About Resilience Training
Cutting edge principles and skills are taught simply and clearly, so that you can master them and apply them when you need them most. These principles and skills are drawn from the fields of medicine, nutrition, exercise physiology, and traditional, positive, complementary, and sports psychology. Until now, they have typically been taught only in elite training and clinical settings.
Resilience Training follows the Stress Inoculation Training model, developed by renowned psychologist Dr. Donald Meichenbaum. This approach spends minimal time explaining concepts and maximum time in practice and skill mastery.
Although resilience training was originally developed to strengthen individuals in high-risk groups (such as police, firefighters, and military), resilience training is based on the assumption that resilience can be built by nearly any individual in any walk of life.
An Innovative, Preventive Approach
Resilience training offers a powerful alternative to reactive interventions such as crisis intervention and treatment. In the long run, it is far more effective to teach individuals coping skills that reduce the risk of developing mental disorders, while optimizing mental health and functioning. As pioneering resilience researcher Emory Cowen, Ph.D., stated: Resilience “…vivifies an emerging paradigm shift in mental health, built around the intriguing possibility that psychological dysfunction can be better approached through prevention than by struggling, however valiantly and compassionately, to undo deeply-rooted damage” (Cowen, Wyman, Work, & Iker, 1995, p. 248). While resilience training covers important considerations for treatment of PTSD and other stress-related disorders, the primary emphasis is on prevention and coping during difficult times.
As much as possible, the skills taught are evidence based, meaning that they have been demonstrated in research to help a wide range of problems.
For Whom?
Anyone with a need or desire to build resilience. Resilience training often “trains the trainers,” who can then go and train others.
How Long?
Resilience training is flexible. It can be adapted to your needs and the time that you have available to train. Ideally, at least two to five full days of training allows time for participants to practice and master important skills. However, even shorter training periods can be very useful.
How Large?
Ideally, resilience training is best conducted in groups of twenty or less, sitting in a circle, to promote comfort, sharing, and team building. However, larger groups can also profit from resilience training.