1. An Overview

2. What is resilience?
Ability to “bounce
back”
Adapting to hardships
and setbacks in life

3. Understanding
Resiliency
Not always present
Resilient levels
change
School’s influence

4. Other Resilience
Skills
Be patient and slow
down
Know when to ask for
help
Stress can be normal
Create a plan of action

5. Building Resiliency
Skills
Areas to develop
capacity for resilience
1. Autonomy
2. Social Competence
3. Positive Attitude

6. Also to Improve
Resiliency
 Get connected
 Find meaning
 Laugh
 Learn from
experience
 Remain hopeful
 Keep a journal
 Accept and
anticipate
change
 Work toward a
goal
 Maintain
perspective

7. Resilience and Mental Health
Mental health and
inequalities
“No one survives
without community and
no community thrives
without the individual.”

8. Resilience as Protection
Depression/anxiety
Social support/being
bullied
Existing mental illness

9. “Although the risks and
contradictions of life go on
being as socially produced
as ever, the duty and
necessity of coping with
them has been delegated to
our individual selves.

11. Training Empowering
Individuals
• Changes unconstructive behaviors
• Actions and ways of thinking
• Increases prefrontal cortex
• Increases skills needed for resilience
– Cognitive: memory, judgment
– Physical- regular exercise, diet and restful
sleep
– Emotional- addressing problems not
avoiding them
– Spiritual- practice forgiveness, acceptance

12. The Mayo Clinic
Minnesota
 Mayo Clinic Integrative Medicine
 One or Two 90-120 minute sessions
 Followed by DVD based instruction
 Paced breathing meditation
 Stress Management and Resilience Training
 Single 90 minute session
 One on One
 Learn how brain & mind generate unwanted stress
 Taught 2 step program
○ Empowering to handle stress

13. Abbott Northwestern
Hospital
Penny George Institute for Health and
Healing
 outpatient
 8 week program
 Meet Dr. Emmons for 90 minute assessment
 Meet Nutritionist
 Meet exercise physiologist
 8 weeks of group session
• Meditation
• Manage negative emotions

14. Why do we need training
 Embrace body as whole
 Reduce stress
 Renewed spirit
 Refine executive skills
 Clarity of thinking
 Have Balance & flexibility

16. Children draw from three
sources of resilience
 I HAVE: (external supports) Role models, structure
and rules, trusting relationships
Example – People who model behavior, love me and
teach me
 I AM: (personal strengths) Lovable, loving, proud
Example – Respectful of others and a person people
can love
 I CAN: (social and interpersonal skills)
Communicate, problem solve, manage feelings
Example – Control myself and be an advocate for
myself

17. To build resiliency in
children they need:
 love and trust
 food and shelter
 hope and autonomy
 safe haven
 safe relationships

18. Resiliency in children
from Birth to age 3
Child learns trust and autonomy

19. Parents and care givers can
promote resiliency by
 Encouragement
 Modeling Behavior
 Enforcing rules
 Providing unconditional love
 Balancing freedom to explore
 Providing a stable environment

20. Examples of Resilience versus
Non-resilience promoting
activities
 A baby is screaming/crying and kicking
 You can promote resilience by picking up
child, checking diaper, comforting
 You don’t promote resiliency if you tell the
baby it is find and walk away

21. A Resilient 3 year old
 feels secure in parents love
 will explore new things
 Feels proud of accomplishments
 knows daily routines

22. Resiliency in children 4 to 7
 Child learns about initiative and is busy
 Child is involved in all kinds of play and
pretend activities

23. Parents and caregivers can
promote resiliency by
 Providing unconditional love
 Express love verbally
 Model behaviors when facing adversity
 Calm and soothe
 Encourage
 Offer explanations
 Help child begin to accept responsibility

24. Examples of Resilience versus
Non-resilience promoting
activities
Children are pretending to run a
restaurant and take food from the fridge
and cupboards.
 You can promote resiliency by explaining
that he food is needed for the family and by
helping them “make” food from boxes/paper.
 You do NOT promote resiliency by taking the
food away without explaining why or yelling
at the children and leaving them to cry it out.

