This document outlines a workshop on resiliency. It includes an introduction, understanding resilience, resilient qualities, obstacles to resilience like trauma, stress, adversity and explanatory styles. It discusses 10 resilient qualities like emotional regulation, impulse control, attachment and belonging. It also covers the physiological and psychological impacts of trauma and how it can affect families and communities. The overall goal is to promote resilience in individuals, families and communities.

1. R Life
Resiliency Workshop
www.rlifeproject.ca

2. Workshop Outline
Introductions
Understanding Resilience
Break
Resilient Qualities
Lunch
Obstacles to Resilience
Trauma
Culture

3. “The most beautiful people we
have known are those who have
known defeat, known
suffering, known struggle, known
loss, and have found their way out
of the depths. These persons have
an appreciation, a sensitivity, and
an understanding of life that fills
them with
compassion, gentleness and a
deep loving concern. Beautiful
people do not just happen.”
-Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.
4

4. What is Resiliency?
In Pairs…
In what ways are you resilient?
What skills do you use when you are being resilient? How do you know?
Who needs resilience?
When is resiliency needed?

5. What is Resiliency?
Small Group Discussion
1.Why are some people able to bounce back from adversity while others
are harder hit?
2.How does the family we grow up in make a difference between whether
or not we are resilient?
3.What else influences resilience?
4.How can service providers promote resilience in individuals? Families?
Community?

6. Persevere or adapt when things go awry
Overcome obstacles
Bounce back from major setbacks
Reach out and broaden your world
Resilience is the ability to:

7. What is Resiliency?
Stress
•
Perception
Action

8. Why is Resilience Important?
• Personal development, health and happiness is affected by
adversity, it is important to make it through these challenges .
• People who see adversity as a challenge (rather than a
setback) are more likely to thrive in whatever they do.
• Practicing resilience can promote mental health and reduce
substance misuse.

9. What is Resiliency?
A resilient view means:
 Accurate and flexible thinking
 Creative problem solving
 The capacity to see other points of view and to adjust your own
 Ability to move on with daily life despite obstacles
Resilient attitude can be learned!

10. Who is Resilient?
Are some people just born
resilient? Do some people
just ‘have it’ while others do
not?

11. Resilient Qualities
1. Emotional Regulation
2. Impulse Control
3. Causal Analysis
4. Realistic Optimism
5. Empathy
6. Attachment
7. Self-Efficacy
8. Belonging
9. Reaching Out
10. Language and Culture

12. The ability to express our emotions in ways that will
help rather than hurt a situation
Examples:
 I am aware of strong emotions as they rise and I don’t get swept
away by them.
 I am able to take three deep breaths before reacting when I am
angry or upset.
 I am able to talk about my emotions and my physical reaction to
them.
 I am able to recognize when I am really frustrated or angry and find
a productive way of managing it.
Emotional Regulation

13. Impulse Control
The ability to take action instead of have a
reaction
Examples:
 I am able to use words to express my emotions.
 I am able to be patient and to wait a little longer to get what I want without
becoming overly frustrated or anxious.
 I am able to come up with alternative solutions to a problem and not just do
the first thing that comes into my head.
 I am able to “let it go.”

14. The ability to analyze a problem and
accurately decide what the cause is
Examples:
 I am not making mountains out of molehills.
 I feel clear and at least relatively calm about a situation, not confused and
out of control.
 I realize when I situation is temporary and affects only a specific part of
my life and not my whole life.
 I am able to turn “I never” into “I didn’t this time, but could next time.”
Causal Analysis

15. The ability to maintain hope for a bright future
Examples:
 I am patient with a negative situation and keep working at a solution.
 I am able to see my successes even if I struggle or fail.
 I am able to adjust my plans when circumstances outside of my control arise.
Realistic Optimism

16. The ability to understand the feelings and
needs of another person
Examples:
 I am able to understand the feelings and needs of someone else.
 I am able to recognize the emotion someone else is experiencing based on
the way they are communicating non-verbally.
 I recognize that others are different from me and might see and feel things
differently than I do.
 I can look at things through another person’s eyes, not my own.
Empathy

17. Self - Efficacy
The feeling of being effective in the
world, making a difference and having a positive
impact
Examples:
 I use the choices I make and the actions I take to direct my life.
 I feel as though I have what it takes to tackle problems and bounce back from
them.
 I rise up to challenges rather than shy away from them.
 I believe that what I to day to day matter.

