Blog

Building Resilience

Creek with waterfall and bright green foliage surrounding

How to Stop Doomscrolling & Create Digital Rest Stops in Your Workday

Signs of trauma are never far away.

For most of us, the phones sitting in our pockets represent a deep portal of doom on those particularly dark days of current events.

Rather than beat ourselves up for wasting precious time scrolling through the doom, remember that doomscrolling is our brain's way of keeping a look out for danger when we know danger is present or probable (i.e. 2020 election, school shootings, the news). For those of us who've experienced trauma, that sense of doom around the…

Read more…

photo-1594718200327-17b749e753e6

STAI: State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Adults

Charles Spielberger, R.L. Gorsuch, and R.E. Lushene developed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). They wanted a series of questions that would help to distinguish the difference between temporary anxiety, often referred to as "state anxiety," and the enduring kind of anxiety referred to as "trait anxiety."(Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, & Jacobs, 1983)

The inventory is 40 multiple-choice questions. Each question can be answered with: almost never, sometimes, often, or almost always. T…

Read more…

Saw Bridg Restaurant with PRC logo

Business & Trauma Resilience: Lessons from My Great Grandmother, Signe

The Peterson Resilience Consulting logo is a nod to my entrepreneurial and Swedish heritage and to my specialty in helping folks who've experienced high-control organizations and religious trauma. Not many people know this, but in the 1600's, Swedish Christians referred to the dala horse as a "devil's toy" because it had ties to underground pagan practices. Fittingly, among other things, today the dalahäst is also a symbol of resilience. But here's the real reason for the dalahäst: meet my great…

Read more…

photo-1573497161079-f3fd25cc6b90

ProQOL Assessment: Professional Quality of Life

The ProQOL is a self-administered assessment with 30 questions total, for understanding your balance of positive and negative personal and work experiences. The tool was originally created by Beth Hudnall Stamm, Ph.D. 

"It is intended for any helper - health care professionals, social service workers, teachers, attorneys, emergency response, etc. Understanding the positive and negative aspects of helping those who experience trauma and suffering can improve your ability to help them and your abil…

Read more…

photo-1537094082840-dcbbfa99385f

MAIA: Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness

Interoception is the ability to identify, access, understand, and respond to the patterns and signals inside your body. This can happen consciously or unconsciously AND for many, it's a skill that can be learned and/or improved.

The MAIA assessment is one of many ways to track the progress of trauma resilience-building skills.

This questionnaire was funded by the National Institute of Health (NCCAM/NCCIH) and is available in the public domain. (Hooray for freely sharing healthcare & science!) A go…

Read more…

Eggs with faces, each with a different range of emotion

BDI-II: Beck Depression Inventory

Depression is extremely common. Even more so for entrepreneurs. A study from UC Berkley reported that entrepreneurs were 30% more likely to have a long-term or life-long struggle with depression. This is why it can be helpful for some of my more entrepreneurial clients to take a self-report that can measure the general characteristics, symptoms, and attitudes of depression. This article, by Benjamin Lee, outlines some of the reasons why owning a business can play such a large role in depression.…

Read more…

Like what you see? Let's Meet!

Book a Meet-n-Greet Here