In 2010 Dr. Naomi Baum was part of a mission to Haiti. At the time, she was a psychologist with 30 years of experience. In the year 2000 she started working specifically with trauma, when the second Intifada began.
With that background, Dr. Baum realized that in Israel and abroad there was a need to reach more children than is possible through individual or even group therapy sessions. She turned her efforts to training teachers to build resilience in the classroom, understanding that the adults in a child’s environment have the greatest impact on that child’s mental health and resilience.
Baum also created the Building Resilience Intervention (BRI) model and in 2020 she co-authored the book “ISRESILIENCE: What Israelis can Teach the World.”
Due to the fact that often teachers and parents are coping with their own trauma, Baum created a resilience workbook for school-aged children, that kids could work on in the classroom or in the home, with the help of an adult or independently.
The workbooks were translated and used all over the world — in Mexico, Spain, Haiti and in Nepal, after the earthquakes there. The original was published in Hebrew, English, Arabic, Spanish, French, French, Russian, Haitian and Nepalese. It was generic, so it could be used anywhere in times of war or climate disasters.
In 2012, Tzivy Reiter, LCSW, Director of Children’s Services at Ohel Children’s and Family Services organization in New York and a specialist in children’s mental health, bereavement, trauma and disaster mental health, was running a crisis counseling program at Ohel for survivors of Hurricane Sandy. Reiter said, “I was always fascinated to see how some kids who endured the most difficult hardships were able to prove themselves resilient while others struggled much more. It seemed to me that there were certain ingredients that contributed to a more resilient future for some of them.”
“I got the idea to create a resource that would help kids in their ability to overcome adversity and be more resilient. That’s when I found Dr. Baum.” She collaborated with Naomi to reach a new population of children who were reeling from the aftermath of the deadly storm. Ohel purchased the right to material from Naomi’s original book, used it as a base to develop a new workbook and implemented it in classrooms throughout New York City who were most impacted by Hurricane Sandy, including students whose homes and classrooms were destroyed. Ohel produced another version of the workbook in early 2019, following the November 2018 Malibu wildfires, similar to the Hurricane version but with wildfire reflection prompts, for use in Ohel’s trauma response work in California at that time.
And then, COVID-19 hit.
Reiter once again collaborated with Dr. Baum to produce a Covid version of the workbook, called “My COVID-19 Resilience Workbook.” It helped children process their experiences through COVID, quarantine, long distance learning and social isolation and was used by 10,000 children in Ohel’s school-based services network. As the pandemic wound down, Tzivy and Naomi realized it was time to adapt it to a generic version..
They went back to the drawing board, to incorporate the latest research on emotional regulation, and added a lot about the little known eighth sense called interoception. “Which is about where you feel feelings in your body. how do you know what you’re feeling, for example, is it excitement or is it anxiety?” says Baum. Reiter added, “More importantly, where are you feeling it? Is it in the fluttering of your stomach, is it in your clenched fists?”
Thinking of my own grandchildren, I asked, “is part of this helping the children identify what they are feeling physically? So they think, ‘I’ll know this feeling is nervousness because I have to finish something and I’m not getting it done,’ or ‘I’ll know that it’s fear I’m feeling?’”
“Yes,” Baum said. “Not a small part of building resilience is being able to talk about how you feel, which means being able to be conversant in emotions — giving a name to something, being able to identify how does it feel? What do you think about when you do that? What’s your behavior like? That understanding is a big part of resilience.”
“Not a small part of building resilience is being able to talk about how you feel, which means being able to be conversant in emotions — giving a name to something, being able to identify how does it feel? What do you think about when you do that? What’s your behavior like? That understanding is a big part of resilience.”
The theory, she explained, is that the talking about it is in itself is a healing factor. “After we go through all the feelings and they identify them – for example, worried, sad, happy – they can look inside and see how much they’re feeling those feelings themselves. They can understand that feelings aren’t ‘all or nothing.’ Maybe I feel a little frustrated. Maybe I feel very scared. There’s a thermometer on each feeling. “
One of the new important features of the book is the “Power Pack,” which helps children identify the different tools they can use to cope with their feelings.
“For preschool kids Tzivy and I created a story book called ’I Feel That Way and That’s Okay,’ also produced by Ohel, and a companion coloring book focusing on feelings.” The coloring book is delightful. I’ve already passed on my complimentary copy to my grandchildren, who are thrilled with it.
Both books are colorful and engaging. “Inner Space” and “I Feel That Way and That’s Okay” come with separate Teacher’s Guides with supplementary activities. Reiter says, “The ‘Inner Space’ workbook technically is for ages 5-10 but we find the sweet spot is 6-9; it especially does well with children in 2nd, 3rd and 4th grades who are at a great developmental age to complete the activity pages and internalize its lessons.” .” It includes categories like Joy, Sadness, Worry, Frustration, and Calmness, and the Teacher’s Guide includes a section titled “Identifying Children who Need Further Support.”
“After Oct. 7, 2023, Tzivy called me,” says Baum, “and said, ‘We have to get out the Hebrew version [of “Inner Space”].’
“We completed the translation, design and within 10 days of the war starting, we were ready to go to print.” They began with OrlyPrint, a press in Gush Etzion. They could only do 10,000 copies, as their workers were on reserve duty.. “We heard that the Be’eri Press had returned to work shortly after Oct. 7. Tzivy and I both thought it would be a great thing to go to them.” Be’eri Press is owned and run by Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the kibbutzim that was hardest hit on Oct. 7, 2023. It was a case of resilience meets resilience.
Thus far, they have distributed the “Inner Space” books to between 200-250 schools all over Israel. “We got to the schools by word of mouth,” Baum said. “I started with friends and colleagues. Requests came in like hotcakes. I got some to evacuees from southern and northern Israel who were being hosted at hotels at the Dead Sea and Jerusalem.
