Resiliency Within

Bo Dean and Jvanete Skiba of Wilmington, North Carolina, join Michael Sapp, CEO of the Trauma Resource Institute, and Elaine Miller-Karas, host of Resiliency Within, to discuss valuable lessons learned to enhance the well-being of survivors from Hurricane Florence and other disasters. Their reflections and the interventions they have adopted offer crucial insights for the people of the Northeast United States, who are grappling with the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene.

Hurricane Helene revealed that even inland, high-elevation areas are not immune to flooding and destruction, especially in a world where planetary warming fuels more intense rainfall. Preliminary analyses have linked climate change to Helene’s catastrophic rains. In particular, climate scientist Michael Wehner’s study at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that precipitation levels in Georgia and the Carolinas—exceeding 30 inches in some areas over just three days—were up to 20 times more likely due to human-induced warming.

Extreme weather events like Hurricane Helene are closely tied to a range of adverse mental health outcomes. Common mental health conditions that arise in the wake of such disasters include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, suicide, and substance abuse disorders (Cianconi et al., 2020).

The recovery journey for those affected by Hurricane Helene has just begun. While emergency mental health workers and first responders provide initial support, the lasting impacts on the mental health of a disaster-stricken community often persist for weeks, months, or even years. Mental health systems can face severe strain as the demand for services frequently exceeds local capacity, compounding the challenges survivors must overcome.

Resiliency Within will highlight the Poor People's Campaign to get out the vote during this pivotal time in American politics. Every vote matters. The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is organizing in more than 40 states to get out the vote of poor, low-propensity voters across the country. Studies show that small increases in the number of these voters casting ballots for an agenda that addresses their needs and concerns can change the outcomes of elections.

You’ll hear how the California Poor People’s Campaign is reaching out to people experiencing homelessness, youth, young adults, and Spanish-speaking communities to emphasize our power. We are the swing vote.

Chia-Ti will share her years of experience teaching movement, mindfulness, somatics, and resiliency building in New York City. She will address how she uses movement practices, including yoga (hatha, vinyasa, restorative) and qigong, which she offers to a wide range of age groups, including elders, adults, and teens, through community-based programs. Chia-Ti will share her personal journey of resilience - — from factors of developmental safety to learning how to move from anxious attachment to secure attachment in relationships as an adult. In her teaching, Chia-Ti emphasizes that presence, groundedness, and play are just as essential, if not more so, than the content itself, as they help create a transformative experience for her students.

Chia-Ti’s wisdom about the body will be expanded in her interview with Resiliency Within. Chia-TI states, “When we have experienced trauma or chronic stress, our bodies may learn the habit of constantly bracing, constricting, and tensing. Bracing is a natural protection against threats. For example, we may get startled by a loud noise, and the body may respond by tensing up. But when there isn't a threat, can we develop a sense of softening and letting go? In other words, can we learn how to attune to safety within ourselves and our environment?” She will help us understand the connections between mind and body and how to understand our nervous systems. Chia-Ti believes that when we can attune to and access safety and connection, we can begin to support ourselves and others. We can increase our embodiment of resilience. We can trust, hope, and feel — these beautiful markers of being human.

Contemplative practices have been shared across cultures and spiritual traditions for centuries. These practices encompass methods such as meditation, prayer, and mindfulness, which focus on deep reflection and awareness. Their purpose is to foster inner peace, self-awareness, and personal growth. Additionally, they help individuals cultivate resilience, manage stress, and develop emotional balance.

Christa Tinari, Director of the Contemplative-Based Resilience (CBR) Project at the Garrison Institute, explains that these practices not only contribute to personal well-being but are also essential for professionals exposed to secondary or vicarious trauma, such as healthcare workers, educators, and humanitarian aid providers. Christa has been a Buddhist contemplative practitioner for nearly 30 years and has observed how contemplative and mindfulness teachers now integrate trauma awareness and resilience strategies into their teachings.