25. A resilient 7 year old is:
 Proud of accomplishments
 Solves problems independently
 Getting getter at accepting responsibility
 Can communicate with increasing
effectiveness
 Secure
 Feels loved

26. Resiliency in children 8 to
11
 Child learns about industry
 Engaged in mastering life skills (ex.
Schoolwork)
 Wants to be successful

27. Parents and caregivers can
promote resiliency by
 Providing unconditional love
 Use limits
 Model consistent behaviors
 Encourage communication
 Provide opportunities for children to
practice dealing with problems
 Modulate consequences

28. Example of Resilience versus
Non-resilience activities:
A child sneaks out of the house after
you told them they couldn’t go.
 You promote resiliency by talking to the child
when they return, making clear behavior
was unacceptable.
 You do NOT promote resiliency by yelling or
spanking when the child comes home or if
you make the child feel guilty and label them
as a “bad child.”

29. A resilient 11 year old
 Knows appropriate dependence and
autonomy
 Is confident
 Can complete many tasks
 Demonstrates empathy
 Can recover from adversities

30. Signs of a resilient child
 Ability to bounce back
 Knows how to ask for help
 Shows empathy
 Has love and compassion
 Knows themselves
 Has courage
 Ability to move forward

32. Burnout
 Burnout rate in teachers
 “Nearly half of all teachers quit within their first
five years.”
 Reasons for burnout
 Not enough money
 Difficult state/national standards
 Poor working conditions
 Too much preparation and paperwork
 Difficult students
 Importance of being prepared
 Resilience

33. Teachers Without
Resilience
Less effective teachers
 Loss of organization
 Decreased health
 Reduced self confidence/self esteem
 Decreased responsiveness to students
○ Academically
○ Behaviorally
○ Emotionally
 Damaged personal relationships

34. Tips to Improve Resilience
1
 Find meaning
 Get connected
 Start laughing
 Learn from experience
 Remain hopeful
 Take care of yourself

35. Tips to Improve Resilience
2
 Keep a journal
 Accept and anticipate change
 Work toward a goal
 Take action
 Maintain perspective
 Practice stress management and
relaxation

36. Proven Resiliency Strategies
from Teachers 1
 Depersonalize difficult events
 Assess what happened
 Be supportive of coworkers
 Acknowledge times when you could
have performed better

37. Proven Resiliency Strategies
from Teachers 2
 Looking at events from student’s point of
view
 Caring leadership
 Continue learning behavior
management skills
 Whole school behavioral management
strategies

38. Why Do I Need to
Have Resilience?
 Prevent burnout
 Enables you to develop a reservoir of
internal resources
 Provides strategies for dealing with
difficult situations
 Improve self confidence/self esteem
 Increase effectiveness in teaching

39. Everyone is born with the potential to
develop these abilities:

40. The Five Levels of
Resiliency
 Level One: Maintaining your emotional
stability, health and well-being.
 Level Two: Focus Outward: Strong sense
of self
 Level Three: Concentrating on the inner
world – strong sense of self
 Level Four: Well-developed Resiliency
Skills
 Level Five: The talent of changing bad
fortunes into good luck - serendipity

41. More on the levels
 First Level: Is essential to sustaining your
health and energy.
 Second Level: Concentration on the
elements in the outer world that must be
handled. Must be based on research and
identification of the problematic aspects of
the given situations more that the
emotional problems.
 Third Level: Focus on the inner world for
increasing self esteem for developing a
positive conception on ourselves.

42. More on the levels
continued
 Fourth Level: Covers the characteristics
and abilities that we find with people
with his degrees of resiliency.
 Fifth Level: Describes what is possible
at the highest level of resiliency. It is
talent for serendipity – the ability to
convert misfortune into good fortune.

43. Building Resiliency Skills
 Your mind and habits will create either
barriers or bridges to a better future.
 Resiliency can’t be taught, but it can be
learned. It comes from working to develop
your unique combinations of inborn
abilities.
 The struggle to bounce back and recover
from setbacks lead to developing strengths
and abilities that you didn’t know were
possible.

