CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Summary and Objectives:

Throughout this fast-paced, story-filled workshop/keynote, Dr. Ungar will show that resilience is much more than just personal ruggedness in the face of adversity. It is instead a reflection of how well individuals, families, educators and employers work together to create opportunities for us to find our way to the resources we need for well-being while making those resources available in ways that we experience as meaningful. Based on Dr. Ungar’s research around the world and his clinical practice, this presentation uses examples from his new book Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success to explore how those who help others can avoid burnout and maintain their own career and life resilience when stressors pile up at home and on the job. Twelve factors that make us more resilient as adults will be discussed, along with practical tools participants can use to find the resources they need to cope successfully in culturally and contextually relevant ways, even during a pandemic. Dr. Ungar will also show how these same factors can help the people we work with achieve their life goals, and the value of continuing education as a resource for resilience. Finally, Dr. Ungar will talk about vicarious resilience, the positive impact we experience as helpers when we nurture resilience in others.

Specifically, this workshop/keynote will:

1. Show that resilience involves being both rugged and resourced.

2. Discuss 12 factors associated with resilience.

3. Identify strategies individuals can use to make themselves more resilient, even during times of extreme stress.

Throughout my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood, the world had not been an accepting place for 2SLGBTQ+ individuals. The risks of being authentic to myself were overwhelming. Fear of personal and societal backlash kept me hurting and hiding behind a well-crafted façade of cisgender and heteronormative privilege. For decades, I could not see a path to my authentic expression, and my fear robbed me of any motivation to take meaningful steps towards realizing my true authentic self. I had lost hope.

While progress is being made, the pace of change is slow, and the challenges facing 2SLGBTQ+ Youth remain numerous. Currently, these individuals face a highly disproportionate amount of stigma, discrimination, inhibited access to supports and services, familial and peer rejection and multiple forms of victimization. These difficulties lead to chronic minority stress resulting in higher incidences of mental health struggles, often putting them at an increased risk for homelessness, substance abuse, and suicide. In short, it remains a world where hope is in short supply.

Although this can often seem like an overwhelming problem to fix, I believe that there is one helpful tool of which we all have immediate access. We can give hope. Hope provides others with agency or the motivation and capability of executing the means to attain a goal. It also provides a pathway or ability to visualize and generate those means of achievement. Successfully instilling hope has been demonstrated to reduce depressive symptoms and increase attainment in many domains of life, including health, academics, and psychological adjustment.

When I look back on my journey towards accepting my transgender identity, the benefit of hindsight allows me to see now that the most challenging, scary and lonely miles I travelled were the ones where I felt hope was lost. Everything changed once this was given back to me. I am now passionate to pay that realization forward to ensure that hope survives no matter how tough this world may be. In this talk, I look forward to sharing my perspective on what we can all be doing to offer someone hope in their journey towards authenticity!