18. Attachment
When a child’s physical and emotional needs are consistently
met, a child feels safe and secure – this is the basic foundation
for positive emotional and cognitive development.
 Begins in early infancy
 The child learns the world is safe and they are valued.
 Leads to positive self-esteem and more successful relationships.
 Positive attachment can help to promote healthy brain function and thought patters.

19. Belonging
The feeling that we are a part of something
larger than ourselves
Examples:
 My neighbour knows my name.
 A stranger smiles at me on the street.
 There are services in my community that represent me.
 I feel welcome and accepted for just who I am.
 My community lends a helping hand and recognizes when I may need one.
 I have access to the things I need.

20. Reaching Out
Being accurate and realistic about how much
we can cope with and being able to ask for
help when we need it
Examples:
 I am willing to take risks.
 I continue trying even when I make mistakes. A mistake is not a failure.
 I know myself and know how much I can handle and am not afraid of
asking for help when I need it.

21. Language & Culture
Having a connection to Language and Culture means:
 Having a connection to your language and culture of choice.
 For First Nations and Aboriginal Peoples, and in many other ethnic
communities, being able to speak your traditional language and live
according to cultural traditions is fundamental to resilience.
Importance of Language and Culture:
 It can be much harder for the other factors to take root without this basic
ground.
 For First Nations and Aboriginal Peoples resiliency includes healing from
Residential School experiences (may be intergenerational) and reclaiming
their language and culture.
 Some languages contain a framework for ways of viewing self and the
world that are quite different from English.
 Culture of choice isn’t always culture of birth.

22. Resilient Qualities
The Building Blocks to Resilience
1. Emotional Regulation
2. Impulse Control
3. Causal Analysis
4. Realistic Optimism
5. Empathy
6. Attachment
7. Self-Efficacy
8. Belonging
9. Reaching Out
10. Language and Culture

23. Obstacles to Resiliency
 Stressful events
 Adversity
-Trauma
 Environment
-Unhelpful early learning, current living situation is
chaotic
 Cognitive factors
-Belief system, thinking habits

24. Stress and Adversity
 Imagine for a moment the following scenario:
 You are told you have 10 minutes to put together a role play in pairs
where you must demonstrate three of the qualities just discussed.
 You will also have to perform this role play in front and the group and it
will be recorded for evaluation purposes.

25. 1. What would some of your first thoughts be?
2. How many people would feel nervous or
unsure about this task? How many people
would feel angry?
3. Would you feel this stress anywhere in your
body?
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26. Stress and Adversity
Many of us believe that negative events cause us to act
in certain ways.
When something bad happens, one of the first things
we try to understand is why it happened.
Our beliefs about the cause of the adversity set off our
reaction – how we feel and what we do.

27. Stress and Adversity
 Dr. Albert Ellis created the ABC model to help us
understand our reactions to adversity:
 A is the adversity – the situation or event
 B is our belief – our explanation about why the situation
happened
 C is the consequence – the feelings and behaviours caused
by our belief

28. Stress and Adversity
Example 1:
Natasha has been working really hard and saving up for a trip she wants to
take with her family. Then she finds out that her hours are being cut back
at work. Natasha thinks to herself, this always happens to me, I always
work so hard and just have to start back at square one. I must not be
doing a very good job at work. I am such a loser. My family will be so
disappointed in me. She gets very sad, and spends a good amount of the
money she’d been saving for her trip on toys for her kids and a new pair of
shoes for herself.

