Emotional Resilience Training Is Now Offered Globally

The newest self-reliance course offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is now available in additional languages to better serve a global audience.

“Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience” has been available in English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Ten more languages have now been added: German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Albanian, Czech, Danish, Dutch and Hungarian).

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The 10-week course, taught by Latter-day Saint volunteers, teaches people the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ to help them strengthen themselves spiritually. Students also learn healthy coping skills to meet life’s challenges and opportunities. Courses are being offered in person at Church meetinghouses or online in some areas of the world because of COVID-19 restrictions.

California

“The course has allowed me to become a better person who serves, and [it] allowed me to think less of myself, which is kind of funny because you’re trying to work on yourself, but it helps you serve more and think of others more, which is a very Christ-like attribute,” said Jacquie Pineda, a Primary president who lives in Southern California.

“I’m married, and I have four children and two dogs. We live here in Pomona, California, and I work three part-time jobs. I work as a parent educator in kindergarten, and I also run a photography business and a book consulting business. So, I’m busy,” said Pineda, who deals with anxiety.

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“With the stress of COVID, the pressure of working under different circumstances has been really hard, so learning to support others and to just listen to them has been really helpful,” she explained. “It has helped tremendously with my kids because now they feel that I am listening to them, and they feel heard and, I think, validated when there’s a concern. And that helps me be a better mother.”

Pineda was also able to serve a family in the community by using her photography skills.

“I received a phone call from my sister-in-law, who had a friend who had a baby in the [neonatal intensive care unit], and that baby was being taken off life support,” she recalled. “I did not know this family, and I will probably never meet them again, but I was able to … mourn with this family, to grieve with them, to in some way give them comfort and to be able to provide that kind of service.”

Pineda presented the parents with a collection of photos taken at the hospital.

“The course … helped me understand the Savior better, which helped me understand myself better,” said Pineda.

Facilitators

James Bell and his wife taught a group of approximately 10 people, including Pineda, last fall.

“We had fun in the class, we got to know each other very well and I think there is a bond there,” recounted Bell. “The big advantage of facilitating was really just knowing that when I have a responsibility, and no matter how overwhelming it seems … Heavenly Father knows it, and … He’ll help me do it.”

Bell, a local dentist, said the class helped him when he was forced to stay home from work during quarantine.

“I hadn’t worked for a number of months, and … I didn’t realize that I was stressed out … [and] … had a lot of anxiety. I ended up having a panic attack one day, and my wife took me to the hospital,” he said. “I think one of the things this class helped me with was realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with me. People have mental health issues all the time, and it’s part of life. … [The course] put it in perspective for me.”

Bell said he also learned how important it is to listen to others. “If I have something to say, I want people to listen to it. … We all want to be heard.”

Switzerland

Kelly Stotts and his wife, Maria, facilitated a pilot course in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 2020. Kelly invited his wife to join him when he met the diverse class of up to a dozen participants.

“I’m an accountant, I’m not a psychologist or a counselor by any means,” Kelly said. “I knew that I needed help, and the Lord knew, too. My wife was the one who could come help and support and participate in this, and we ended up forming a pretty good team to help meet the needs of those who were participating in the program.”

“I think it really helped to have another woman there to be a co-facilitator because I felt like I could help them feel more supported and willing to share their thoughts and feelings,” added Maria.

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The class started in person but was moved to an online format because of the pandemic.

“It helped that we’d already met each other,” said Maria. “We had this foundation with our class members. … We were able to continue that relationship.”

“The Lord knew what He was doing with His timing, no question,” Kelly said, “because as our worlds turned upside down, we were coming together with people and talking about topics that were really relevant to us at that time.”

The Stotts explained that the training from the emotional resilience course has helped them better support their family, including their son, who struggles with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression.

“ADHD and depression are real. They became real for him, and they became real for our family as our son was an adult,” Kelly said. The course, Maria added, gave the couple “the push to help him get the help that he needed.”

When Kelly Stotts reflected on the anxiety attack he experienced brought on by the collective stress of home and work, he said the skills he learned in the class helped him recover: “Even though I was a facilitator, I was very much a learner.”

Jamaica

The course was also recently offered in Jamaica, a country located in the Caribbean.

“For 10 weeks, I enjoyed the feeling of family—of being supported. I knew that the struggles I was feeling, they were facing them, too, we were all in this together,” said Ann-Marie Tate of Jamaica.

“A lot of us are silent strugglers, and this course helps us work on the many areas of our lives that sometimes we don’t realize we need help in. I encourage anyone, anywhere to partake of this course because it will help you to become the better version of you,” Tate said.

She continued, “Before this course, I relied on the opinions of others and how they perceived me to be, I didn’t really have much self-confidence. But because of this course, I know who I am now, I know my purpose—and I really do love that.”

“I would invite everyone to this course—whether you are a doctor, lawyer, nurse. The reality is that all of us have emotions,” said Bryan Woolery of Jamaica.

Topics covered in the course include building emotional resilience, developing healthy thinking patterns, managing stress and anxiety, understanding sadness and depression, overcoming anger, managing addictive behaviors and building healthy relationships.

Downloadable manuals and videos for the emotional resilience course are available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. They can also be viewed on the Gospel Library app under “Life Help.” Physical copies of the manuals are available for purchase at Church distribution centers.

Those interested in the free training are encouraged to reach out to their local Church leaders to learn when groups are scheduled to meet in their areas.

Other self-reliance programs offered by the Church are “Personal Finances,” “Starting and Growing My Business,” “Find a Better Job“ and “Education for Better Work.”