 Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another conversation in our series called Caring Conversations. I have with me today a wonderful guest who has really helped light up the lives of many seniors here at the Amherst Senior Center. It's Dr. Bruda Martins-Klein, and he is from UMass Psychological Services, and she has worked with us at the Amherst Senior Center in the spring. We held a six-week class session, and she came with her students who were completing their fellowship and did a marvelous day. I have to say it was one of those days that people walked out absolutely sparkling. That topic was about mindfulness and helping people to navigate difficult and challenging experiences. And out of that, she has started for us a boosting resilience group, which is another phenomenal participation opportunity for all of you, in which she works with seniors in a small supportive group setting online, and they talk and learn skills and tools that they practice and learn about. But rather than me talking about it, I thought what I would do is allow Bruda just to say hi and introduce herself while I shipped her to being the host so that she can more explicitly share her talents with all of you. So, hi. So, hi everyone. Thank you so much for having me today, Marybeth, and it's really a joy to share a little bit with you all about a little bit about my research that I do at the university, as well as sharing a few tools for caring for your whole self, right? So, what kind of psychological tools can boost resilience in these hard times? So, I'll be talking about both of those today. Before I do that, let me try to put this on the screen so I can tell you a little bit about myself. Great. Can you see that? Yes, it looks fabulous. So, the first thing I want to say is that of everyone in the universe that can use or benefit from technology, I consider myself one of the least technologically savvy people out there. So, this entire process that we've been going through with COVID has really challenged me to learn a new skill and I can say that I have been teaching using Zoom now for a couple of months and it really opens up a lot of opportunities. So, if you ever feel like it's something that is beyond you or you know you're scoffing at it, I've been there and I can say I'm a proselytic Zoomer now. So, it's great to be able to connect with people to learn things, but you do end up having to share screen a lot. Thanks for being with me there. So, to begin with, I wanted to just talk a little bit about how I actually got into geriatrics as a profession and I specifically study emotion regulation. So, what builds resilience, the tools that help people navigate challenges in life. And as a child, I actually had type 1 diabetes. So, for me, I think, you know, managing a chronic illness kind of built a point of connection with a lot of older people in my life. The challenges that come with diet, exercise, you know, the emotional side of that can be very challenging. So, first hand, I really knew that, you know, it can be something that you need support around and that that wasn't really there. So, it kind of opened my eyes and I pretty at a pretty young age decided that I wanted to devote my life to providing support to others, but I felt was lacking a lot in the medical system that we get help navigating the changes that we need to make physically when we're coping with illness, but not so much emotionally. And that's a really big part of what we do as humans, right? It's getting used to the new normal, like they say. And that comes with other things that happened in my life. So, being a caregiver to a family member chronically can really wear on you. Another thing I did at a young age. And then going through other medical challenges, like cancer and treatment. So, all of these life experiences together kind of coalesced. And I really realized that there's a huge gap in how we support caregivers. You know, a lot of focus is placed on the care recipient and oftentimes the caregiver themselves is left with not a whole lot of support. Luckily, you know, that's a tide that's changing. So, we're starting to see more caregiver support groups coming out and more people getting involved with them. So, taking the stigma out of it too, right? But there's nothing that indicates that you're weak or that you're not doing your job right as a caregiver is really seeking support that it's almost something that makes you a stronger caregiver universally to have connection to other people who are going through similar experiences, as well as getting tools for managing the stress that's inherent and really like built in to being a caregiver full-time or part-time. And, you know, as a patient when you're navigating illness, also having help with managing the stresses that come both to your body as well as to your heart as you're coping with some of the challenges. So, that got me into, you know, working with older adults who oftentimes are balancing physical changes and caregiving challenges in late life. And, you know, what are the tools that can help people through these hard times? So, what's interesting is that when we think about all of these stressors that can happen in life, some people find a way, despite the challenges, right, to still remain connected to what's most important to them, to their values, and to continue living the kind of lives that they want to lead, making modifications so that things are safe and the activities that you're taking part in are possible. And I'm sure everyone is feeling that right now, right, with all of the changes we've had to make through the social distancing, and that some are doing well and others really struggle. So, I became kind of interested in understanding both as a clinician, as well as a researcher, what are the things that build resilience, both in terms of behavior, right, so what are the things we can do, as well as perspective, what are the things we can change our perspective on so that we feel stronger as we're going through a challenge. And so it really speaks to the heart of it, right, so how we feel as we're navigating challenge and what helps us feel the best that we can, and also what kind of ways of thinking, right, can help us. And I do that using several things. So first of all, in my research, I'm super interested in the lived experience of each person. So that involves asking questions, learning from the person who's going through struggles. And then we also study the biology. So