Through the wonders of
Linked-in I connected with a Nurse-Research Analyst working for a national insurance/health
benefits consulting firm. This health
expert wants to address the stress-related factors that contribute to the “Big
Four Impacting Workplace Wellness”: high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and alcohol and smoking. (For the last abusive symptom mix, with a
touch of cynicism, I suggested an expansion of the category. Follow the government’s nomenclature; call it
ATF: Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms!
As you may already know, I would add Sleep to our “Medical MT.
Rushmore.”) As this consultant explained,
wearing a pedometer is useful but hardly sufficient to address the near crisis
health conditions.
We agreed I would present
a 20 minute phone conference to the health benefits team of a client
company. The goal was providing future
“Lunch and Learn” wellness programs to company employees. It went well enough that two days later the
company’s health benefits team in Charlotte also asked for a stress resilience
phone conference.
The Birth of a Series and a Good Omen
But perhaps the most
important moment was when the coordinating consultant asked if I could put
together a series of “Stress Resilience” programs. That was all the encouragement needed. It’s as if this idea had already been
gestating, and only needed a little prodding to come kicking and screaming out
into the world. Knocking out a stress
segment a day...a new ready to roll and bounce Stress Doc offering.
Each program segment has a
blurb and five objectives. Also, knowing she would have
to sell me and the stress resilience concept to her boss, the Nurse Consultant asked
me to address the question of my qualifications to deliver the series. Career path and skills-based outlines follow
the five program blurbs and objectives.
Also recent and past, including military, testimonials.
Clearly, this is a series
I am opening up to the universe. In
fact, yesterday brought a good omen. An Army Officer/recent Company
Commander that I met a few years back while leading a program for Command
Officers at Ft Hood, TX, dropped me a Linked-in note. K. asked if he might pass my name to the
Media Relations Officer at Ft. Irwin, Cal.
Stress Resilience is the buzz in the Army. We were definitely on the same wavelength! (Actually, he initially asked if I might be
interested in doing a radio talk-show. Interested…for years my objective has
been to get enough exposure so I’m finally arrested for indecency!)
Await your ideas on
content – additions and subtractions – on edits, elaborations, questions,
etc. Please feel free to share.
Remember, my motto: Have
Stress? Will Travel: A Smart Mouth for Hire! Thanks,
Mark
-----------------
1)
Blending Burnout Prevention/Recovery, Psychological Hardiness and
Natural SPEED
2)
Proactively Engaging with Change and Loss, Trauma and Bad Habits: Grieve,
Let Go, Seek One in the Know and Grow with the Flow
3)
Empathic Assertion: A
Communication Skillset for Disarming Power Struggles and Defusing Critical
Aggressors while Developing Integrity, Collaboration, and Trust
4) The HARP Method: Blending Healing
Humor, Acknowledging flaws and
foibles, practicing Resilient Risk-taking,
and overcoming Procrastination
5)
Designing Resilient and Responsive (“R and R”) Teams: A “Helmets Off and Hands On” and “High Tech
and Human Touch” (HT2)™ Approach
-------------------------
1)
Building Stress Resilience: Blending Hardiness, Burnout
Prevention/Recovery, and Natural SPEED
In a 24/7 world that's cycling from
“do more with less reorganizing to ever faster upgrading” managing stress and
achieving better balance and sense of control of one’s mind-body health, work-life,
and psycho-social-organizational systems are vital. The challenges to wellness, morale, and
productivity have never been greater, especially in times of rapid change or organizational
cultural transition.
Have no fear…Mark Gorkin, "The
Stress Doc" ™, is here with his dynamic and interactive,
thought-provoking, inspiring, and FUN-filled
presentation and small group exercises.
Learn to recognize stress smoke signals, recover from or prevent
burnout, develop stress resilience or “psychological hardiness” (especially
useful in transitional times). In
addition, learn of the Stress Doc’s self-designed Six “R” burnout recovery
plan. Discover the Stress Doc's Natural
SPEED model and method for expanding personal energy, stress resiliency,
cognitive agility, and emotional integrity.
And finally, experience the Stress Doc as a “healing humorist,” that is,
his pioneering work in the field of psychologically humorous rap music “Shrink
Rap” ™ Productions.
Seek the higher power of Stress Doc
humor: May the Farce Be with You
--------------------
OBJECTIVES
1.
