255 – The Role of Resilience in Prevention with Dr. Brenda Navarrete

This episode is brought to you by Vanguard University and the Global Center for Women and Justice, who offer an incredible anti-human trafficking certificate. Whether you're a frontline responder, a social worker, in the ministry, a healthcare provider, or simply a community member who wants to help, this program is built for you. Head over to gcwj.org/ahtc to take the next step and apply today. ---Dr. Sandie Morgan and Dr. Brenda Navarrete discuss the importance of building resilience in children as it can play a key role in prevention. They consider the characteristics that can be built in kids as protective factors to the challenging and difficult environments they face and how resilience can be taught at any age. Brenda Navarrete, PhD Dr. Navarrete provides therapeutic services and educational workshops at Alabaster Jar Project, a drop-in resource center and long-term residential program for women who have survived human trafficking and sexual exploitation in San Diego County.  She serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Global Center for Women and Justice at Vanguard University for their Anti-Human Trafficking Certificate.  She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Culture and Diversity Studies from Loma Linda University.  Dr. Navarrete’s clinical and training background includes assessment, evaluation, and therapeutic services in hospital, community mental health, residential, and juvenile detention settings.  She served as the Director of Clinical Training at Argosy University and has taught graduate psychology at various universities in Southern California.  She has promoted mental health awareness and facilitated program development for her local community and internationally in Rwanda and Honduras.  Dr. Navarrete served as the former president of the Inland Psychological Association.  Her research interests include social justice, human trafficking, gender equality and the academic achievement of at-risk youth. She has presented her research at professional conferences both locally and abroad. Key Points Resilience is what allows children to bounce back when faced with difficult situations and environments. Resilience in children can be a key protective factor in human trafficking. Children and adults can be taught resilience at any stage in their life. Parents, teachers, and individuals in children’s lives all play a role in building resilience in the youth around them. Some of the key characteristics of resilience discussed are: unconditional love, high expectations, competence, tenacity, connection, and coping. Resources Alabaster Jar Project Smart Mama’s, Safe Kids – Parent Training Ensure Justice Conference – March 4-5, 2022 Coping Strategies – PPT from Parent Training Presentation The Predictive 6-Factor Resilience Scale: Neurobiological Fundamentals and Organizational Applications (Rossouw, P. & Rossouw, J., 2016) Anti-Human Trafficking Certificate Transcript Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 255, The Role of Resilience in Prevention with Dr. Brenda Navarrete. Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave [00:00:31] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave [00:00:39] 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, always a pleasure to be with you. And today I’m so glad to welcome to the show another member of our team here at Vanguard University, part of our instruction team. So glad to introduce to you Dr. Brenda Navarrete. She provides therapeutic services and educational workshops at Alabaster Jar Project, a drop-in resource center and long-term residential program for women who have survived human trafficking and sexual exploitation in San Diego County. She also serves as an adjunct faculty member at the Global Center for Women and Justice here at Vanguard University and has taught graduate psychology at various universities in Southern California. Her clinical background includes assessment, evaluation, and therapeutic services in hospital community mental health, residential and juvenile detention settings. Brenda, we’re so glad to have you with us today. Brenda [00:01:40] I’m honored to be here. Thank you for inviting me. Sandie [00:01:43] So, Dr. Brenda Navarrete, I am so excited to have you and have this discussion about the role of resilience in prevention. Everywhere I go, people ask me how to keep their children safe. And so many times it’s focused on what to do externally to keep the predators away from them and all these kinds of fear-based tactics. But you bring so much power and energy into the room with your focus on resilience. So, I want to start, first of all, with the question of what is resilience and why does it matter? Brenda [00:02:32] Thank you so much, Sandie. So, I love this concept of resilience because there are so many things that we can’t change about our environment, our world, our circumstances. And the recent Covid pandemic is a recent example of that, right? We have already lived through that. We’ve already lived through. But there are some things that we do have some control over and there are some things that we can change, and we can focus on that. And that includes our mindset and our attitude. And so, I think that resilience building should be an ongoing preventative practice of parenting, teaching or mentoring youth, because, you know, it’s a practice that builds a child’s strength and it stores it for these unusually critical times when they’ll meet challenges or setbacks or obstacles. Sandie [00:03:27] Wait, wait. I’m sorry. I’ve got to have you explain that. I have this image in my head of a bank and making deposits. How do you store resilience? Brenda [00:03:38] Yes, I love that image. I think, you know, it really is this idea of building a mindset, of building a mindset that is capable of adapting and changing and knowing that our capacity to learn and to grow is not fixed, that it can change, and it can be built over time. So resiliency is that capacity to rise above difficult circumstances and the ability to recover from setbacks. It’s the process of adapting well in the face of adversity. It may be trauma or tragedy or change or just significant sources of stress and being able to bounce back or maybe even growing stronger because of these circumstances. And I like the idea of thinking of resilience as almost a form of buoyancy, right? So, when our bodies are pushed underwater, they instinctively rise back up to the surface. And I think that’s a really useful image to keep in mind as we talk about resiliency. It’s what we want young people to be able to do when they’re pushed und...