The Building Resiliency Workbook contains five separate sections, each with its own unique resilience scale, to help participants learn more about themselves and how to build resiliency which will enable them to thrive in times of adversity, change and stress.
- Optimistic outlook helps participants identify how optimistically they view and live life.
- Locus of control helps participants explore the extent to which they believe they have control over what happens in their lives.
- Sense of self helps participants explore the strength of their self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-concept.
- Ability to bounce back helps participants increase their ability to bounce back and recover from a setback.
- Change management helps participants become aware of how well they deal with change, and develop skills necessary to accept change.
Effective use of journaling, exploratory activities and a resilience scale These sections serve as avenues for individual self-reflection, as well as participating in group experiences revolving around identified topics of importance. Each resilience scale includes directions for easy administration, scoring, and interpretation. Each section includes
reproducible exploratory activities, reflective journaling activities, and educational handouts to help participants discover their level of resiliency and provides reflective exercises and instruction to build personal and professional resiliency.
Facilitator Reproducible Guided Self-Assessments, Exercises & Educational Handouts Resiliency has been defined as the ability to:
- Manage life's challenges, stresses, changes, and pressures effectively.
- Cope and adapt successfully to adversity.
- Bounce back to a balanced state after facing a major disruption in life or career.
People have an innate ability to demonstrate resiliency when they have resiliency skills built into their lives. Resilient people are able to adapt successfully under adverse circumstances such as: poverty, mental illness, disasters, terrorism, physical or psychological trauma, divorce, job loss, prison, loss of a loved one, parent s divorce, prolonged stress, physical or sexual abuse, or a lack of safety. Resiliency, or a positive behavioral adaptation, is critical when people encounter any type of trauma.
Dr. John J Liptak, EdD, frequently conducts workshops on assessment-related topics. He has written three books on career-related topics and these books have been featured in numerous newspapers including The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Associated Press. His work has also been featured on MSNBC, CNN Radio and on the PAX / ION television series, Success without a College Degree. John has many years of experience in providing counseling services to individuals and groups in a variety of settings including job training programs, correctional institutions, and colleges and universities. In addition, John has about ten years of teaching experience as an assistant professor.
With Kathy Khalsa and Ester Leutenberg, he has written three other comprehensive books for teachers and counselors to use with their students and clients: The Self-Esteem Program, The Social Skills Program and The Stress Management Program: Inventories, Activities & Educational Handouts. With Whole Person Associates, he and Ester Leutenberg continue to co-write books to add to their Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook series.
Ester R.A. Leutenberg has worked in the mental health field for many years as a publisher, author and advocate for those suffering from loss. She personally experienced a devastating loss when her son Mitchell, after struggling with a mental illness for eight years, died by suicide in 1986. Soon after, as a way of both healing and helping others, Ester co-founded Wellness Reproductions & Publishing with her daughter Kathy Khalsa and began developing therapeutic products that help facilitators help their clients.
Ester has co-written GriefWork ~ Healing from Loss, The GriefWork Companion and Creating a Healthy Balanced Life. Ester and John have co-written the Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series, the Teen Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series and are currently working on a Coping Workbook Series, all published by Whole Person Associates.