Rapidly and playfully identify stress smoke signals; discover the “Four
Stages of Burnout”
2. Overcome and prevent burnout by learning to
“let go”; in a small group exercise, explore the challenge of “letting go vs.
holding on”; gain the company-based research for thriving in transition – the
“Four ‘C’s of Psychological Hardiness”
3.
Discover the Stress Doc’s Six “R”s Personal Burnout
Recovery/Rejuvenation Model: Running (an Exercise Regimen), Reading, Retreating,
Writing, Relating and Risk-taking
4. Discover “The Stress Doc’s Stress Resiliency, Brain-Body
Agility and Emotional Integrity Formula for Natural SPEED – Sleep, Priorities, Passion, Empathy,
Exercise and Diet”
5.
Experience “healing humor” through the Stress Doc’s acclaimed “Shrink
Rap” ™
Don’t miss your appointment with the
Stress Doc!
---------------------------
2) Proactively Engaging with Change and Loss,
Trauma and Bad Habits: Grieve, Let Go, Seek One in the Know
and Grow with the Flow
We live and work in a TNT/3-D – Time-Numbers-Technology/Driven, Distracted
& Disruptive – World where upgrading, restructuring, and uncertainty
seem constant and everything happens NOW. Not surprisingly, stress resilience requires dealing productively with loss and
change – whether involving people and projects or deliverables and dreams. The blow may also come from the unexpected
departure, illness, and death of a beloved colleague, team member, or leader. It is critical to have a mindset, skillset,
and support-set for effectively and resourcefully engaging with and learning
from loss and change, grief or trauma.
Have no
fear…Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc" ™, is here with his dynamic and
interactive, thought-provoking, inspiring, and FUN-filled presentation and small group exercises. Recognize the “danger and opportunity” in
personal-professional change and crisis.
Understand how personal baggage may become a heavy anchor. Especially in times of major transition or
uncertainty, the ability to: a) quickly
yet meaningfully process emotions, especially angst and anger, yet also realize
grief has its own personal timeline, b) understand the difference between
natural, self-healing grief and life-constricting clinical depression, c) know
when to seek out a “stress buddy” or supervisor, mentor or professional health
advisor, d) consider a “good enough” range of options and move in a new
direction by making “sadder but wiser” (even if imperfect) decisions, e)
reconsider limitations or restrictions of an outmoded past and f) envision and
remodel a new – streamlined or expanded – personal-professional identity, reliable
support-resource pool, and future career-life path is vital. Also invaluable is the capacity for finding healing humor in “somber circumstances
and irksome tasks” (as noted by the pioneering humanist, Helen Keller.) Finally, sometimes it’s our own rigid
restrictions or self-defeating habits (or addictions, alas) that trap and drain
us. Once again the mind-body-spirit pass is in the impasse: Grieve, Let Go, Seek One in the Know and Grow with the Flow!
Seek the higher power of Stress Doc
humor: May the Farce Be with You.
-------------------
OBJECTIVES
1.
Understand why many freeze, flee or fight change rather than face
and reframe it and then flow
2.
Engage in a small group exercise that illustrates the danger and
opportunity” in loss or change, trauma or crisis; learn to recognize and
“Confront Your Intimate FOE” and grapple with “Grief Ghosts”
3.
Learn what it means and what it takes to truly “let go” (including recognizing
the “stages of grief”), manage the edgy unknown, and be open to new ideas and future
possibilities
4. Discover why and how healing and
harmonizing humor can enable individuals, departments, and all manner and sizes
of teams to break through grief barriers, overcome dysfunctional conflict, and
reengage as a vital community
5.
Experience a relaxation-visualization exercise that examines and helps
you begin to “let go” of rigidities and self-defeating habits or behavior
patterns while envisioning yourself in a new and proactive light.
Don’t miss your appointment with the
Stress Doc!
---------------------------
3)
Empathic Assertion: A Communication Skillset for Disarming Power
Struggles and Defusing Critical Aggressors while Developing Integrity,
Collaboration, and Trust
In times of rapid change, when people
are operating with significant stress and uncertainty – at work and/or in their
home lives – workplace tension will often have a communication and conflict
component. Add a high demand work world,
where employees experience: a) regular disruptions
in the control of their work, their output, or schedule, b) face significant
staffing, resource, training, support, career promotion, and chronic time
pressures, c) interact with a top-down, slow-responding, or remote chain of
command not open to diverse ideas, and/or e) perceived “favoritism,”
rumor-driven cliques, or “stress carriers” permeate the environment…Not
surprisingly, research suggests as much as 75% of workplace stress has an
interpersonal component!