29. Stress and Adversity
 Example 2, a different reaction:
That’s disappointing, but this actually wasn’t a surprise: at the staff
meeting last week they mentioned there may be cut backs. I know it has
nothing to do with my quality of work, I just haven’t been there as long as
some of the others so I don’t have as much seniority. That’s probably why
my hours were cut instead of some of the others. I will talk to my
supervisor tomorrow and see if there is anything I can do to get more
hours, maybe in another department. She decides to go home and do an
activity with her family.

30. Explanatory Style
 Thinking habits - preferred ways of explaining
what is going on around us
 Occur subconsciously
 May be accurate or may be distorted
 Can help or hinder our ability to respond
resiliently to inevitable bumps in the road

31. Trying to Make Sense of Adversity…
1.Personalization – who caused the problem?
Me/Not me
2.Permanence – how long will this problem last?
Always/Not always
3.Pervasiveness – how much of my life does this
problem affect?
Everything/Not everything

32. Explanatory Style
Natasha has been working really hard and saving up for a
trip she wants to take with her family. Then she finds out
that her hours are being cut back at work. Natasha thinks
to herself, this always happens to me, I always work so
hard and just have to start back at square one. I must not
be doing a very good job at work. I am such a loser. My
family will be so disappointed in me. She gets very
sad, and spends a good amount of the money she’d been
saving for her trip on toys for her kids and a new pair of
shoes for herself.
Example

33. Explanatory Style
“Me/Always/Everything” thinking
Loss of hope and depression
Thinking Habits Associated with Depression

34. “Not me/Always/Everything” thinking.
Blaming others when something bad happens.
Can make people feel trapped and angry, or
cause them to lash out at others.
Explanatory Style
Thinking Habits Associated with Aggression

35. “Not me or Me/Not always/Not everything”
thinking
Able to see the situation as temporary and that
not all aspects of her life are affected.
Must thoughtfully and honestly consider the
answer to ```who caused the problem``
Explanatory Style
Thinking Habits Associated with Optimism

37. Thinking Traps
1) Jumping to conclusions
2) Personalizing
3) Externalizing
4) Mind-reading
5) Emotional reasoning
6) Overgeneralizing
7) Magnifying/minimizing
8) Catastrophizing
Which ones trap you?

39. Iceberg Beliefs
 Deep beliefs about how the world should operate
and how we should operate in the world.
 Cause reactions that seem out of proportion to
actual situations.
 Start to form in childhood and are often passed
down unconsciously, without question, from
generation to generation.

40. Iceberg Beliefs
I KNOW I shouldn’t have blown up at Anna that way, but I just
couldn’t help it!
I don’t even really know why I’m so mad at her. All I know is I’m
STILL SO ANGRY that it’s hard for me to even look her in the eye.
I feel guilty for treating her this way, because it really doesn’t
seem fair. I am puzzled by my reaction, she was only a few
minutes late and we still made the movie on time. So now what
am I suppose to do? If I don’t even know why I’m so mad, how
am I going to talk with her about it?
Example

41. Can make us over-experience certain emotions
Can be at the root of personality clashes at school
and in other environments
Don’t always have negative outcomes

42. Examples of Iceberg Beliefs
“Giving people a chance to tell their side of the story is important”
“Mistakes are part of the learning process”
“Honesty is the best policy”
“If you don’t succeed at first try again”

43. Examples of Iceberg Beliefs
“I should be able to handle anything that comes my way.”
“Women should never show their anger.”
“People should always be on time.”
“Things should always be fair.”
“Men should never cry. It shows weakness.”

44. Common types of Iceberg
Beliefs
1) Achievement – Mistakes are seen as failures.
2) Acceptance – It is vital to be
liked, accepted, praised, and included by others.
3) Control – Having unrealistic expectations about the
level of influence you have over yourself or the
environment.