This dialogue highlights the intersection between contemplative practices and the body-awareness skills taught through the Community Resiliency Model (CRM). In 2019, Christa encountered CRM while working with Emory University’s Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning) program, where CRM techniques were integrated into the curriculum for both children and adults.

One key realization she gained was the importance of trauma-informed approaches when introducing mindfulness practices, especially to those who have experienced trauma. CRM skills help create a safe and supportive environment, enabling individuals to benefit more fully from contemplative practices. These practices and skills work in tandem to foster not only personal but also social and systemic resilience by addressing the mental and emotional well-being of those who help others, making them more capable of sustaining their work in high-stress environments.

Resiliency Within is dedicated to remembering those affected by suicide. We want to bring to light those who work tirelessly to raise awareness and reach out to those suffering silently. My guests today are Dr. Jamie Gamboa and Social Worker Brian Stefan, who are returning to Resiliency Within to discuss their work with Spotlight on Suicide. They will also discuss the Suicidal Ideation Toolbox, a resource filled with accessible skills for helping professionals and individuals experiencing profound suffering. They will also share how people can receive help through the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, which is a universal entry point throughout the United States and U.S. territories to reach a caring, trained counselor who can help people experiencing mental health, substance use, and suicidal distress. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, with National Suicide Prevention Week observed from the Monday to Sunday surrounding World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10.

This encore episode explores the double-bind dilemma faced by women leaders. With the emergence of Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for President, gender politics have emerged with ferocity. Elaine and Analiza will discuss the double-bind dilemma - damned if you do and doomed if you don't and how women and women of color can manage it. They also discuss how allies and organizations can support women of color. Because our culture has an unconscious bias of how each gender should be, women are caught in a double bind. When caught in a double bind, doing one thing we need to do will undercut another equally important thing. In this case, if we act in ways consistent with gender stereotypes and are modest, collaborative, service-oriented, empathetic, and caring, we will be liked but not seen as a leader and not seen as competent. If we display leadership qualities like being confident, tough, aggressive, ambitious, and decisive, we might be seen as a leader, but we will also be seen as cold, unlikeable, and unlikely to reach a top leadership role. It is unfair that women must navigate the double bind, which takes an enormous amount of emotional intelligence.

TV reporter David Tereshchuk will be our guest on Resiliency Within as he shares his personal journey chronicled in his memoir, A Question of Paternity: My Life as an Unaffiliated Reporter. He has traveled the world questioning perpetrators and victims of war and injustice. He spent decades honing his skills as a journalist, getting tyrants and the oppressed to divulge their secrets. But there was one secret that always eluded him—that of his own origins. His mother, Hilda—the one person who knew—refused to tell him who his father was.

Then, in his fifties—after some tense exchanges—she sent him a fax stating a priest had raped her at the age of 15 in the small, Scottish Borderland town where he’d been raised. So began a quest to determine the priest’s identity—years of investigations and dead ends. Could his mother—long gone by now—have been lying about the priest? Could rumors of her “walking out” with a German POW housed at a nearby prison camp be the real story behind his birth?

In his book, A Question of Paternity, David Tereshchuk brings us with him as he searches for answers—not only to the question of who fathered him but to the larger questions of who he is himself. We learn of his struggle to overcome the shame of his impoverished childhood and his illegitimacy, the almost thirty years he lost to alcoholism, and the insecurity he felt despite national success as a TV journalist.

Does Tereshchuk discover the truth of his father’s identity, or must he settle for simply a journey of self-discovery? Is it possible to find peace even when the uncertainties of life are impenetrable?