“The last 2,000 or 2,500 went down to the Gaza envelope communities, the ones that had been attacked or evacuated, to the places where people had returned home.” She stays in touch with the schools and has done Zoom trainings for teachers.
“Kids love working in the book. One school, located in Kibbutz Yavne, took 450 copies and did a whole curriculum around it. We had schools all over — in the greater Tel Aviv area, in Gush Etzion, and in various towns in the Negev.
“The printing experience with Be’eri has been great, and giving them the work is the living example of resilience. They came back to work within a week. Part of resilience is coming back into your life, and we see that the people who are doing better, are the people who carry on.
“We talk about resilience as ‘bouncing back.’ I always say it’s not bouncing back. It’s bouncing forward because you never come back exactly to the place you left.
“The concept was coined by Froma Walsh, a social worker, almost 30 years ago. You come back into your life, but you don’t come back exactly. You’re a different person. Your perspective has changed. You’ve changed. You’re not going back to Oct. 6th.
“You’ve got to move back into your life with a certain amount of flexibility. Sometimes you can’t. If you’ve been injured, you can’t exactly go back to what you were doing before. Sometimes you have to make modifications. But you’re still a vital, active person.
“In this book, we talk about lots of different things that people can do to help themselves. There are suggestions for connections, creativity, movement, entertainment, and giving to others; that really strengthens you.
“Because the book is generic it can also be used by a therapist who’s working in various family situations, for example, with children whose parents are getting divorced. We had about 1,000 copies that went to foster care organizations for use with foster children.
“It’s beautiful in that it can be a jumping off point for parents to engage in conversation.”
The book has also been used widely in the United States, Reiter said. “Schools have been more open to mental health in general, and willing to invest the time to do prevention in the classroom, using social emotional resources and resilience-based curriculum like ours. Oct. 7 only added to that sense of being overwhelmed and having a desire to create a space for kids to process their feelings.
“Young children today know much more than they used to, and are going to internalize the tension and instability experienced by the adults around them, even if they don’t understand a lot of what is happening.
“As the weeks wore on [after Oct. 7], most of the kids’ concerns transitioned into the normal concerns of school children (friends, schoolwork) but many of the teachers remained troubled and highly impacted by the ongoing war in Israel. We were often asked by teachers, ‘How much should we be bringing to our students? We want them to feel that sense of unity and responsibility for their brothers and sisters in Israel, but we don’t want to burden young children who may not have this on their mind right now.’
“Some teachers were very troubled by this, so while actionable responses are always an important thing to promote (Tehillim, tzedakah campaigns, letters/drawings to soldiers); how much do we want to impose a narrative around coping with our fears and anxieties about the war if it is not on the kids’ minds?
“The workbook provided a framework for labeling and identifying emotions. There are no specific prompts in the book about Oct. 7 or the ongoing war, even in the versions of the workbook that were circulated in Israel. That was a very deliberate decision we made. We wanted the children to be able to project as much or as little as they needed to. It turned out to be a good decision, based on feedback that we received both at home and especially in Israel,” Reiter continued.
“One example that was reported to us: Danit Schusterman, a 4th grade teacher in Brooklyn, expanded on the lessons for the emotion ‘Happy.’ She explored with the kids the moments of happiness that occur throughout the day. It’s not required or expected that they be happy all day long. She made a timeline with the students, and directed them to put smiley faces on the timeline next to the moments that made them happy.
“Students put smiley faces on things like mom making them a smoothie for breakfast, recess, when their friend shares snacks with them, when the dismissal bell rings. Some kids had lots of smiley faces. Others struggled to identify even one.
“This exercise helps them learn to pay attention to those moments. It teaches them what is and isn’t a reasonable expectation of happiness; to pay attention and identify moments of happiness throughout their day; and gave the teacher a lot of information about the children who may be struggling to even find one happy moment in their day, that teachers (and parents) may not have known otherwise,” says Reiter.
Other examples that teachers reported were hearing about family members who had passed away, fears for other family members who were ill, and even ostensibly simpler situations, for example, “There was a student who wrote that she is up all night worrying about her grades. This student always seemed very untroubled and carefree,” Reiter said.
“I heard about one mom in Israel who used the workbook at home after the war started. They had identified ’singing’ and ‘hugging’ as a way to cope whey they are scared. The mother told me that the next time they heard a siren, they did a group hug and sang together for 10 minutes until they were able to leave the safe room. After that, she left the workbooks in the safe room for the kids to have as both a coping tool and a distraction to get through the difficult moments.”
There are 10 versions of the “Inner Space” workbook, all produced by Ohel Kestenbaum International Children’s Services, in English and Hebrew, and they cover a wide variety of religious orientations; the only difference is in the illustrations. There are also workbooks in Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The preschool workbook is available in Hebrew, English, Spanish and simplified Chinese.
There are ten versions of the “Inner Space” workbook in English and Hebrew, and they cover a wide variety of religious orientations; the only difference is in the illustrations. There are also workbooks in Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. The preschool workbook is available in Hebrew, English, Spanish and simplified Chinese.
Baum concluded, “At the very end of ’Inner Space,’ there are pages reminding one that there is a place for gratefulness, and for hope, and for looking forward.”
Books by Baum are available at www.naomibaum.com. Workbooks can be purchased at: https://buy.stripe.com/aEU9Bl6H85Tq1iM001. The preschool book, in English and Hebrew, can be purchased on Amazon. For training and lesson plans, email schoolresources@ohelfamily.org
Toby Klein Greenwald is an award-winning journalist and theater director, editor-in-chief of WholeFamily.com, and has taught creative writing and drama to children and adults who suffered trauma.