on the brain level, what are the shifts in terms of how we think using MRI, so magnetic resonance imaging to scan people as they're regulating their emotion in the moment to understand kind of the biology of what builds resilience and what makes us feel stronger. Can I ask you, Bruna, how would you describe resilience? If someone was saying I am resilient or not, what does resilience in common sort of parlance mean when you talk about it? Yeah, so I think oftentimes we imagine that folks who are doing well and are feeling strong just don't get stressed that nothing stressful is happening. That's actually a misnomer because everyone experiences stress and challenges in life. And I think that what really makes a person resilient is being able to, despite going through a challenge, remain connected to what is important to them to be able to feel a sense of strength and not lose connection to themselves through that process. And I think that it's not something that there's a recipe for. And a lot of people might think that certain folks are resilient and others are not. That's not really how I think of it. I think that resilience is something that we sometimes have or experience and sometimes we don't. And we can really invest in becoming the most resilient versions of ourselves by reminding ourselves of the strengths that we have by building on those strengths. So rather than focusing on what's a struggle currently, we can kind of pivot and think of, okay, what are the things I can do and how can I do more of those so that I feel connected to who I am. I don't know if that's fully. Yeah, no, that's helpful in the conversation. Yeah. So tell us more about yourself. Sure, so I'm a licensed gyro psychologist and breaking that down. I'm a psychologist that works in with geriatric populations. In my work, I really focus a lot on, like I said, helping provide emotional support to older adults in the clinic. So that can mean navigating mood disorders or caregiving burden. I also help older adults sort of adjust to the challenges of managing chronic illness, which can diet, exercise, changing lifestyle around certain medical conditions, or certain life situations. So retirement can be really hard for people. So the adjustment to retirement is another time that's emotionally difficult for many. So we also provide support during these adjustments to life stages. And finally, assessments for memory concerns and dementia. So I received my training at USC. And then I did internship and fellowship treating veterans, primarily with PTSD, but also navigating these things I just mentioned. So it was a, you know, all of my training focused around working with older adults and providing them with support. So I, you know, what do I do these days? So now I'm an assistant professor, I didn't write this in but I'm an assistant professor at UMass Amherst. And I wear two hats primarily. So first, I do research. So I, like I mentioned, research strategies and sort of biological changes that support emotional resilience in late life. And then I also supervise my second hat, trainees who are getting their PhD and providing individual group therapy. So I really like to connect these two hats to each other so that we're studying the sorts of tools that are effective for boosting resilience in the laboratory and then applying those and sharing those with the community by doing therapy with seniors in our area. And a lot of folks ask me how common is it to feel depressed or to feel anxious as an older person and there are a lot of, a lot of people struggling with mood. You know, up to 16% of seniors struggle with depression at times. And the really important thing to note is that although older adults tend to be less depressed than younger people and less anxious than younger people. It really depends on how you're measuring depression and anxiety. So a lot of times, you might be feeling depression symptoms, but it might not meet criteria for diagnosis. So a lot of the statistics that are out there underestimate probably how common depression and anxiety are in the world. And just do the way we measure it. Right. So if you're meeting two out of three criteria, you wouldn't meet criteria for diagnosis but that doesn't mean that folks aren't still struggling or needing support. So up to 50% of older adults that are living in nursing homes actually report symptoms of depression and anxiety is also pretty common. So about 11% of those over 55 experienced anxiety at some point in time. So when we're thinking about this, it's really important for us to understand what kind of tools can help build support, especially for older adults that are struggling with with how they're feeling. And when we think about late life, you know, the challenges really are there are challenges that are unique to the roles that we play as we grow older. So like I mentioned, you know transitioning from, you know, career that you've had for several years either to a second career in later life or into retirement can be a big shift. Many folks downsized at this time so moving to a new location and forming new friendships can be really challenging, as well as we mentioned before, caring for a loved one can put a strain on your emotional well being, because it's a completely different relationship and a new role that you take on, I know from personal experience. So learning how to care for yourself and care for someone else can be difficult and you know having tools for managing each of these shifts as they happen. And that's really what builds that resilience that Mary Beth asked about right so it's being able to still feel connected to your sense of identity to the hobbies and interests that you have. Despite changes that can happen, both in terms of your role and your life, like these that I mentioned, or physically, right, they can be physical changes that happen so maybe changes to mobility, or changes to memory, and that can maybe change the way that we engage in some of our hobbies or the way that we might, for instance, if I'm a marathon runner, and then I have an injury, you know, I would need to maybe adapt the way that I remain active, but that there's still a way to remain true to your core self that, you know, athlete and you can still be fed, but maybe through different activities and through different exercises than you were used to using before. So very typical question I get and part of what's really interesting about doing therapy with older adults is they're so