Table 1.
Overall structure and content of resilience training workshop.
| Session 1: |
| - Introductions |
| - Welcome and orientation |
| - Discuss the purpose of the workshop—to increase psychological resilience |
| - Discuss importance of resilience—why it is particularly useful at this life stage |
| - Introduce skill for the week—mindfulness |
| - Explore what contributes to and detracts from the ability to be mindful |
| - Engage in experiential exercise to highlight new skill: mindful eating |
| - Summary—relate mindfulness to resilience |
| - Solicit any feedback from the group. Emphasize participants' role as collaborators |
| - Assign home practice: (a) 3-minute breathing exercise performed 3 times and (b) select one activity to practice mindfully |
| Session 2: |
| - Mindfulness exercise: self-compassion break |
| - Home practice review |
| - Review main points of previous session and restate goal of workshop |
| - Introduce skill for the week—self-compassion |
| - Explore what contributes to and detracts from self-compassion |
| - Engage in experiential exercise to highlight new skill: self-compassion writing exercise |
| - Summary—relate self-compassion to resilience |
| - Solicit any feedback from the group |
| - Assign home practice: (a) 3-minute breathing exercise performed 3 times and (b) try the self-compassion mindfulness exercise at least once |
| Session 3: |
| - Mindfulness exercise: mindfulness of relationships |
| - Home practice review |
| - Review main points of previous session and restate goal of workshop |
| - Introduce skill for the week—mentalization |
| - Explore what gets in the way of accurate mentalizing |
| - Engage in experiential exercise to highlight new skill: alternative beliefs |
| - Summary—relate mentalization to resilience |
| - Solicit any feedback from the group. |
| - Assign home practice: (a) 3-minute breathing exercise performed 3 times and (b) try the alternative beliefs exercise |
| Session 4: |
| - Mindfulness exercise: inner strength |
| - Home practice review |
| - Engage in experiential exercise to practice mentalization skills: alternative beliefs |
| - Consolidate and review: resilience, mindfulness, self-compassion, mentalization |
| - Engage in experiential exercise: self-compassion letter |
| - Solicit any feedback from the group. Discuss how they might use the workshop skills in the future. Discuss anything that has been meaningful for them |