Resilience in a Time of Uncertainty

In this 60 minute webinar, participants will learn about responses to traumatic stress with a focus on resilience. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats and even significant sources of stress…” This session will review psychosocial and neurobiological factors that have been associated with resilience. It will highlight that most people are more resilient than they think, that the individual’s resilience is influenced by other human beings, resources, culture, religion, and community, that resilience can co-exist with symptoms of traumatic stress, that there is a science to resilience and that resilience can be learned. Primary focus will be the following factors that are associated with resilience: having resilient role models, ability to regulate emotions and face fear, cognitive flexibility including acceptance and positive cognitive reappraisal, active vs passive coping style, social support, training, and meaning and purpose. The second half of the presentation will consider more about normal, essential stress and how toxic stress differs from it. Participants will learn about the secondary trauma that comes from toxic stress. This presentation will cover how learning to cope with moderate, short-lived stress can build a healthy stress response system. Toxic stress—when the body’s stress response system is activated excessively—can weaken developing brain architecture. Without caring adults to buffer children, toxic stress associated with extreme poverty, neglect, abuse, or severe maternal depression can have long-term consequences for learning, behavior, and both physical and mental health.