Once again, Mark Gorkin, "The
Stress Doc" ™, is here with his dynamic and interactive,
thought-provoking, inspiring, and FUN-filled
presentation and small group exercises. Reduce
interpersonal tension and create a more open and participatory work culture by
walking the Doc’s Triple “A” and “PRO Relating” talk. Especially discover what showing genuine
“Respect” and being “Responsible” really mean.
Practice “Empathic and Tactical-Tactful Assertion” skills, including the
trust-building power of asking “Good Questions” and “meta-communicating” for
disarming power struggles and defusing critical aggressors. Discover the “Art of Active and Reflective
Listening and Questioning.” And
finally, learn different conflict problem solving styles and employ the
Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Inventory to engage “Collaboratively” with a real personal-professional
issue.
Seek the higher power of Stress Doc
humor: May the Farce Be with You.
--------------------
OBJECTIVES
1.
Discover the Triple “A” – Authority-Autonomy-Accountability
– for fostering a climate of Individual/Organizational Responsibility and
Resiliency (aka “Helmet’s Off and Hands On”)
2.
Restore a Four “R” culture that fosters PRO – Professional-Reciprocal-Ongoing – Relating: being Respectful-Real-Responsible-Responsive;
learn new, thought-provoking ways of envisioning the Four “R”s
3.
Through modified and fun role-play, gain “empathic assertion” skills for
defusing power struggles by asking courageous “Good Questions” and building
trust; learn to tactically and tactfully disarm a critical aggressor
4.
Discover the “Art of Active and Reflective Listening and Questioning”;
learn to clarify and be concise; paraphrase and pause; differentiate reaction
from response and when and how to reflect and reveal; mutually strategize and
summarize
5.
As a small group exercise, use the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Styles
Inventory to address “collaboratively” a real conflict situation; discover the
creativity by harnessing diversity.
Don’t miss your appointment with the
Stress Doc!
------------------------------
4) The HARP
Method: Blending Healing Humor, Acknowledging flaws
and foibles, practicing Resilient Risk-taking, and overcoming Procrastination
As the world moves, spins, and evolves
at an ever faster pace, learning to engage in conscious and calculated
risk-raking is a necessary tool for survival and adaptation. Despite anxieties, doubts, and/or
resistances, being decisive while knowing when to exercise restraint (e. g,
understanding when to spur to action or when to purposefully place some reins
on unbridled passion) are critical resiliency components. And while reflection is often a plus…inertia
invariable becomes a self-defeating trap.
So first off, let’s confront that aversive and subversive “P”-word – Procrastination. Next, how to find that optimal balance
between “stability and chaos,” to be open to the new but also apprentice long
enough to develop some real mind-body muscles, meaningful experience, and maybe
even some hard-earned wisdom? And
perhaps the two most important mantra-tools in the “Resilient Risk-Taking”
mind-mood tool box: a) “Learn to Fail or
Fail to Learn” and b) “Laugh at One’s Own Flaws and Foibles”
Have no fear (well, perhaps a little)…Mark
Gorkin, "The Stress Doc" ™, is here with his dynamic and interactive,
thought-provoking, inspiring, and FUN-filled
presentation and small group exercises.
Through fast-paced presentation and group interaction, gain skills and
strategies for playing the HARP: overcoming procrastination and establishing
better organizational patterns. Discover
the key steps to becoming a “Resilient Risk-Taker; for yourself and team
members, learn to appropriately apply “healing humor” to better reduce the
“ego” and “egoal” risk of trial and
error; develop a multi-faceted – “learner not loser” – view of failure. And
finally, bring it all together: a) overcome
procrastination, b) take a small but meaningful risk, c) engage in
self-affirmation by share self-effacing and healing/harmonizing humor, and d) strengthen
team cohesion and resilience by engaging in the Stress Doc’s acclaimed “Four
Word Exercise.”
Seek the higher power of Stress Doc
humor: May the Farce Be with You.
-------------------
OBJECTIVES
1.
Grasp the dynamics behind why we procrastinate; learn to PANIC to
achieve “Emancipation Procrastination”
2.
Engage in a small group/peer consultation exercise to strengthen
strategic time organization
3.
Learn the “Four Steps of Resilient Risk-Taking” – from “Aware-ily Jump
in Over Your Head” to “Design for Error and Opportunity, Exploration and
Integration”
4.
Appreciate the power of “healing and harmonizing humor” for fostering
individual and team resiliency; discover a simple too for evolving as a healing
humorist
5.