44. Developed by Al Siebert, Ph.D.

45. Rate yourself from 1 (very
little) to 5 (very strong) on the
following:
1. In a crisis or chaotic situation, I calm myself
and focus on taking useful actions.
2. I’m usually optimistic. I see difficulties as
temporary and expect to overcome them.
3. I can tolerate high levels of ambiguity and
uncertainty about situations.

46. 4. I adapt quickly to new developments. I’m
good at bouncing back from difficulties.
5. I’m playful. I find the humor in rough
situations and can laugh at myself.
6. I’m able to recover emotionally from
losses and setbacks. I have friends I can
talk with. I can express my feelings to others
and ask for help. Feelings of anger, loss and
discouragement don’t last long.

47. 7. I feel self-confident, appreciate myself, and
have a healthy concept of who I am.
8. I’m curious. I ask questions. I want to know
how things work. I like to try new ways of doing
things.
9. I learn valuable lessons from my experiences
and from the experiences of others.
10. I’m good at solving problems. I can use
analytical logic, be creative, or use practical
common sense.

48. 11. I’m good at making things work well. I’m
often asked to lead groups and projects.
12. I’m very flexible. I feel comfortable with
my paradoxical complexity. I’m optimistic
and pessimistic,
13. trusting and cautious, unselfish and
selfish, and so forth.
14. I’m always myself, but I’ve noticed that
I’m different in different situations.

49. 15. I prefer to work without a written job
description. I’m more effective when I’m free
to do what I think is best in each situation.
16. I “read” people well and trust my intuition.
17. I’m a good listener. I have good empathy
skills.
18. I’m non-judgmental about others and
adapt to people’s different personality styles.

50. 19. I’m very durable. I hold up well during
tough times. I have an independent spirit
underneath my cooperative way of working
with others.
20. I’ve been made stronger and better by
difficult experiences.
21. I’ve converted misfortune into good luck
and found benefits in bad experiences.
Total _________

51. Resiliency Quiz Scoring
Low scores: A self-rating under 50 indicates that life is
probably a struggle for you and you know it. You may not
handle pressure well. You don’t learn anything useful
from bad experiences. You feel hurt when people criticize
you. You may sometimes feel helpless and without hope.
If these statements fit you, ask yourself, “Would I like to
learn how to handle my difficulties better?” If your answer
is “yes.” Then a good way to start is to meet with others
who are working to develop their resiliency skills. Let
them coach, encourage, and guide you. Another way, if
you work for a large employer, is to get resiliency
coaching from a counselor with the Employee Assistance
Program. The fact that you feel motivated to become
more resilient is a positive sigh.

52. Scoring Continued
Lower middle scores: If you scored in
the 50-69 range, you appear to be fairly
adequate, but you may be underrating
yourself. A much larger percentage of
people underrate themselves than
overrated themselves on the quiz. Some
people have a habit of being modest and
automatically give themselves a 3 on every
item for a total score of 60. If your score is
in the 50-69 range, you need to find out
how valid your self-rating is. See the
suggestion below.

53. Scoring Continued
High scores: If you rated yourself high on
most of the statements, you have a score
over 90. This means you know you’re
already very good at bouncing back from
life’s setbacks and hold up well under non-
stop pressure. For you, the quiz validates
many things you are doing right. And,
because you like learning new ways to be
even better, it will show you how to take
your already good skills to a very high level
– something like reaching an advanced
degree black belt level in the martial arts.

54. Scoring Continued
Upper middle scores: If you agreed
with many of the statements and scored
in the 70-89 range, that is very good. It
means you can gain a lot from reading
and learning about resiliency and will
become even more self-confident and
resilient than before. You are a self-
motivated learner and can become
better and better at bouncing back from
adversities.

55. A question for you to consider is how much you
feel willing to tell your resiliency stories to others
and make yourself available to people who are
trying to learn how to cope better with their
adversities. People gain inspiration from real-
life role models. You could be one.
Note: A validity check for your scoring is to ask
two people who know you well to rate you on
the items and see what scores they come up
with. Have a discussion with them about each
of the items where there is a discrepancy and
listen to what they say.