45. Iceberg Beliefs & Resilience
Allow yourself to be flexible in your thinking!
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46. What is Trauma?
• A threat to my life, my person, or my dignity.
• A threat to the life, person or dignity of a loved one.
Real or Imagined

47. Trauma can occur in many different
ways…
• Natural disasters
• Human made disasters
• Personal loss
• Health trauma
• Victimization
• Criminal violence
• Wars and terrorism
• Ranges from mild stress to severe traumatic stress and can occur as a single
event or as multiple incidents

48. Trauma
• What is the impact of Trauma on Resilience?
• Trauma affects core beliefs about ourselves and the world.
• Being equipped with the right tools is a protective factor
against the potential impact of trauma.
• Working from a resilience-minded perspective helps trauma
survivors realize that they have the skills they need to heal and
recover.

49. The Effects of Trauma
• Physical - stress reactions
• Emotional - intense fear
• Behavioural - helplessness
• Cognitive – hypervigilance
• Spiritual - loss of faith

50. Physiological Responses to
Trauma
epinephrine
Cortisol

51. Repeated release over time
cortisolepinephrine

52. Development of Autoimmune
Disorders
Eg. Chronic
fatigue syndrome
eg.: Insulin
dependent
Diabetes

53. Physiological Responses to Trauma
Auto Immune diseases:
o Chronic fatigue syndrome
o Crohn’s disease
o Fibromyalgia
o Insulin dependent diabetes
o Young onset diabetes
o Juvenile arthritis
o Multiple sclerosis
o Rheumatoid arthritis
o Intense sugar cravings
Unmanaged stress is a risk factor for all major
diseases, including heart disease and cancer

54. Emotional, Cognitive, and Behavioural
Effects of Trauma
• Constricted intimacy and expressiveness
• Overt hostility with unpredictable verbal and physical aggression
• Difficulties in bonding and attachment
• Difficulty with empathy skills
• Physiological reenactment of trauma

55. Effects of Trauma on Family
• Primary parenting functions such as protecting, loving, and teaching become
disturbed
• Trauma disrupts attachment bonds
• Trauma produces not only psychological and biological wounds, but also social
wounds...
• Trauma can often be intergenerational (passed on from family to family)

56. Trauma, Resilience & Community
• Trauma to individual community members can impact the entire community.
• The aftermath of large scale traumatic events can last for generations.
• However, shared traumatic experiences in communities can also be a uniting
force that builds collective resilience.

57. •Do we underestimate the impact of trauma?
•What resiliency building interventions are available
(or could be available)?

59. Culture
• Living in, or at least having access to your culture
of choice can be vital to resilience.
• What does Culture mean to you?

60. CULTURE IS…
• Language
• Ways of thinking and behaving are embedded in language
• Traditions – Customs – Habits – Practices
• Art – Food – Fashion

61. CULTURE IS…
• Our values
• Our beliefs
– Skills or activities we appreciate, what we consider to be important
• Common patterns of behaviours which are transmitted from generation to
generation
• Culture is part of establishing/creating how we view the world

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68. Culture & Resilient Qualities
• Belonging
• when people feel they belong, it can lead to a more positive sense of self
and make it easier to participate in society
• Empathy
• Understanding and respecting the cultures of others contributes to greater
empathy

69. Culture & Resilient Qualities
• Reaching Out
• Feeling like you fit in makes it easier to try new things and reach out for help
• Causal Analysis
• Knowledge of context and culture allows us to better understand
people, which supports flexible and accurate thinking

70. Thinking About Your Culture…
• Social units often have a recognizable culture
(organizations, countries, ethnic groups, families)
• How do you feel about the culture of different social
units you belong to?
• Included/excluded - feeling a part of something or like an
outsider
• Fits/doesn’t fit with values – easy to participate or always
friction

71. Strategies for Resilience
• How to foster Resilience in…
• Self
• Family
• Community
• Workplace
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