483 – Enhancing Hardiness and Resilience
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Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs
Host: Counselor Toolbox
Objectives
– Define resilience
– Identify characteristics that make people more resilient and ways we can enhance those characteristics
– Define Hardiness
– Examine what hardiness is important to resilience
Resilience
– Resilience is the capacity to bounce back
– Characteristics of resilient people:
– Awareness of and minimized vulnerabilities
– Healthy self-esteem
– Strong social support system
– Self-awareness
– Self-Efficacy
– Problem Solving Skills
– Practice acceptance
– Can tolerate distress
– Have an optimistic viewpoint
Awareness of Vulnerabilities
– Emotional Distress
– Emotional Eustress
– Mental Distress
– Mental Eustress
– Physical Distress
– Nutrition (poor nutrition, dieting, too much caffeine)
– Sleep
– Exercise (pain, exhaustion)
– Pain
– Illness
Vulnerabilities cont…
– Social Distress
– Social Eustress
– Environmental Distress
– Environmental Eustress
Self Esteem
– Ability to provide validation and acceptance of self
– Identify personal strengths and positive characteristics
– Separate who you are from what you do
– Explore cognitions about:
– Why other people’s opinions matter
– Attributions
Strong Social Support System
– Social supports are our greatest buffers against stress
– Relationships can be one of the greatest causes of stress
– Identify characteristics of healthy vs. unhealthy relationships.
– Explore ways to nurture and enhance healthy relationships.
– Identify ways to deal with unhealthy people
– Learn about temperament and complimentarity
Self-Awareness
– Temperament
– Needs
– Wants
– Values (Truly important, driving forces)
– Goals
– Is what I am doing getting me closer to or further away from what is important to me
– Physical and emotional state in the present
– Triggers (positive and negative)
Self-Efficacy
– Believing in one’s own capacity to accomplish goals (effectiveness)
– Identification as a survivor not a victim (Locus of control)
– Hardiness
– Commitment: Motivation
– Control: Realistic understanding of what is within one’s control
– Challenge: Not too easy, but not overwhelming. Exciting opportunity
Problem Solving Skills
– Ability to conceptualize problems
– Willingness to seek out help
– Motivation to actually take action
– Don’t bring me a problem unless you have an idea for at least one realistic solution.
Acceptance
– Sometimes things just are…
– Unfortunate
– Inaccessible
– Unchangeable
– Willingness to accept life on life’s terms without
– Judging
– Trying to change the unchangable
Distress Tolerance
– Ability to feel a feeling without having to react
– “I am angry”
– “I am having a feeling of being angry”
– “I am angry but can choose whether or not to stew in it”
– Note
– There are no “You made me” (victim stance)
– There is no active attempt to change it at this point
– Feelings are there to tell us something. Fighting them or nurturing them only prolongs them.
Optimism
– Finding the silver lining
– Failure = Learning opportunity
– Relationships = Compassion
– Rainy day = Watering the plants
– Life change = Opportunity to find a new direction
Summary
– Resilience is the capacity to bounce back
– Resilience is a quality we can enhance in our clients while also helping them reduce distress.
– Characteristics of resilient people:
– Awareness of and minimized vulnerabilities
– Healthy self-esteem
– Strong social support system
– Self-awareness
– Self-Efficacy
– Problem Solving Skills
– Practice acceptance
– Can tolerate distress
– Have an optimistic viewpoint