The ability to self-regulate, and to proactively build and sustain one’s resilience is a critical need in today’s society, workplace, interpersonal relationships, and intra-personal well-being. Whether it be on the professional front, or within the home or social settings, one’s ability to apply the principles of proactive resilience and self-regulation is often the key factor that determines levels of health, wellness, relational wealth, financial wealth, and inner fulfillment. Based in over 30 years of research and more than 300 studies, a vast majority of which are independent studies, The HeartMath® Institute’s systems for which Bowman Consulting are Certified Trainers provide simple, practical, and time-sensitive strategies proven to accomplish results in all of the following areas:

Collaborative Problem Solving, or “CPS” as it is most often referred to, is a method of dealing with challenging behaviors and/or conflict that was originally developed for working with children with severe and/or chronic challenging behavior developed out of Massachusetts General Hospital as part of the Department of Child Psychiatry. The premise of CPS is based in a perspective that, when children or adults engage in challenging behaviors/interactions, there are underlying “lagging skills” that are the cause, and that these skills can be built through the use of a deliberate process that helps them to regulate and then engage in collaborative cognitive problem-solving. Over time, CPS has been applied in an increasingly wide range of settings with diverse populations and provocative results. Its effectiveness has been demonstrated everywhere from homes and schools, to residential treatment facilities, to psychiatric and medical hospitals, and even corrections facilities. The approach has also been found to be coherent, accessible, and applicable to the workplace setting.

Both schools and parents are under greater pressures than ever before when it comes to addressing student social, emotional and behavioral struggles in the school setting. As is so well stated by a colleague and advocate for sound behavioral practices, Debra Ann Afarian, “A heart-breaking number of children are on the verge of losing their futures, simply because their behavioral challenges are poorly understood.”

Never before has there been a time when it’s been more critical that schools and parents come together around a deeper, more accurate and beneficial understanding of behavioral, emotional and social challenges in students. Bowman Consulting Group is a sought-after provider of this type of facilitation by both schools and parents alike because of their extensive experience on both sides of the “IEP/504 Tables”. Their dedication to teaming with parents and educators to facilitate the document development process, equip the adults involved, and provide the requisite tools and resources needed to carry out the plan makes them uniquely qualified to ensure a solution-focused resolution.

Appreciative Inquiry, commonly referred to as “AI”, is a systems change model whereby the strengths and past successes of a system/organization are leveraged in order to generate the belief, buy-in, and momentum to foster growth and accomplish successful large-scale change. More than simply a “strengths-based” model, Appreciative Inquiry involves use of a skillset that includes reframing seemingly unpromising situations, identifying positive potential, and devising a course of action that takes advantage of all of the untapped potential that lies dormant within a system or organization. Appreciative Inquiry incorporates practices that, in and of themselves, are over-used lingo in many organizational circles (such as “strength-based”), but when applied properly in the framework designed by AI, can take a system or organization forward from a place of “stuck” or even regression, to a full realization of organizational potential and goals.