self, they're aware of what they're coming in to talk about right so a lot of times the first time I meet someone they'll ask me, look, I can't really do anything about it you know what I'm struggling with right now is a situation that's just truly stressful. So if I can't change the situation, what tools can you actually offer me that would help with this. And I'm sure we can all relate to that sentiment of feeling kind of, oh, if I can't actually change the fact that I'm, I've just been diagnosed with this new illness, or that I, you know, I'm like right now you're hearing my children here running. I'm not going to change that right but how can I manage it better. So, that's what makes us resilient right is being able to change, maybe not the situation, but the way we think about it. Right, what are the attitudes that we have about what we're navigating. The behaviors we can change right so maybe we can't change the situation, but we can choose. How do we, how do we want to engage in activities, what kind of people do we want to be surrounding ourselves with so we have some some control over aspects of the situation. So, one set of tools I would say that are effective for building resilience are changing your thoughts and your behaviors, which in fancy talk is cognitive behavioral therapy. And here, really the idea is that our thoughts, the way we think about the world really connects with the way that we're feeling and really connects with whether or not we are engaging in certain behaviors or in certain groups or, you know, the actions that we take actions emotions and thoughts or this triangle and they all influence one another. And so, with CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy, the idea is that if we change the way we think. So if I start off thinking pretty negatively about my being diagnosed with diabetes for instance, maybe I'll be less motivated to engage in some of the healthy diet or exercise that my doctors recommended. And I might look away from it. But maybe if I change my thinking and say, diabetes can't keep me from being me. And yes, I have to check my blood sugar and maybe change my diet, but I can still make the dishes that I love I just need to tweak them a bit. But that is a different way of thinking that can actually motivate and uplift us. And you can see how thinking in that different way might change not just how we're behaving. We might be more inclined to go see the doctor more regularly and eat healthy, but it also changes how we feel about it, because we're in the driver's seat. So changing thoughts and behaviors in this way does enhance mood and there are several studies I'm not going to go into the weeds with it, but showing that it can help with depression, help us feel better, as well as help us sleep better. So actually when you change the way you think to not be stuck in kind of, I'm sure we've all experienced this but having negative thoughts that kind of feed off each other. It's almost like one negative thought leads to another to be able to break that cycle by changing the way that you think that can really help improve insomnia. So there are a lot of studies showing that you can actually sleep better, feel better and act better by changing the way that you think about a situation. So that's one thing that has a lot of support for boosting resilience. Another, and I'm a big fan of this, is acceptance and commitment therapy are packed. And here it's a little bit different than what I just mentioned because it's not about changing thoughts, it's about accepting thoughts and changing behavior. So here we try to increase our awareness of what we're feeling in the moment and trying to be aware of, what do I think about this diagnosis? My mind is telling me that it feels like I can't eat the things I used to eat and I'm bummed out about that and that it's okay to have that thought. So we try to be aware of what we're thinking without judging ourselves and be aware of what we're feeling. If I'm feeling really anxious about maybe not being able to go outside, I really wish that I could do that right now and I know it's not the best thing for me and it's making me worried about the future. I'm just being aware of that anxiety when it comes in helps us connect to what we're experiencing so that it's not happening under the radar. And then people ask, okay, so being aware is great, but how's that going to change anything and how it changes things is that oftentimes we will say, okay, when I feel good, then I'll start feeding into my hobbies or when I feel less fatigue, then I'll start thinking about getting back into reading and my reading groups. And sometimes if we let our feelings drive, we start not being as connected to the activities that we care about the most, the kind of activities that make us feel like we're living our best lives. Right, so second half of acceptance and commitment therapy is really knowing what's important to you. And holding the challenge while finding ways to still connect with those things that matter. So like I gave that example of the athlete. So if an athlete is feeling really angry that they're injured. The injury is going to keep them from running a marathon. They can be aware of that right so being aware of the anger that they're feeling in the moment, maybe the sadness or mourning that they're feeling around not being able to run that marathon. And that thought right that I wish I could run this marathon is coming up for them. I can say, you know, what is missing what's important to me about running and about running this marathon. It's feeling connected to my health, or being athletic and moving my body. Perhaps they can modify, you know, and find exercises that are safe for them to do with their injury that help them connect to that side of the athlete self. But they really value without exacerbating or worsening their injury as they're healing. So that's how we can both be aware of what we're feeling and then almost use that information to help guide us to make decisions that help us feel connected to what we value the most. And there's a lot of support that acceptance and commitment therapy or act also is helpful for managing mood, so depression and anxiety and put that in there but it's true. As well as managing chronic pain so a lot of people who struggle with arthritis, you know, being aware of the thoughts that come up around the pain, being aware of how they're feeling in the moment and then deciding how do I want to act. Now that I'm