Dr. Joy Erlichman Miller returns to Resiliency Within to share her international work on resiliency. This year, on September 12, 2024, Dr. Miller invites the world to join her for RESILIENCY 2024 in spreading the word about how to develop and nurture well-being. This year, RESILIENCY 2024 will focus on the POWER of connections and explore the influence and healing power of connections. Dr. Miller's Resiliency events have had more than 35,000 participants from 112 countries around the globe. Resiliency 2024 is offered free of charge. Her resiliency events have included 85 Celebrities, Influencers, Scientists, Researchers, Psychologists, Artists, and Leaders have included: Dr. Jill Biden, Alanis Morissette, Arianna Huffington, Dr. Edith Eger, Tara Brach, Jack Kornfield, India Arie, Kristin Neff, Erin Brockovich, Leigh Steinberg, Marta Kauffman, Glenn Close, Dr. Andrew Weil, Bobbi Brown, Jericho Brown, Pete Buttigieg, Ray LaHood, Dr. Ian, Jewel, Tito Jackson, Harville Hendrix & Helen Hunt, Pat Love, Jeh Johnson, Dick Durbin, JB Pritzker, MILCK, Naomi Baum & Michael Dickson, Rhonda Ross, Alisyn Camerota, David Kessler, Jurie Rossouw, Richard Schwartz, Amit Sood, Elaine Miller- Karas, Cynthia Tuohy, Julianne Hough, and 50 other remarkable change-makers. All speakers generously donate their time and talent to this unbelievable event. Joy leads with compassion, heart, and generosity. Join the host of Resiliency Within, Elaine Miller-Karas as she has the honor to interview Dr. Miller.

Elaine Miller-Karas, the host of Resiliency Within, will interview Aziza Hasan, Executive Director, and Andrea Hodos, Associate Director of New Ground, a nonprofit dedicated to bridging divides and convening constructive conversations around challenging social issues. They will share their wisdom on how New Ground envisions an America where Muslims and Jews are empowered to create lasting partnerships and engage in authentic communication and mutual cooperation. This vibrant model of engagement – not bound by history, theology, or politics – affirms that conflict is inevitable and yet not intractable. NewGround empowers Muslims, Jews, and allies to bridge divisions and leverage shared values to strengthen our communities’ well-being and our fragile democracy. NewGround is a community-building organization that creates, connects, and empowers Jewish and Muslim Change-makers in America. Through a professional fellowship, high school leadership council, and public programming, NewGround transforms Muslim-Jewish relations and advances a shared agenda for change. They will share what we need to do differently to bring about lasting change.

This encore presentation is of particular importance as we, again in the United States, face those who denigrate powerful women whether it be a female journalist, the first BIPOC woman running for President of the United States, or every person who speaks truth to power. Elaine Miller-Karas, the host of Resiliency Within, is interviewed by her colleague and friend, Dr. Michael Sapp. She will discuss a concept that she calls the “Rebecca Effect” with Dr. Sapp. The “Rebecca Effect is the empowerment and transformation possible for all of us who have been oppressed, marginalized, or shamed. Her ideas were sparked by the fictional character Rebecca Welton, the owner of the fictional Richmond football team in the Ted Lasso television show.

Initially, Rebecca is consumed by a desire for revenge against her ex-husband, Rupert, who betrayed their marriage. She aims to destroy his beloved football team, which she received in their divorce, by hiring the soccer-illiterate American football coach Ted Lasso. Her eventual journey is littered with reminders of her ex-husband's public attempts to marginalize and shame her. Through her self-reflections, the support of friends, and her relationships with Lasso and her best friend, Keeley, she reclaims herself.

Like Rebecca, many women and non-binary persons endure betrayal, marginalization, and oppression. Despite possessing great strength, they may experience doubt and question their value. Many of us encounter individuals who espouse misogynistic views and attempt to diminish our worth. The Rebecca Effect describes the process through which women can embrace themselves in totality—their gifts and their imperfections. They gain the courage to confront injustice. This transformation includes embracing vulnerability, acknowledging their inner child, and realizing their inherent power and worth. Compassion, strength, and courage co-exist. Elaine Miller Karas has also written a blog for Psychology Today called The Rebecca Effect: Woman Empowerment.