Like other institutions of higher education, the demand for counseling services at MSU is greater than our current capacity to meet that demand. The level of stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, trauma, and secondary trauma being experienced by our community can be seen and felt across the University. This is true across all populations: undergraduate, graduate, faculty, staff, and leaders.

Unfortunately, because of stigma, toxic positivity, emotional avoidance, and cultural conditioning, most people who are emotionally and psychologically struggling will not engage in counseling.

This leads us to a curious question:

What if we take the resilience training out of the counseling offices and bring skill-building opportunities directly into the learning, working, and social environments Spartans already engage in?

Through a variety of media and teaching formats, we seek to ensure that resilience education is accessible, inclusive, and ever-present as part of the “Spartan Experience.”      

Overtime these formats will include but not be limited to:

• Interactive websites
• Instagram Live and Tik Tok messaging
• Video-based instruction infused into curriculum, team meetings, leadership development trainings, etc.
• Staff and/or peer lead resilience training curricula created for out of classroom learning environments (athletics, residence life, honors college programming, student organizations, etc.)
• Online, self-paced learning courses
• Community-based, healing-centered gatherings (e.g., community meditation stations, Reflect and Connect Sessions 
• Spartan Resilience Learning Communities - synchronistic online and in-person, experiential learning communities.

Like most Big 10 university brand strategies, MSU has powerful images and messages about the excellence of our students, faculty, and staff. Who will solve real world problems? We will, of course, because of our Spartan Will.

We are expected to have “Uncommon Will” as if our students are magically different from other students, like the ones at the school down the road who are busy “hailing to the Victors.”  These messages inadvertently increase the performance pressure our students feel and can have unintended outcomes of increased stress, fear of failure, self-criticism, and imposter syndrome.

Spartan Resilience seeks to balance these messages by providing the skills building required to live at the intersection of healthy and high performing.

We believe that “Uncommon Will” requires uncommon skills, and every Spartan deserves to have access to resilience training to help them meet the demands placed upon them. 

Our goal in to infuse Spartan branding with wellness concepts, incorporating mindfulness and other grounding practices into the very fabric of how teaching, learning, and business happens at Michigan State University

Advancing Knowledge and Transforming Lives.
Integrating resilience training into every aspect of life at Michigan State will best prepare Spartans to provide leadership for the common good in their personal and professional lives.

Spartan Resilience Education Program Priorities

• Scale resilience education to reach large numbers of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and leaders.
• Engage campus partners in creating healing-centered gatherings designed to increase social connection and healthy relationships between Spartans.
• In partnership with often marginalized communities, create healing-centered programming to increase social connection and combat the negative impact of discrimination and all forms of oppression.
• Build a critical mass of Spartans best prepared to navigate the emotional, psychological, and physiological strain of naming and dismantling systems of institutional and cultural oppression.
• Enhance culture change efforts related to DEI-B and RVSM, and develop a “culture of care” at MSU by actively supporting students, faculty, and staff engaged in these change efforts.
• Support the development of wise, daring leaders by incorporating resilience skill building into leadership development training at all levels of the organization.           

The Spartan Resilience Education Training Model introduces basic principles of healthy human functioning and incorporates skill-building from several well established clinical theories, including:

• Acceptance and Commitment Theory (ACT)
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
• Mindful Self Compassion (MSC)
• Shame Resilience Theory (SRT)
• Emotional Intelligence (EI)
• PolyVagal Theory
• and other somatic healing practices.

Survey data from participants of our programming indicate that combining skills and concepts from this collection of theories and packaging the skill building in community-based training courses leads to significant improvement in the following areas:

• Psychological Flexibility and Learning Agility
• Emotional Literacy, Intelligence, and Resilience
• Empathy and Self Compassion
• Stress Reduction

Further testing of the impact of the Spartan Resilience Education Model is a current focus of our efforts.

What makes our model different from most resilience training programs is we don’t just focus on the personal and interpersonal levels of change. 

We emphasize the importance of each person developing critical awareness of the impact systems of power, and privilege has on both our individual health and our collective health and wellbeing.

Spartan Resilience is dedicated to building a critical mass of Spartans who can serve as sustainable agents of institutional and cultural change, allowing us to build a culture that truly upholds our values and supports all our people.

