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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills by University of Pennsylvania

4.9
stars
2,064 ratings

About the Course

Learn how to incorporate resilience interventions into your personal and professional life with Dr. Karen Reivich. In this course, you are exposed to the foundational research in resilience, including protective factors such as mental agility and optimism. Several types of resilience interventions are explored including cognitive strategies; strategies to manage anxiety and increase positive emotions such as gratitude; and a critical relationship enhancement skill. Throughout the course, you will hear examples of individuals using resilience skills in their personal and professional lives. Suggested prerequisites: Positive Psychology: Martin E. P. Seligman’s Visionary Science, Positive Psychology: Applications and Interventions and Positive Psychology: Character, Grit & Research Methods....

Top reviews

NE

Apr 18, 2020

I truly felt like I was in a classroom learning all the material! I greatly appreciated all of the real-world applications and hearing all of the different perspectives throughout each week and topic!

ZM

Sep 23, 2018

Excellent! There was some common sense here, but plenty of new data and tools anyone can use in both their personal and professional life. A must for every human who wants to get the most out of life.

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26 - 50 of 709 Reviews for Positive Psychology: Resilience Skills

By Sanika

•

Jul 17, 2018

I express my deep gratitude to Dr Karen Reivich for this brilliant course! She was such an amazing teacher and all her videos were detailed and interactive it almost felt like she was right beside me, explaining every single topic!. This course not only provides information about concepts such as optimism, resilience, character strengths, etc but it also lets you now about all the great research and studies that have been happening around these topics and also teaches ways in which you can practically apply all these skills in daily life. This course is really a complete package. And after completing it I can say I feel Positively Empowered!. Also thanks to all the other great experts of the positive psychology field for sharing their experiences and knowledge. And Thank You to the University of Pennsylvania and Coursera for making this course.

By Beth S

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Nov 7, 2019

I have recently earned a Masters in Integrative Health and Wellness Coaching. This course aligns well with my studies. It is delightful to see many of the doctors and researchers whose work I have read and who have so deeply influenced my studies present these courses! I found Cory Muscara, Angela Duckworth, and Martin Seligman and now I feel as If I know Karen Revich. I have been teaching art for many years. I am now also coaching, combining my passion for being in the moment for others, to listen deeply as a method of healing and helping people define and live with their strength and core values. This course has solidified what I knew and has encouraged me to search for the right Doctoral program. Given what I have learned thus far, I am solidly in the camp of positive education, stress reduction, and growing student sand resilience!

By Susan F

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May 17, 2018

this was a very inspirational course, Dr. Reivich did a good job. Her lectures were interesting, enthusiastic and clearly spoken. She has a pleasant way of giving lectures, good content and enthusiasm. I would also like to thank Dr. Seligman for his course too, Positive Psychology, Visionary Science. He sparked my interest in Positive Psychology. My university degrees were in languages and linguistics and literature. Philosophy has been an ongoing interest and I was actually looking for more courses in philosophy and came across the courses of Positive psychology and was curious so I took the first course. It is an excellent discipline and I want to learn more. Also thank you to Dr. Angela Duckworth, also for an excellent course. I would like to take more courses. Thank you all. Susan Farranto.

By Janet S

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May 8, 2020

This Resilience course is excellent! I really felt like I was in a classroom. Dr. Reivich is a very knowledgeable and engaging instructor, and the weekly structure was well laid out with each topic logically building upon the next. I was already familiar with some of the resilience and optimism strategies; however, this course was a great refresher and I also learned several new skills. I also enjoyed the organizational examples and conversational role play in week 4 was particularly helpful. I was able to borrow of the readings through the Libby app that's connected to my local library. I also located some of the published papers online via a Google search. I highly recommend this course whether you're seeking resilience skills to enrich your personal life, professional work with others, or both.

By Regan E

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Aug 6, 2017

Taking this course was a gift to myself. The information I learned has already had an impact on the way I am thinking about resilience, the best use of my character strengths, and my being aware and sensitive to practicing Active Constructive Responses.

Resilience is my biggest challenge, and learning the specific ways of counteracting the effects of negative thinking, will benefit me, my family, and my coaching clients.

Karen Reivich, Ph.D., is a fantastic speaker and she presented the material professionally and with energy and down-to-earth enthusiasm. Her use of examples made the course that much more enjoyable.

If the transcripts from the course were contained in a book, I would run out and buy it!!

Thank you, Karen.