aware of what I'm struggling with. And this also helps support caregivers. So, being aware of the value of self care, and the value of being there for a loved one, and seeing how are my goals kind of aligning with both of those values, so that we can decide what areas of our life do we need to invest a little bit more time and so that we can do that even so we're feeding into the values that we have, not just one, but the core values that we have a little bit of our, you know, our goals are feeding each one. This is a very different way of thinking I think. So, you know, being able to accept that there is challenge, I think is another thing Mary Beth that really builds resilience. Oftentimes when we try to ignore that there's a problem or ignore that there's a challenge happening. It can make it feel more overwhelming. So, taking stock and kind of checking in with yourself is a good first step in feeling like you have a handle on what is the situation even before we start deciding how to manage it. Sometimes we can get into empty activities in our day, and that's not as as fulfilling as choosing from what's what's available and feeling like it really feeds your needs. So like right now I can give an example. A lot of you may be feeling like, oh, you know this, the online things that are available right now these activities, they don't feel the same as they used to feel in person. I think we're all holding that together. And we're aware of that right but it isn't exactly the same. And that we might feel saddened by the fact that it feels different. But we can still say, okay, that is true. And while I'm holding those thoughts and those feelings, you know, how can I still feel connected to my community, the people that I used to love seeing in person at the senior center. And if that means that Runa who has never used Zoom in her life has to learn how to use Zoom, right, and invest a few hours with the help of, you know, some IT support people to learn that. And then connect with the seniors that I would love to be seeing in person for me about speeding my volume. And I think I'd like you to think for you, you know, what are the areas in your life that you like to feed. And how can we feed those areas, even when there are challenges afoot. And together, you know, we can work together to find those ways of pivoting and that's in therapy, you know, a counselor can help you think of, you know, first of all, what are the values. And so you can do that reflection. And then how do you want to make those changes with what's feasible and safe. I find that this is a very honest type of therapy where we're not pretending like there aren't struggles and at the same time it's empowering. And I think that, you know, this is something that I'm so committed to that. Mary Beth mentioned I started this boosting resilience group through the senior center here in Amherst, so that we can learn together, how can we connect to those values. And all sorts of barriers can get in the way of feeling connected to them. So we can troubleshoot. So for all of you planners out there, it can feel really good to first identify what, what are my, what are my stock points and then, how can we be creative and find ways to still make do even when you don't have exactly what you'd like in an ideal sense. I started learning to sew recently. And I, this is an analogy that I think kind of speaks to people is all excited to make this, this pattern, but I didn't have enough fabric it turned out I was just shy of the amount that I needed. So one option right is just don't sew anything. But I know many of you. So it's out there know that you can always tweak a pattern. Add a little extra fabric from the stash right something extra. Maybe add a new design, make it your own. So you can still find ways to do what you love but it might require tweaking. And that doesn't cheapen it one bit. It just feels different. But, you know, my, the shirt I'm making is not going to be any less shortly for it not having exactly the amount of fabric that it's intended. Yeah, I think this is really helpful Bruno because I think that people might not understand fully the process of therapy and onboarding into a therapeutic relationship. I have an explanation about the type of work that can occur. And the way you're sort of demystifying it and destigmatizing it that it isn't, you know, we're not talking about a diagnosis and there's something wrong with you it's that this is really a collective experience that so many of us are having. And that rather than sort of trying to pilot alone and deny what you're feeling. It can be very helpful to lean into support and to get the perspective of another person who together with you is helping to sort of untangle that and help you to find some new pathways because that is the thing that I love about working with older adults is that they still remain nimble and open to trying new pathways and I'm always so buoyed by that fact and I that this this COVID pandemic is such a great teacher and that regard or teaching all of us again and again that you know there there are new things to be learned and some of that can occur in the course of this relationship so I really I find this really helpful and interesting for our community. Yeah, I think that the community is so open that it's really, I think a joy to get to meet more and more of you. And so if you're ever curious to try to work together and build that relationship and learn more about your values that you're welcome to join our group. You know we meet regularly and it's a nice space to think about what is important to you and again it's, we're all going through it together. This is not something that's only for, you know, a minority of people are being most people right through a struggle and that we can be there for each other to help share these tools practice using them in a space where you know the number one rule is there's no judgment right so you can come in and be honest about what you're struggling with and you can all troubleshoot and problem solve together how to reconnect with values. And that resilience is not a limited quality. I mean that's one of the things that I have learned listening to you and your fellows is that it's a capacity that can be increased so I do love that. When you talked about the word empowerment. I think that that's one of the things that is very helpful during this really trying time is that people can actually increase their capacity for resilience. That's