Moderator:

Jacqueline Drew, PhD

School of Criminology, Griffith University (Australia)

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Panelists:

 

Risk & Resilience in UK Emergency Responders

​Jennifer Wild, PhD

Associate Professor, University of Oxford, UK
NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre Senior Research Fellow
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Oxford Centre for Anxiety Disorders & Trauma
Clinical Advisor, The Ambulance Staff Charity, UK (United Kingdom)

This talk will give an overview of pre-trauma risk factors that can be targeted to strengthen resilience to post-traumatic stress. I will also present our research on what works and why in relation to resilience interventions as well as the outcomes of some of our randomised controlled trials of interventions aimed to improve wellbeing and resilience to stress in emergency responders.

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The Neuroscience of Building Resilience

Golnaz Tabibnia, PhD

Assistant Researcher, University of California - Irvine (USA)

In order to fully appreciate the importance of taking action now to build resilience, it helps to consider how the brain processes stress and emotions. This presentation will review a number of evidence-based strategies that you can implement today to build resilience and the positive impact of these strategies on the brain.

 

Bolstering Resilience with Mindfulness Training

Ekaterina Denkova, PhD

Research Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of Neuroimaging Facility, University of Miami (USA)

Mindfulness training (MT) has garnered substantial interest as a resilience and well-being enhancement tool. This presentation will review recent findings on the feasibility and effectiveness of MT in high-stress groups using novel delivery methods (e.g., train-the-trainer delivery). These findings suggest that MT bolsters cognitive resilience and psychological well-being in high-stress groups such as the military service members, military spouses, and first responders.

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BIOGRAPHIES

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Jacqueline Drew, PhD

Dr Jacqueline Drew is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice and Policing Scholar in the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University, Australia. Trained as a psychologist she is an expert in the organisational psychology of policing (particularly, mental health of police). She has undertaken numerous collaborations with police agencies to improve operational police practice and positively impacts on the working lives of police. She also has significant research expertise in the areas of financial fraud and cybercrime.

Email: j.drew@griffith.edu.au

Twitter: @drjackid

Read more:

• Publications

• MENTAL HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF POLICE IN A HEALTH PANDEMIC: CRITICAL ISSUES FOR POLICE LEADERS IN A POST-COVID-19 ENVIRONMENT

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Jennifer Wild, PhD

Dr Jennifer Wild is a consultant clinical psychologist, associate professor and NIHR Oxford BRC Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her area of expertise is in developing and evaluating evidence-based interventions to prevent stress-related psychopathology in emergency responders. Dr Wild has worked in an advisory role to the Cabinet Office on best practice for developing preventative interventions for emergency responders. Dr Wild has over 70 publications, including book chapters, and a recently published popular science book on resilience called Be Extraordinary. Dr Wild regularly appears in the media giving evidence-based advice for trauma-related mental health problems.

Email: jennifer.wild@psy.ox.ac.uk

Twitter: @DrJenWild

Learn more:

• Pre-incident training to build resilience in first responders: Recommendations on what to and what not to do

• www.shaperecovery.com

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Golnaz Tabibnia, PhD

Golnaz Tabibnia is a neuroscientist at the University of California in Irvine. She received her PhD in Psychology at UCLA and was an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh for three years before moving back to California. Dr. Tabibnia's research focuses on the interaction of passion and reason in the brain, including in such contexts as emotion regulation, impulse control, social decision-making, and resilience. Ultimately, she is interested in using insights from neuroscience to explore novel cognitive or behavioral strategies for improving mental health and wellness.

Email: tabibnia@uci.edu

Twitter: @golnaztabibnia

Learn more:

• Resilience Training That Can Change The Brain

• An affective neuroscience model of boosting resilience in adults

• The Lasting Effect of Words on Feelings: Words May Facilitate Exposure Effects to Threatening Images

• https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/gtabibnia/publications/

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Ekaterina Denkova, PhD

Dr. Denkova is a Research Asst. Professor in the Division of Cognitive & Behavioral Neuroscience in the Dept. of Psychology at the University of Miami. She serves as the Asst. Director of the Neuroimaging Facility & Asst. Director of Research for the UMindfulness Initiative. She received her Ph.D. from the Univ. of Strasbourg after which she joined the Univ. of Alberta as a . She serves as Co-investigator on several federally funded grants with Dr. Amishi Jha. Using brain & behavioral methods, she studies the neural basis of cognitive and emotion processes and their trainability with mindfulness training.

Email: exn67@miami.edu

Twitter: @EkatDenkova, @UMindfulness

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Learn more:

• Attention.Miami.edu
  Mindfulness.Miami.edu

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