By Yan S

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Sep 12, 2019

This is my first completed MOOC on Coursera. I have to say that when I started on the 7day free trial, I didn’t expect me to finish any of these course in this specialization. But Karen designed the whole course in such a clear and concise way that it’s just hard not to follow the syllabus. I chose to learn this specialization partly for career development, partly for my own wellbeing. And I can already feel the change in my attitude towards everyday life and interactions with other people. After almost a year of postpartum depression, I finally start to feel better and sleep better. Thank you, Karen, and everyone who’s contributed to the making of this course!

By MATTHEW F

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May 18, 2020

What an incredible course! Karen is an excellent teacher - knowledgeable, passionate and sincere. Thank you to you and your team for putting something so powerful and so exciting together. I've been implementing what I've learnt into my daily life and I cannot wait to start sharing it with others too. The work you do is such a valuable contribution to humanity. Thank you!

By Agnieszka S

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May 22, 2020

Two first modules were super interesting, whereas the two last were a repetition of the course done with dr James Pawelski and dr Martin Seligman. I give this particular note feeling, that it could have been an amazing experience if more background knowledge was provided (here I refer to poorly built up Reading section with not working links to the specific literature). The visual side of the course was also poor, whereas dressing up some tables, putting in some scientific evidence, help a lot while acquring new information.

By Anchit A

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May 8, 2020

Although the content was good the presentation could have been a 100 times better. For me it was like a monologue and i kept on losing interest in videos very often.

By iolanda m

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Nov 30, 2020

Good only if it's your first time on this subject

By Andrew

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Jan 15, 2018

Maybe I lost patience with this course by now as I didn't study much of this one

By Stella O

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Jun 17, 2020

It was an excellent course. I was very familiar with the course material because I am certified as a Master Resilience Trainer Level I in the military. Most of the course material was similar. The course was very well presented, and the videos, and assignments were very helpful in learning the course. It was like a refresher for me. Also, I had one of the optional books by Professor Dr. Martin Seligman before the course, and I found that very helpful in completing some of the assignments, most especially the one on character strengths. I found out something interesting during the course in that character strength ratings are not iron clad. They can change based on one situation. Also, resilience is a two part skill in that there is resilience in coping with things, and resilience that enables one to thrive through circumstances. I enjoyed the course, and I thought that Dr. Karen Reivitch was an exceptional instructor. The video vignettes were very helpful in learning resilience skills. However, students should not be forced to take the course as past of a subscription. I only wanted to take this course by itself because I found that that Dr. Reivitch had trained a lot of the military Master Resilience Trainers, and since I could not come for the training in person, I decided to take the coursera only to be forced into a subscription that I had to cancel to avoid excessive charges. Also, even though I finished the course in record time, I was still forced to pay $79 for it in order to get a certificate because I only wanted to take course and no other courses. It think students should be given the choice of choosing one course they are interested in and not be forced into a subscription. Even though I cancelled the subscription, it is still part of my record as something I want to take. I am very happy that I received a certificate for completing this course. I enjoyed refreshing my skills, which might have grown very rusty had I not taken the course without some guidance as presented in the course through the videos. I thank all the instructors in the course for their time and presentations, particularly Dr. Reivitch.

By Jennifer C

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Apr 30, 2018

This is material that I not only have studied but teach as well. Dr. Reivich guest lectured in the MAPP program at UPenn when I was a student there, and was among my favorite lecturers. When I saw that she did a MOOC on resilience I thought I would pop over and sample the lectures. But Dr. Reivich's teaching style is so engaging and the content so wonderfully presented, I ended up watching every single lecture (and hoping that my own teaching is anywhere near as good!). This course is wonderful. I cannot recommend it highly enough. You will walk away with practical tools and essential information, taught by one of the foremost experts on research in the world!

By Rob B

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Dec 9, 2020

A big thank you for the opportunity to learn resilience skills. It's not the learning of knowing but the experience of changing emotions. This is a course that changed my life for the good. Now i know more about resilience. Its is a the force that thrive us to flourish, the protection of this force in deep connections with others. It excites to see my energy levels rise and feel more positive emotions when a bring the skills in practice. I highly recommend this course and the Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization track. Karen thank you for your openness and showing your humanity. It touched my emotions and deepens the learning.

By Mandar B

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Mar 22, 2020

As a pediatrician, public speaker and health-lifestyle counselor for families and children, I wanted to learn more about the mental resilience and the strategies to build it as an immunization against stress, anxiety and depression. The well-designed course and Karen's excellent teaching made it a joy to learn these important concepts, which I am surely going to use a lot in my parenting, health and lifestyle guidance program for different communities. I also could identify a lot of areas which are relevant for improving my personal family life. Thanks UPenn and thanks Karen, it was a really good course to be a part of.

