Holiday Stress and Loss: The Art of Stress Resilience in Emotionally Challenging Times

In this interactive program, participants will have a chance to share their thoughts and feelings about the holidays, especially in a time of national change and uncertainty.  The holidays seem to capture the intro to Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities:  "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  It was the season of light it was the season of darkness.  It was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

This program will both provide holiday stress and loss tools as well as help participants: share memories, the joyful and painful, of holidays passed; learn to engage with feelings of grief, how to set boundaries with difficult family members, acknowledge Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), reflecting on your end of year accomplishments and disappointments, prepare to eat and drink in a healthy manner, not give in to a child’s toy lust, and to connect to the caring and sharing spirit of the holidays.  You will discover the Stress Doc’s cognitive agility and stress resilience formula for Natural SPEED and keys to preventing and/or recovering from burnout.  And as a Motivational Psychohumorist, it will be delivered with light and en-light-ening style and substance.

• Rapidly uncover holiday and social-cultural stress smoke signals 
• Discover Natural SPEED and “The Six ‘R’s of Burnout Recovery 
• Discover the “Stages of Grief” and “The Eight ‘F’s for Managing Loss and Change”
• Learn how to say “No” constructively with family members, colleagues and “higher ups”
• Disarm and defuse power struggles by asking courageous "good questions" and using affirming "I" messages while reducing status tensions and learning to build trust
• Discover team exercises, structures and strategies for managing stress, enhancing team inclusion-participation and collaborative problem-solving
• Closing tips and techniques for humour along with the Doc's acclaimed "Shrink Rap" ™.

Describe topic importance, how this can add value to the work style.

This training is for anyone realizing that when combining the double-edged holidays with times of change and uncertainty, including the restriction of rights and the labelling of different people and groups, many people will be feeling uneasy, lonely, angry, and unsure of where they are headed, or what the future may hold.  This program will provide guidance and tools for developing emotional muscles, generating “stress buddies,” and being able to focus and move forward with more confidence.

• All personality types and all personnel levels – from front-line employees to all levels of management will gain skills, tools, and strategies for: 1) identifying holiday/social-cultural stress, loss, and burnout warning signs and 2) positively developing stress, conflict, and change resilience skills in both themselves and in colleagues, team members, and those they supervise/manage.  Clearly, individuals, teams, and the organization as a whole benefit when a work culture is more stress resilient and focused, open and fun!

Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, "The Stress Doc" ™, a nationally acclaimed speaker, writer, and "Psychohumorist" ™, is a founding partner and Stress Resilience and Trauma Debriefing Consultant for the Nepali Diaspora Behavioral Health & Wellness Initiative. Current 247Compliance/Ijona Skills Training Expert; also,Leadership Coach/Training Consultant for the international Embry-Riddle Aeronautics University at the Daytona, FL headquarters. A former Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the US Postal Service, he has led numerous Pre-Deployment Stress Resilience-Humor-Team Building Retreats for the US Army. Mark also has extensive experience as a Critical Incident Consultant. The Doc is the author of Practice Safe Stress, The Four Faces of Anger, and Preserving Human Touch in a High-Tech World. Mark’s award-winning, USA Today Online "HotSite" – www.stressdoc.com – was called a "workplace resource" by National Public Radio (NPR).