one of the few things that we can increase these days. So, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, no one can take that away from us. We always have this ability to adjust and to change the way that we're engaging with these challenges and so, you know, if you ever find yourself thinking, I'm just not one of those resilient people. Just remind yourself that we all have it in us and it's just a matter of hooking into it and working on it. And you don't have to do that on your own. So we're all working on it together. So what if I need tools for boosting this resilience what can I do. One thing I wanted to share is that like Mary Beth mentioned at the beginning that I supervise students at the Psychological Services Center at UMass Amherst. And the students provide cared older adults while they're supervised by either me or another licensed clinical psychologist at the center. So you get kind of two heads for the price of one. Both the student as well as the supervisor who's a licensed clinical psychologist. And again, you know, it's conversation. I think it can feel kind of overwhelming or scary Lord therapy. I don't even like that word that much. It's more support. So you can think of it as working with someone to connect more and be more aware of the challenges you're currently facing, and then problem solving around that so that you can both share tools and ideas for how to face this challenge and still remain connected to yourself. So we offer services both in terms of individual therapy and all of this is currently available. So even in the times we're navigating we are doing therapy through both computer. So we're doing on zoom, as well as by phone. So whichever you would feel comfortable with. And we can, you know, provide guided therapy in several areas. So if you're feeling worried. If you feel like you need extra support around caregiving and self care grief, which is something we're all navigating together at this time as well. So having extra support either one on one. Like I said, we also offer groups. So we can do groups. We're currently running a group called boosting resilience through the senior center. And this is available on zoom. So if anyone wants to participate, you can reach out either to Mary Beth or to me. I have my contact information so you can feel free to reach out. And we're always happy to have new members joining. It's kind of a rolling thing so new people can come in and learn we start learning tools together and we're building a community really of resilience boosting seniors who are working together to problem themselves during these times. And there are other things we can provide support with as well. So I mentioned here insomnia but it could also mean, you know, getting used to managing a new illness or a new change that's happened in your life. So really, sky's the limit for for what you'd like to work on because you're in charge. So when you when you work with us. You know, you're in charge of delivering what the work that we do to what you'd like to see change. So if you had a magic wand and you could magically change your life to see it the way that you'd like it to be right. We start there and then we can work together to troubleshoot and share tools for helping you get closer to that goal. So it's like a consultation, creative brainstorming consultation and it's extremely open and very. Much what you make of it so I think one thing about therapy is that people say oh the therapist is going to force me to talk about things I don't want to talk about and that's really not how we operate. So you're in the driver seat at all times so you get to share as much or as little as you feel like. And it's really about the kind of goals that you want to have for therapy. That's what we end up working on. The amount of efforts that you put into practicing the tools and tweaking them. It's kind of like if you take a sewing class, kind of learn the tools, but you got to go home and actually practice sewing to learn how to do it. You don't have the tools in your mind but it isn't until you put them to action that you start seeing things come and seeing projects building and you'll see the growth that you make through more and more practice. So it's the more the more you try the tools the more you see kind of gains and you start embedding them into your day to day. And I want to kind of pivot a little bit and talk a little about my research. So I talked a little about kind of clinically the sorts of things that that I teach and share with my clients. And my research hat also focuses on this topic of resilience and what makes some people maybe naturally more connected to that sense of resilience than others. And so what's really interesting is that when we look at age, as we grow older, people have the wrong impression that older people tend to be depressed unless happy or fulfilled than younger people and it could not be farther from the truth. So actually older people are far more, you know, focusing on the positive, being able to see silver linings and situations and able to feel a sense of connection to what they value. And yet a paradox or like confusion point here is that when you look at data from the brain and behavior. This is kind of overwhelming sets of figures but the take home here is that the areas of the brain that are involved in regulating behavior actually decline and lose volume with age and we see that our speed for solving problems and reasoning tends to go down. So it's very confusing like how, how can older adults, you know, remain so resilient and able to regulate emotion so well, despite some of these changes to cognition that happen, right. So this is kind of this emotion and cognition puzzle that I've set out to really answer in my work in the laboratory. And so we do that by both doing brain scans to see what at the level of the brain, what's going on when people are regulating their emotions. And then also by by doing physiological techniques like tracking eye position or how large your pupils are at any given point in time using cameras. So we can really understand the biology of resilience. And we use this task in the lab so I'm just going to give a little example. So, whenever a situation happens let's say this younger guy just had a breakup. So he might think oh the situation is my relationship ended. And then he's going to give an appraisal which is a meaning to that so that must mean I'm a failure might be the automatic story that his mind tells him