By Rhonda L

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Jun 24, 2019

Thank you so much for an incredibly fascinating and educational course!! The presentations were stimulating and engaging. The material really spoke to me, and I hope to continue to study the concepts and take action to apply them. I found this course to be top-notch. The instructor really knows her stuff and can speak about it easily--making great connections and giving good real-world examples. Compared to many MOOCs (and traditional classes) the content was "meaty". It was NOT just a glossed-over introduction to common-sense material. Many thanks for the professionalism and work that you put into it. Excellent work!

By Shiuan L

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May 28, 2021

This has been the best course I have taken in the subject of positive psychology and resilience. Dr. Karen Reivich is a fantastic instructor, speaking very slowly and clearly with very few fillers, and best of all, she bring the subject to life with plenty of sharing of her personal stories, and the examples are all very well chosen to help us understand the concepts. The use of enactments is great and allows us to get a feel for different styles of catastrophizing. The part about ACR is worth the price of the course alone! I highly highly recommend anyone interested in becoming more resilient to take this course!

By Sarah M

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Dec 22, 2017

What I learned in this program is so relevant to my life in all areas. Not only did I learn a lot about my own behaviour, and by extensive have a greater understanding of the behaviour of others, but I also received many tools to support my own personal practice of resilience.

The information in this program was so relevant that I found it easy to understand, because I could see it in my own life. I appreciated the challenge of looking deeper at myself and where I could change behaviours for more resilience and connection with others.

I'm deeply grateful for Karen's teachings...thank you!

By Malva D R

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Oct 29, 2020

I really enjoyed this MOOC. Because I am a psychologist and have been away from the field for awhile, it was refreshing to learn new concepts. For a long time, I have been interested in the 'positive" side of psychology and have read a number of the books referenced in this class. I elected to go into the coaching field and use my psychological background to help me assist my clients. I will definitely use the strategies I learned in this class in my professional and personal life. I also teach and I have started to share these concepts with my college students. Thank you.

By Seah M M

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Jun 29, 2021

Dr. Karen Reivich is an outstanding instructor.

It is an excellent course about resilience skills that brings betterment to our personal and professional lives. We get to appreciate and learn various resilience related skills such as attitude of gratitude, cognitive approach & strategies to increase optimism, thinking traps, managing anxiety to increase positive emotions and leveraging character strengths to foster stronger relationships with various stakeholders.

It helps us to handle our work challenges more calmly and effectively and enhances our overall work performance.

By Greg P

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Apr 11, 2020

This is a truly outstanding course. As a Coursera course developer and teacher myself, I appreciated how carefully Dr. Reivich mixed the scientific basis of the course with interesting interviews and personal experiences, As an academic physician , and "recovering pessimist" myself, I was most impressed by her sharing her own personal experience. I am in the process of using her ideas in putting together a course on leadership and life skills for residents and fellows starting off their careers in midst of the current challenging circumstances of SARS CoV2.

By Mônica Q

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May 7, 2019

A great opportunity for skills development, structured material clearly and merging the invitation to exercise and understand the concepts in personal practice, reflecting on relationships, self care, empathy and other aspects that promote emotional health. I personally felt accompanied by a structured program where I could identify and experience resilience's ability in all its aspects. I will redo the course through my personal notes, and continue the development of this skill so necessary to deal with contemporary citizens. Thank you for the opportunity.

By Sylvia R D

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Jan 1, 2019

This course was fantastic! Dr. Reivich is a wonderful, fun and inspiring instructor, who presents the information in engaging, creative and moving ways that are very user-friendly. The exercises were not only very educational but easy to understand, so I could spend more energy exploring the concepts rather than trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. I learned how to not only apply resilience skills to many areas of my life, but also simple techniques to curb my stress and anxiety. Thank you so much, Dr. Reivich! I highly recommend this course.

By Jean P B

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Sep 22, 2021

Through this course, I felt like what I'm going through (Depression with Anxiety Symptoms) is not something incurable/ cannot be improved. I can relate to most of the topics and example. I found ways and tools to understand myself. And also found steps to regulate my thoughts so I can make my actions, reactions, and relationship better & stronger. I really appreciate the teacher/professor speaking at a calm and soft pace - the examples and 'role plays' helped a lot as well in absorbing the ideas and concept of the topics. Thank you Coursera and Ms Karen!

By Duncan C F

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Feb 12, 2020

This is the best course of the first four, and they are all five star courses! This is the most practical: It gives you many tools you can use right away for yourself and to share with others to increase resilience, optimism, and thereby wellbeing. It provides a solid understanding of resilience and optimism. It dispels myths about optimism demonstrating how optimism improves accurate perception of situations and options. The videos are very informative and the information accessible and well presented. Five and a half stars out of five!