Bouncing Back Better: How Understanding Vicarious Resilience Can Change Your Workday

Every day, jail professionals witness the most challenging of human circumstances and see the darkest sides of human behavior. Each day they enter the jail, there is potential for their health or physical safety to be at risk. Many jail professionals know that an extremely stressful work environment impacts physical and emotional health, but less know that, just as someone can experience burnout and vicarious trauma, they can also experience vicarious resilience. This workshop provides tools to recognize the biological responses related to extremely stressful work environments, teaches how to balance one’s biology throughout the day, explains how to actively identify vicarious resilience, and discusses concrete ways to cultivate it throughout the workday. It provides actionable, proactive steps to manage the impact of stress that go beyond traditional "self-care" instruction, such as exercise and get more rest.