about what this breakup means. So in therapy, usually what we teach and what we study in the lab as well is how can people find a silver lining. So he might think my relationship ended. But you know I will find a better partner in the future. It's a way to focus on how things might not be as bad as they first seemed or how things are going to be okay in the end. So this is called reappraisal so whereas the automatic that is an appraisal. So we're reinterpreting. And that's what I study in the lab. So we have people come into the laboratory and then we show them sad pictures or from news news articles. A lot of these pictures are of real events that happened. This is just a mock up. So it's this one's not an example of that but it'll be news clipping pictures. And they'll rate you know how they feel towards that image how intense it seems to them. And then we have them use different strategies to regulate their emotion. So it might mean distracting yourself to something unrelated, or it might be that reappraisal that I mentioned so seeing the silver lining in this situation somehow by telling yourself a different story about it, or just viewing the image. And then at the end we have them rate again how they're feeling. So we do all of this task as people are inside of the MRI machine. So we're actually tracking what's the brain doing as people are using these different strategies. How is it activating. And we also track, where are they looking on the screen and how big are their pupils so how large is their, their pupil size. A little bit. But, oops, covered up the slide a little bit, but this says that older adults activate. There we go. Self related regions more no matter what strategy we're using to regulate our emotions when we look at older people versus students. What are the differences in the brain. And we find that older people tend to activate these purple regions more, which are involved in thinking about yourself, thinking about your values, thinking about what's important to you. And these regions that are involved in processing thinking about yourself are more active when older people are seeing the silver lining in a situation. So you can see how that kind of relates to, to some of the clinical work I mentioned before right that as we grow older we become more connected to our values, potentially, and that we're thinking more about what do I need what am I feeling, taking stock of those emotions that are coming in in the moment, and that that actually helps us regulate our mood, which is really fascinating. And like I mentioned, we also track eyes. So, it's a super interesting, but when we are doing any, any type of task, so whether it's memorizing a number, or lifting a barbell, the harder it is, the bigger your eye gets. So your pupils actually super sensitive to how hard you're working. So if you're lifting a giant weight versus a tiny barbell, the giant weight will lead to this giant increase in the size of your pupil. So the block part of the inside of the eye. And that's also true when you're looking at a stressor. The less you are the bigger your eyes. And so we use this in the laboratory as a measure of how hard these different strategies are for people, and how emotionally intense they're feeling in the moment, because the pupils kind of a window into the, into the brain. So this is, I'll talk you through it. Don't worry, it looks a little scary, but so this is that task I mentioned when we tell people to regulate their emotions. And if you just look at this last bit here, on the top is younger adults, so you can see that either when they are rethinking the meaning of the image or they're distracting themselves. Their, their people is about the same. It's up here. And that's harder than just doing nothing. So when they're just looking at an image and it's stressful, it's effortless. But this is the size of the people. So as it goes up, it's more people. So they have larger peoples when they're distracting themselves or rethinking the meaning of a situation. So that's for younger adults. When you look at older adults for the seniors, what we see is that it's the easiest thing is to not do anything. So just notice the stressor. Then distraction. So distractions a little bit harder, but distraction and green is easier than seeing the silver lining. So this seems like seeing the silver lining as the hardest, followed by distraction, followed by doing nothing. So older adults are putting a lot of effort into rethinking the meaning of situations. And we can see that at the level of biology that your, your eye is telling me that you're putting in a lot of effort to see the silver lining and situations, whereas younger adults, not so much. So this shows that, you know, older adults are being more thoughtful, maybe more reflective on themselves, and they're working hard to feel better. So you all have to give yourself credit for putting in effort. We don't just, we don't just usually take, take stressors and just live through them without trying to do something about it. Right. So we're showing here that older adults put in that effort to, to feel better and to see how things are going to be okay in the end. That is so fascinating to me. I have to tell you, Bruno, I just, I find it fascinating because I, I continue to read research saying that older adults are actually doing better than younger adults during the period of time of age. So I think it has to be in some way related to the ability to rethink that perhaps through age and experience and exercising that capacity, it becomes something that is, I don't know, I don't want to say easier, but I, yeah, I think that's so interesting. Wow. Even if it's harder, right, perhaps it's something that's so important to us that we're willing to invest time and effort into seeing how things are positive and exercising gratitude also. And I think, you know, you, you mentioned a really important thing, which is, you know, as researchers are trying to start understanding during the times of COVID, what are the, what are the areas of coping that are really helping and what are the struggles that people are facing. I'll mention it later down the line, but we are starting a study now, really to learn from seniors, what are their current emotions that they're feeling during the times of COVID, and what sorts of things they're doing at home to kind of manage that. And we're hoping to learn from the lived experience of all of you so that we can help those that are having a