Resilience, Empathy and the Body

April 29, 2024
Hosted by Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW

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Guest Information

Episode Description

Brendan Ozawa-de Silva will share the multifaceted concept of empathy, highlighting its various definitions in scientific literature. He expresses that most definitions of empathy overlook a crucial component: embodied joint action with others. From evolutionary and developmental perspectives, joint action emerges as pivotal to the function of empathy. Our nervous systems are inherently wired to resonate with one another, enabling us to synchronize our bodies by observing the intentions and movements of others. This synchronization encompasses both cognitive and affective dimensions. By exploring empathy through the lenses of shared intentionality, joint action, and movement, we broaden our comprehension beyond cognition and affect to encompass the embodied interaction of nervous systems. Such an understanding may illuminate pathways for cultivating compassion and bolstering mutual resilience.

Resiliency Within

Monday at 1 PM Pacific Time on VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Channel

Elaine Miller-Karas will amplify the message of hope, healing and resiliency she has learned from our world community as she has traversed the globe after human made and natural disasters. Hope often springs forth in response to suffering and trauma. Our beliefs and our wellbeing are being challenged during these unprecedented times.

The program Resiliency Within is about cultivating individual and community resiliency. Resiliency is the capacity to lean into our strengths with compassion during the most challenging of times and to remember "what else is true?" about our lived experience.

Her guests are inspiring global leaders actively promoting healing and resiliency from a variety of backgrounds. The goal is to spread wellbeing and give individual and community examples to inspire how wellness skills, including ones based upon neuroscience and the biology of the human nervous system, can be integrated into one's life, family and community during challenging times.

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW

Elaine Miller-Karas, LCSW, has been called an "ambassador of hope" and a "resilience guru." She is an author, advocate, a social worker, a trauma therapist, a co-founder of an international organization, the Trauma Resource Institute and key developer of the Community and Trauma Resiliency Models.

She is the author of “Building Resiliency to Trauma, the Trauma and Community Resiliency Models(r)” (2015). She is committed to bringing accessible and affordable interventions based on neuroscience and the biology of the human nervous system to our world's community. Her models have been introduced to over 102 countries.

Elaine is a recognized international speaker and has presented at the Skoll World Forum at Oxford University and the United Nations. Her book was selected by the United Nations curated on-line library as one of the innovations that can help meet its Sustainable Development Goals.

Elaine feels passionately about the impact of climate change on our world community. She is a founding member of the International Transformational Resilience Coalition, an organization focused on the impact of climate change on mental health. She is dedicated to the world's children and she has worked with collaborators to develop interventions for children, parents and teachers to help reduce the impact of trauma. Consequently, she is a Senior Consultant to Emory University’s SEE Learning program, inspired and launched by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 2019.

Episode Directory

May 2024

April 2024

  • 4/29/2024: Resilience, Empathy and the Body Listen Now
  • 4/22/2024: Grief & Resilience:Finding Light in the Midst of Darkness Listen Now
  • 4/15/2024: Expanding Student Well-Being at Virginia Tech with CRM Listen Now
  • 4/8/2024: Healing through Relationships: Transforming Complex Trauma Listen Now
  • 4/1/2024: Embrace the Possibilities. Overcome and Influence Your World. Listen Now

March 2024

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