Black and white close-up portrait of a woman smiling.

Alex Shellhammer Bernath

Alex is the owner of Nourish Early Learning in Northwest Ohio. She and her sister inherited the early childhood center in 2017 from their parents, who died in a car accident. Nourish was in its first year and presented a learning curve to both women, who were also young mothers. Alex’s background is in business development, but as she dove into the center of grief and motherhood, she found a passion for child observation and understanding their innate ability to understand the beauty of life. Alex and her sister began to build a curriculum that examined and encouraged heart growth (social-emotional) under the lens of the grief that they carried. They call it Heartfulness, and it fills preschool conversations and fuels teacher observations daily. Alex is now pursuing her Master's in Psychoanalysis to better apply this approach to early learning.

Heartfulness: What Empathy Looks Like in the Classroom

As we examine the social-emotional growth of children, we must look at each child in particular within the context of the classroom. The Heartfulness Curriculum has created 9 domains of growth, with a focus on the domain of empathy. As an abstract concept, it is challenging for even adults to grasp, but with a gentle build of domains, creating the environment of empathy, and working with the innate temperament of each child, teachers can begin the work of expanding the intentional exposure of empathy. As with many early learners, it begins with the right questions.

Alex Shellhammer Bernath

Courses

Heartfulness: What Empathy Looks Like in the Classroom

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