hard time. And we can also learn from those that are able to maintain resilience during this time. So we're kind of as a community helping one another. So we're starting that study now and I'll give some details later down the line. But if that's something that you'd be interested in contributing to, you know, to furthering the science of resilience, it's a way that you could get involved. You get to meet our team. And also, you know, we're hoping that we can share the results of what we get back to the community so that you can see what are the themes that are coming out of this work and what really helps boost resilience during COVID. So, so I'm just going to talk a little bit about some current projects. So we just wrapped up one study where I was actually working at the Veterans Hospital in Boston. So at the VA Boston. And we were working with cancer patients, and we asked them open-endably, you know, to review what was most stressful both about diagnosis as well as treatment. And we found, you know, that older veterans mentioned using more motion regulation strategies than their younger counterparts. So the older the patients were, the more they were likely to mention, you know, we asked them about stress, but they automatically naturally mentioned coping as well. So the idea that stress and coping go hand in hand for older adults more so than for younger. And really interestingly, we tracked how anxious and depressed patients were feeling over time. And we found that those that mentioned using emotion regulation when we asked them about stress were less anxious and less depressed than those that didn't. So it's really interesting because, you know, when we think about what are we tracking as a health care system, oftentimes we track stress, but we don't really track coping. And it seems like, you know, whether or not people are using coping as they're getting a diagnosis going through treatment. That can really mean the difference between feeling anxious and feeling resilient in that time and feeling a sense of empowerment, despite having a really difficult diagnosis. So, yeah, so this is a really interesting area, you know, and we can think of these challenges that we face, you know, cancer could be one. But it could be also things that happen in the world. Right. So, I would, I would say, you know, we're interested in building on this work and learning, you know, when people are going through a national stressor, like COVID is this pattern still true that those that use certain coping strategies are showing more emotional, better emotional outcomes. So that's the work that that we're hoping to build on. We also are doing some, so this is a before COVID era, we were doing some physiological studies in the lab, trying to explore the role of timing. A lot of times we we study coping in the moment by asking people to regulate their emotion on on the spot. But in real life, we often know when a stressor is about to come. So we're curious about letting people know in advance. You're going to have a challenge in a minute, and then seeing whether younger and older people use that advanced warning in different ways to kind of prepare themselves for a stressor that's about to happen. So in real life, we can think about this as, you know, if you know you're going in for a surgery, for instance, or it's holidays and you know that you're going to be hosting Thanksgiving. Right. So that might lead to some preparatory kind of coping strategies you might engage with in advance of that stressor. So perhaps, you know, doing a breathing exercise the night before you're having a root canal, or, you know, using some time to get into action and prepare things in advance for Thanksgiving so it's less stressful in the moment those are things we can do because we have that time. But in the laboratory we haven't really looked at that role of time. So that's one study that we've been working on and we've published a paper on this. So we're hoping to do more once we're on the other side of this time and it's safe again to go back to in person data. So that's one area that I'm curious to study. Another one is, you know, we talked about this puzzle of how older adults feel better, despite some of the cognitive challenges. And older people have a lot of memories and a lot of experiences. And the older we are the more experiences we've navigated the more prior stressors we've dealt with and learned you know what works for us what doesn't work for us when it comes to coping. So my graduate student Reena Rolowski got a grant to study how might our previous experiences help us see silver lining and current stressors. And do older adults actually have a major advantage on younger people when it comes to this. So using both a scanner to see what's happening in the brain, as well as self report and talking to people she's hoping to explore how memories can connect to the present to help us feel stronger. And some of you may be experiencing this. Again, I would be curious to learn from your experiences and touch base you know to really see what, what role you think memory might play in your coping. I think that's such a rich area of inquiry. I agree and it's so understudied. I think a lot of the studies that are out there, think about coping in a bubble so showing something stressful or putting your hand in ice water making you uncomfortable in the moment and seeing how you manage that. But that doesn't really map on to what we do in real life where we bring our memories with us we are not hoping in a bubble in the real world. So we're hoping to see how bridging and building connections between our experiences can actually help us feel better in the moment. And I think that you all may be experiencing in the present stress that that may be coming up in your life and, you know, we want to learn from from what works in real life and then help disseminate it and share it with those that might not be using their memories to their full ability and this is really interesting because you know, really, really emotional deep rooted memories remain with us. Even in late stage dementia, people still have access to really emotional salient memories, especially positive ones. I know that are hard but that taught us something important. Right, so you can think of these pivotal moments in your life when maybe you thought you couldn't handle something but then you got to the other side. Many, many widows tell me about losing a spouse and feeling like they could never