member of the PREPARED center for emergency response research as well as on the faculty of the Stress, Crisis and Trauma program at Tel Aviv University. He is the Director of Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Unit at Brit Olam, an international humanitarian organization aims at alleviating the psychological sufferingof traumatized and impoverished communities. Additionally, he is on the on the advisory board of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University where he assists in designing compassion cultivation programs as well collaborate with Prof. Philip Zimbardo (The Stanford Prison Experiment) on developing manuals to enhance community resiliency and promote pro-social orientation. Dr. Berger and Prof. Zimbardo have been the PI's of a large international study on transformation from extremism into pro-sociality which has been featured in an upcoming movie, the 10% (Michael Moore, Executive Director). The results of this study and the anti-radicalization and anti-prejudice programs that resulted from it will be reported in the upcoming book, Heroic Transformation. Dr. Berger is currently developing with the the Mind and Life Institute a new educational program based on civil ethics geared to cultivate compassion and pro-social orientation.
Panel: Mindfulness in Communities Experiencing Trauma
Enhancing Resiliency and Cultivating Compassion in Youth
2:00pm – 4:00pm on Saturday, April 18, 2015
Sound Room, Bell Harbor International Conference Center
This lecture starts by briefly defining the concepts of a resiliency and compassion from both an individual and collective perspectives. Thereafter, I will summarize studies that demonstrate the link between exposure to stressful and traumatic conditions, post traumatic symptomatology, threat perception and a variety of anti-social phenomena such as exclusionist attitudes, ethnocentrism, and hostility toward minorities.
This link is served as the theoretical basis for designing EARSE-STRESS- PRO-SOCIAL (ESPS), a comprehensive school-based program geared to enhance students' resiliency and promote tolerance and acceptance of the other. I will describe the program and share empirical evidence that demonstrate its efficacy in reducing post-traumatic symptoms, anxiety and somatization while simultaneously reducing stereotyping, prejudices and discriminatory tendencies toward Arab students.
Next, I will describe a new stereotype reduction program, the Art of Living together (AOLT) that is based on contact theory and compassion mind training. I will discuss the program and outline the specific intergroup processes, tolerant building strategies and contemplative practices that were utilized in it. The program has shown its efficacy in reducing stereotyping, prejudices and discriminatory tendencies in Arab and Jewish elementary school students. A short movie that was done on the program will be screened.
I will then describe a new and exciting international project which was initiated by the Dali Lama in order to promote civil ethics among youth. I will discuss the principles of "Call To Care", a teachers delivered program that combines skill-training, social-emotional learning and contemplative practices geared to develop compassion in teachers and students in schools. I will share some preliminary data from the Israeli version of the program.
Finally, I will end by talking about the future trends in creating resilient and caring communities around the globe.