Strength Under Pressure: Building Resilience in Turbulent Times

Intended Audience:

This workshop is designed for people who are struggling with negative emotions and often feel overwhelmed by the day-to-day stresses of life, changes in the economy, current events, and uncertainty about the future.

Workshop Description:

This two-hour skill-building workshop will actively engage you in a review of various research-based tools and techniques to help you build emotional resilience during times of high stress & uncertainty.

Dr. Madril will provide you with a framework for understanding the roots of your emotional dysregulation from a bio-psychosocial perspective. He will teach you practical tools and techniques to help you: 1) work with heightened emotions like chronic and acute anxiety; 2) restore balance to your nervous system during and following highly stressful situations; 3) cultivate positive conditions in your life that may help you to prevent chronic patterns of stress, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation in the future.

This workshop integrates various modes of instruction including experiential exercises, small group learning, mindfulness meditation, mindful movement, periods of silence, video, and didactic-style teaching.

What You Will Learn:

• How the body and mind respond to stressful triggers generated from physical and web-based environments, including autonomic reactions to reminders of past traumatic events.
• How to identify and actively respond to triggers that may lead to emotional dysregulation.
• How to integrate techniques from cognitive therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness meditation, and yoga into your daily life to better manage day-to-day stress and anxiety that could lead to chronic mental health conditions.
• How to integrate simple mind-body practices into your self-care program that may help you to enhance your ability to regulate your emotions.
• Practical tools to cultivate daily habits designed to generate enduring feelings of peace and well-being.

By the end of the session, you’ll feel more grounded, confident, and prepared to face stress with clarity and resilience.

Workshop Agenda

Welcome & Introduction (10 minutes)

• Brief overview of workshop goals
• Outline of agenda
• Grounding exercise to set intention

Part One: How the Body and Mind Respond to Stressful Triggers (25 minutes)

• Overview & Teaching (15 min):
• Stress response in the brain and body
• Autonomic nervous system reactions to daily and trauma-related stressors
• Experiential Practice (10 min):
• Guided body scan or short mindfulness exercise

Part Two: How to Respond to Triggers that May Lead to Emotional Overwhelm (25 minutes)

Overview & Teaching (15 min):

• Recognizing early signs of emotional dysregulation
• Strategies for interrupting the stress cycle

Practice & Reflection (10 min):

• Paired or small-group discussion: “What are my common triggers?”
• Quick grounding practice.

Registration Includes:

• Instructor-led presentation on up-to-date and research-based information about stress and anxiety and its effects on the brain, body, and mind.
• Review of evidence-based tool and techniques to enhance your ability to manage and prevent states of emotional overwhelm.
• Detailed hand-outs of the content of the workshop.
• A list of resources that may support you in developing the conditions necessary in your life to foster emotional well-being and body-based wellness.
• Q & A at the end of the workshop.