297: Building Resilience: Teresa Bitner - a podcast by Meg Rentschler

We all need resilience to handle setbacks and adversity in life. Today’s focus is on building that “bounce-back muscle” that enables us to be resilient in the ways we show up in the face of change and grief. Join us to learn more!

Teresa Bitner is a Professional Certified Coach who partners with those who have been knocked down by life and are looking to bounce back to live boldly. She’s a speaker and author whose specialization is resiliency, change, and loss. Building resiliency and learning steps for surviving and thriving in the midst of constant change distinguish those who live boldly from those who live life in fear. Teresa is the author of Soul Love: How A Dog Taught Me to Breathe Again. She is passionate about giving back, as evidenced by her volunteer work with the ICF Austin chapter. She is a former board member and Community Outreach Director, and she serves on the Advisory Council. Through Women for Change and Stand Beside Them, Teresa provides pro bono coaching for women in poverty and veterans and their spouses. In today’s conversation, Teresa openly shares her personal grief journey and why she loves working with people around resiliency.

Show Highlights:

• How Teresa has built resiliency since her difficult childhood days and into adulthood when she suddenly found herself a widow and single mom
• Top resiliency traits that Teresa recognized in herself: having goals about what you need to do and being willing to accept help when you need it
• What resiliency means to Teresa: “To be able to withstand and recover quickly from difficult conditions”
• Why it’s possible to build resiliency if it doesn’t come to you naturally
• How Teresa assesses someone’s resiliency, beginning with your beliefs about change
• Characteristics of resiliency:
• Looking at change as an opportunity.
• Accepting change as a part of life.
• Being a constant learner about life.
• Being flexible.
• Having a growth mindset vs. a fixed mindset.
• How to approach a coaching client in dealing with change by identifying the angst, the facts, and what they CAN control
• How to ask the right questions about the changes a client is experiencing and point them to the best resources
• Considerations in coaching people toward resiliency:
• Acknowledge and celebrate their accomplishments so far.
• Help them begin a gratitude practice.
• Key takeaways from Teresa:
• Remember that there are different levels of resiliency.
• Take your resiliency pulse.
• Plan–and take action on your plan for resiliency. 
• How Teresa’s book, Soul Love: How a Dog Taught Me to Breathe Again, which tells her visceral story of grief, hope, and resiliency

Resources:

Connect with Teresa: Website, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Check out Teresa’s FREE giveaway for STaR Coach Show listeners: 

Visit Teresa’s Website for lots of FREE resources and to buy her book, Soul Love: How A Dog Taught Me to Breathe Again!

To join the Fall Mentor Program with Meg, visit www.starcoachshow.com/mentor. 

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