Participate in the powerful, inspiring, and FUN stress- and group resiliency- as well as camaraderie- building
exercise – “Confronting the Intimate FOE.”
Don’t miss your appointment with the
Stress Doc!
------------------------------
5) Designing Resilient & Responsive (“R
and R”) Teams: A “Helmets Off &
Hands On” and “High Tech and Human Touch” (HT2)™ Approach
In today’s 24/7, hyper-paced world,
building personal-professional stress resilience is certainly a vital and necessary
step. However, it is not sufficient. We need to weave a safe and secure net of
interdependent relations. This support
net knows that in times of stress and conflict, productive problem solving is often
less a matter of “fight or flight” and more “tend and befriend.” (Of course, some individual and group
conflict is inevitable and needs to be addressed with “good enough” skill,
honest dialogue, and personal-professional integrity.) Evolving team leader/member communication-relationship
transparency and trust enhances the likelihood of: a) constructive engagement, b) meaningful
resolution, as well as c) strengthened team consensus, cohesion, and
resilience. And in the workplace the
ideal group to provide that revitalizing mix of “high tech/task and
human touch” is the work team. How can a
work team live up to its potential for generating “R and R” – Resilience and Responsiveness? Discover a group process for cultivating the
Stress Doc’s notion of “team synergy”: where the whole is not just greater than the
sum of the parts, but the parts evolve into purposeful partners!
And in the final session, Mark Gorkin,
"The Stress Doc" ™, is here with his dynamic and interactive,
thought-provoking, inspiring, and FUN-filled
presentation and small group exercises.
Discover the Doc’s “Helmet’s Off and Hands On” method for cultivating a
“High Tech and Human Touch (HT2) ™ Culture.” Appreciate why and how “winning” teams blend
“Individual Creativity and Interactive Community.” Engage in a “Barriers and Bridges” exercise
for developing “Resilient and Responsive” teams. Learn “how to” structures and techniques for
facilitating team member participation in and commitment to both individual and
group vision and goals. At the same
time, it’s vital that team members and, especially, leaders know how to professionally
engage dis-eased, disruptive, or dysfunctional group members. And lastly, close with a strategic “Five
Session Series Review and Next Steps.”
Seek the higher power of Stress Doc
humor: May the Farce Be with You.
-------------------
OBJECTIVES
1.
Understand why “There’s no ‘I’ in team” may not be the best team mantra;
grasp the importance of “Helmets Off and Hands On” and the Triple “A” for
building “Winning” teams
2.
Engage in the acclaimed “3-D – Discussion-Drawing-Diversity
– Team Building Exercise”; identify key barriers to more coordinated,
supportive, and productive teams
3.
Engage in the follow-up “Consultation Problem Solving Team Role-Play”;
build communicational and structural bridges for more coordinated and
supportive, focused and productive, diverse and synergistic teams; discover the
“Stress Doc’s Elite Eight for Building Resilient and Responsive Teams”
4.
Explore constructive ways for team leaders and team members to respond
to a disruptive “stress carrier”
5.
Closing review of what participants have learned/applied; finally,
strategic next steps and commitments for “Sustaining Stress and Team Resilience.”
Don’t miss your appointment with the
Stress Doc!
------------------------------
Why
Mark Gorkin, MSW, LICSW, the “Stress Doc” ™, is the right person to deliver
this “5-Part Building Stress Resilience Series”:
Overview: Stress Resilience Background and Experience, Skills
and Credits
1.
He is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over thirty years of
private practice and agency experience
2.
After burning out on a doctoral dissertation, he became an expert in the
field of stress and burnout, including breaking into radio and television
becoming known as the “Stress Doc”; in the ‘80s, had a syndicated “Stress
Brake” radio feature with Longhorn Radio Network, University of Texas, Austin
3.
In the ‘80s, as an adjunct, he taught Crisis Intervention/Brief Therapy
Techniques to Social Work Grad Students at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA; often
had largest elective class enrollment; became known as “Mr. Crisis
Intervention”
4.
Over the years he has published hundreds of popular articles on the
topics, of stress, burnout, loss and change; in addition to his own blog, his
writings are regularly published by the large web platforms – Workforce.com (as a “stress expert,” his
Q and A responses to reader’s questions has been a long-running as-needed
feature), HR.com, Mental Help Net; his
website – stressdoc.com – has been
called a “workplace resource” by National Public Radio (NPR); there are a
variety of training videos on the site; after many years, he still has a very
high ranking on Google for the term “burnout”
5.