Photo: Based on the work of Visions Incorporated

These two courses are offered in partnership between MSU Human Resources/Organization and Professional Development (OPD) and University Health and Wellbeing, Spartan Resilience Education. Support Staff members can use their educational assistance funding to attend these courses with no out of pocket expense.

Breaking Free from Stress

Learning the basic principles presented in this course will help you have less day-to-day stress and more joy and satisfaction as you increase your capacity to live your life lined up with your deepest wisdom and greatest sense of purpose. To learn more, or to register visit here: Breaking Free From Stress (msu.edu)

Resilient Leadership Series

Explore with other campus leaders some essential resilience skills required for effective leadership for the common good including: emotional intelligence, emotional resilience, psychological flexibility, mindfulness, effective stress mitigation practices, and practices of compassionate accountability for self and others.This course will provide an overview of the MSU Spartan Resilience Education Training Model.

This course is a pre-requisite to other courses designed to support leaders in their efforts to be wise, value-guided leaders in these challenging times. To learn more or to register visit here: Resilient Leadership Series (msu.edu)

Mindful STATE is a university-wide, collaborative initiative to further the practice of mindfulness and other contemplative practices among members of the Michigan State University community. 

The resources provided as part of this program are intended to be equally helpful to students, staff, faculty, executive leaders, alumni, retirees, family members, and the public.

We recognize that while our roles are different, we all experience a full range of human emotions, face tough challenges, and spend considerable effort attempting to navigate systems that can be impersonal and unforgiving. This is disproportionately true for members of our community experiencing chronic discrimination, oppression, and micro-aggressions because of one or more of their social identities.

Feeling Overwhelmed?

Every Spartan becomes overwhelmed sometimes, by their feelings, their circumstances, their thoughts.  It is part of the human condition. Let us help you find your way home to your most steady self. Join fellow Spartan, Lisa Laughman for a brief meditation to help you return to a more mindful state.

Worried About Someone?

If you are caught up in worry about someone you care about, and you are feeling stressed, help yourself regain your sense of perspective and balance. Join fellow Spartan Meg Moore for this loving-kindness meditation.

Feeling Stressed?

We all get super stressed out sometimes. If this is one of those moments for you, let us help you return to a more mindful state.   Join fellow Spartan, John Taylor for this brief mindfulness practice to help you return to a high-quality state of mind and refresh your creative thinking.

For more information about our program contact Spartan Resilience Education at SpartanResilience@msu.edu

When we experience the loss of someone we love, it can be very difficult to process and make meaning out of what has happened.  The emotional, psychological, and physical strain of grieving can temporarily make it hard to navigate our personal and professional responsibilities.  While the journey is different for everyone, some skills and strategies can help you move through the process with more ease, self-compassion, resilience, and effectiveness. Being part of a community of grievers can provide invaluable support and allow you to learn from the experience of others who are also on a journey of healing and transformation following a significant, life-changing loss. If you identify as part of the Spartan community and have experienced the loss of a loved one, friend, pet, co-worker, neighbor, or other significant person, we invite you to join us for the online MSU grief and loss support sessions. Tuesdays, 4:00-5:30 pm via Zoom Joining our trauma-informed, healing-centered community will give you the opportunity to:

• Share your unique grief journey.
• receive empathy and support.
• Ask questions and learn about resources to support healthy grieving.
• Gain basic education re: grief, ambiguous loss, tasks of mourning, and transformational grief practices.
• Learn core resilience skills and strategies to help you tend to your loss and navigate your personal and professional life.

Consultation available for new programming in the following areas:

Department-Based Retreats/Workshops

Creating partnership programs to support people with one or more often marginalized identities

Spartan Resilience is interested in connecting resilience training with efforts to advance ket strategic plan goals such as:

• Increasing the psychological safety of individual work teams
• Improving the health and wellbeing culture at Michigan State University
• Reaching key goals related to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and belonging
• Reducing incidents of Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct
• Supporting survivors and trauma informed care
• Developing wise, value guided leaders with increased capacity to lead for the common good.
• Strengthen Spartan capacity to impact complex global problems

If you have an idea for programming contact Spartanresilience@msu.edu