For part two, Dr. Jackie Parke joins Sandie Morgan and Dave Stachowiak again to further discuss resilience in adversity. Jackie is a licensed psychologist and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Vanguard University in Southern California who focuses on resilience-building among youth, evidence-based treatment for mental health disorders, and refugee mental health. Jackie provides more insight into the 5 factors related to resilience and how we can help build resilience in others.

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Transcript

Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 180, Building Resilience Factors: Part 2.

Production Credits: [00:00:08] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave: [00:00:28] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie: [00:00:33] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave: [00:00:36] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, on the last episode we began a conversation with Dr. Jackie Parke on the role of resilience when facing adversity. And today she is back to continue that conversation and to really do a deep dive on some of the building resilience factors, some of the critical ones that we should know about. And so, for those who didn’t listen yet to Episode 179, if you didn’t, by the way, you can go back and listen, what should people be remembering from our previous conversation, Sandie?

Sandie: [00:01:15] Well, Dr. Jackie Parke is amazing and her experiences, you can go back and listen to her bio, but she is also, a colleague and valued friend at Vanguard University. And her work with adolescents and with refugees, she just brings a wealth of experience and I love the definition she introduced us to on the last podcast. So, welcome back Dr. Jackie Parke, and why don’t you remind us of the definition of resilience that we’re working with.

Jackie: [00:01:48] Sure, So, we were talking about a definition of resilience that I saw in a literature by Grotburg in 1995. So, the definition is that “resilience is the human capacity to face, overcome, and be strengthened by, or even transformed by the adversities of life.”

Sandie: [00:02:13] Wow. Just like last time, I’m just So, inspired by the idea of transformation because of adversities. And you introduced us to two ends of the spectrum of risk factors and the protective factors. And one of the things that really inspired me about protective factors is that you identified those also, as preventative. And when you are working with adolescents how does that prevention mentality inform how you do that?

Jackie: [00:02:49] Yeah there’s a paradigm that some people look to when they’re working with youth and it’s called positive youth development. But it’s basically this idea that we want to as much as possible identify and highlight the protective factors that are present in a person’s life. We also, want to shore up their psychological resources by if possible increasing the number of protective factors in their life. So, we want to highlight the protective factors that are there. We want to build in more protective factors as possible, with an understanding that this may even prevent them from suffering future difficulties if we can shore up their resources for being resilient.

Sandie: [00:03:37] I love that. And So, for me sometimes it’s the idea that it’s like brushing your teeth with toothpaste that has fluoride in it. I don’t have to have a cavity and take you and get it filled. I just have to teach you how to protect your teeth. And we don’t have to wait for the risk factors to overwhelm a young person or someone who has survived some kind of trauma, but we can actually build those protective factors. So, we talked about two things the last podcast and we’re going to add three. But let’s go back and review social support, Dr. Parke.

Jackie: [00:04:18] Social support is the idea that someone has a team, they have a group of people whether his family, or friends, or professionals who are caring for them. There are people who are trustworthy, and who love them, who care for them unconditionally, and who are there for them. They have a tribe in a sense.

Sandie: [00:04:41] I like the term tribe. I had a conversation recently with someone who was running an aftercare program for adult women with substance abuse issues. And she said, “oh no we’ve got three empty beds because we had three people who broke the rules. And So, now they’re no longer there and So, we can take blah blah blah.” and it’s like well I don’t want to put them there because it feels like that unconditional part. And So, building that support. How would you respond? I had nothing to say, I just got really quiet. How can you have some social support in really difficult circumstances?

Jackie: [00:05:23] Yeah, maybe I have nothing to say too. No, I’m just kidding. It’s a difficult question but I think what my mind goes to is that the love, and support, and the care are unconditional. But unconditional love and care and support do include boundaries. It does include limit setting it does include safety but that may have to work differently from setting to...