He is the author of three “resiliency”-related books:
Ø
Resiliency Rap: The Wit and Wisdom of the Shrink Rapper ™
Ø
Practice Safe Stress: Healing and Laughing in the Face of Stress,
Burnout, and Depression
Ø
The Four Faces of Anger: Transforming Anger, Rage, and Conflict Into Inspiring
Attitude and Behavior
6.
He is an acclaimed keynote speaker, workshop, and retreat leader, having
led nearly a thousand programs in the past thirty years for an array of
companies, government agencies, non-profits, etc.; areas of specialty include stress
resilience/burnout prevention and recovery, conflict and communication skills,
transforming loss and change, team building and, most recently, resilient
risk-taking and creative leadership; in particular he has led several Pre-Deployment
and Post-Deployment Retreat Workshops – “Stress Resilience, Humor, and Team
Building” – for various Military Units, especially at Ft. Hood, TX; see
testimonials below
7.
In the past five years, he has led a number of resilience-related
webinars; for nearly ten years he ran a “Shrink Rap and Group Chat” for AOL;
responding rapidly, succinctly, yet meaningfully to participants' Instant
Messages (a forerunner of texting) was critical
8.
Living in the DC area since 1990, he has considerable experience with
federal, county, and city government agencies; he has collaborated with many
EAP programs/professionals
9.
In the ‘90s, he was a Stress and Violence Prevention Consultant for the
US Postal Service; both management and the unions wrote letters of praise
regarding his contribution to workforce productivity and morale
10.
For the past three years through the present, he has been doing Critical
Incident/Trauma-Grief Intervention Consulting for Business Health Services HQd
in Baltimore, MD; and periodically over the past twenty years as an independent
contractor, he’s done Critical Incident work for a variety of government
agencies; his inspiring manner even emerges in CI work, e.g., after two recent
20-minute critical incident/grief sessions with staff, a Hospital Chaplin
commented: “You had them in the palm of
your hands!”
--------------------
Stress
Resilience Speaking/Training Skills and Tools
1.
He is a dynamic, high energy, and inspiring presenter that helps
audiences get more FIT: his programs are FUN, Interactive, and Thought-provoking; after a program, people
often approach commenting on the great energy and ideas; his programs involve and evolve a
lively rhythm of group interaction/exercises, take-home ideas and bullets, and Q and A
2.
As many have noted, his ability to integrate skillfully humor and play
in programs, even with serious or somber subjects – from speaking to critical
interventions – helps him capture people’s attention and his message stand out;
as he once penned: People are less defensive and more open to a serious message
gift-wrapped with humor!
3.
The 5- part program illustrates the diversity and range of professional
experience as a speaker, workshop/trainer, therapist, stress, critical
incident/grief- and team-building consultant, retreat leader, chat group
leader/facilitatorauthor and writer. He
has integrated a powerful array of topics for his “Stress Resilience” arsenal: stress resilience/burnout prevention and
recovery, conflict and communication skills, transforming loss and change, team
building and, most recently, resilient risk-taking and creative leadership
4.
He is comfortable and experienced working with organizations in both the
private and not-for-profit sectors and with audiences of varying sizes – ranging
from less than twenty to two hundred or more
5.
His electronic media and public speaking/teaching/writing experience has
honed an ability to synthesize and express complex ideas into manageable and memorable concepts and tools; his revision of the old KISS standard: Keep It
Simple and Smart!; from his days in TV and radio, he projects energy and
enthusiasm whether he can literally touch an audience member or not
6.
He is adept at facilitating group discussion; in fact he often sees
himself as “an orchestra leader, helping others (including teams) bring out
their best music”
7.
He is adept at fielding audience questions on the fly; this process often
elicits personal-professional (yet appropriate, on point and concise) stories
that truly bring to light and life meaningful responses to participants’ questions
and concerns
8.
As a workshop and retreat leader, engaging interactive programs along
with a facility for “Emotional Intelligence” helps break down communication and
status barriers among participants; one military commander noted that after a stress-team
building program, during a follow-up meeting, his senior officers and senior
sergeants had the most open, least contentious and territorial, and most
productive pre-deployment retreat
9.
His substance and style have been noted as supporting and affirming top
management’s mission and values
10.
Audiences love his closing: the
Doc’s pioneering effort in the field of psychologically humorous “rap” music – Shrink Rap ™ Productions!
-------------------------