feel connected to themselves again. I can go online and say that, you know, they've really rebuilt their lives and feel connected to relationships to areas that are important to them. And that that's remembering that they're capable of that really builds a sense of empowerment to say, you know, I can go through the worst thing ever, but still feel connected to what's important to me. I didn't lose myself and you know, whatever the challenge may be like some of these patients that I interviewed for cancer study, you know, just saying, Wow, you know I, I was diagnosed with cancer, but I still am me, you know, that didn't take my, the most important areas of my life are not taken for me because I have any diagnosis, or I'm in treatment. We really want to connect these memories to the experiences we have to new situations that happen. There's something they call, you know, post traumatic growth in the PTSD literature, that sometimes veterans that have been to war and have seen that and run through a lot of difficult experiences will sometimes think back to the memories of their service and those challenges in combat, when they're going through other challenges and civilian life. And that gives them a sense of kind of boosted resilience that you know, I was able to navigate the stressor in the past and I can navigate the stressor now and using similar strategies. So we're hoping to study this phenomenon that we already know happens in the world, but more empirically. And one of my students is interested in the role that mindfulness may play in emotion regulation. So, you know, does being in a mindful state actually change the way we engage with information so you know the way we engage with negative information on the screen is it different do we look more at negative information when we're feeling mindful in the moment. And does this change across the lifespan so we actually find that older adults become more mindful naturally as they age, and that this is something that is changing across the lifespan. And we're curious about whether this may change the way that you may choose to engage or not engage with negative images or negative information in the lab. And finally, I just wanted to close with us for today. That we are currently doing a study on COVID-19 the emotions that this time is bringing up for people across the lifespan, and that we're doing interviews and hoping to learn about personal experiences that you're having during the pandemic. And what's currently challenging. How does, how does one manage these challenges when they come up in the day to day. And then does this vary across age so our younger people students having different challenges than seniors, and are the strategies that younger adults and seniors are using very across age so we're really hoping to learn from you. And you're the expert on your own experience. And these interviews are conducted either through zoom online. So through the computer, or we can also do phone interviews. And we're, you know, hoping to record these interviews transcribe them and then through those transcripts, you know, looking for themes across people that build resilience, looking for themes of what's stressful in the moment. So that we can better understand, you know, how to how to boost resilience in these times, and share that back to the community. So, Are you looking forward to to engage in the interviews, Bruno. So we're hoping to get about 30 people. And we were just in the in the beginnings of starting our interviews. So we have lots of space if you're interested in contributing and sharing your experience with us. And it's, it's a kind of wonderful way, you know, if you're interested in learning zoom actually, we can work with you to help you connect and learn that tool. Is there me my, you know, personally, or one of my students. And then, you know, we, we get to really meet and talk through what current challenges are, how you're navigating those challenges and if you need additional support to connect you with that as well. So if you're interested in helping share your story to further our understanding of what's going on for for everyone. Well, first of all, like I said, share share findings with you. So we'll get to learn from from the study. And then we're also providing $15 Amazon gift cards for participation so you can buy a nice book, or a T that you like online. You know, it's the least that we can do for you taking time out of your data to share your story with us. And for that interview studies, if people were interested in considering it, how long would that take. So there, it's, it takes about two hours total so there is a half an hour of questionnaires that we have online. We can provide that either via email, if you're comfortable with that, or one of our team members can call you and then they can go through the questions with you on the phone. And then once you do that, the interview itself is scheduled for about an hour and a half. So we get a chance to talk to you and learn what your story is and we'll ask some questions. They're really just a launching pad to get the conversation going. So you're open to share things that go beyond the question that we asked during the interview. And most folks find that it's pretty fun. We get to have a conversation. We get to learn a lot from, from what you're doing and what you're experiencing. And so it's a nice way to feel connected across the generations, you know, during this time. If you're interested in participating, please don't be shy and, you know, we'll be very thankful and have a lot of gratitude for your participation. So you can either call us at our number here, or you can email us at our email, which is nerve lab, it's neural vitality lab nerve. So nerve lab at gmail.com. If someone was having a difficult time, or somebody was breezing along, does it matter. In other words, the, there's sort of emotional orientation, are you looking to recruit from a particular profile by their people who are navigating or, you know, because somebody might be having a really hard time in thinking I have nothing to, to offer you because I'm actually not doing well. So is there any other guidance about participants and where they are through this experience. That's a great question. And absolutely everyone can participate. So it, whether you're really struggling and you're feeling a lack of support right now, or if you're, you know, having the time of your life being indoors all the time. You know, we'd learn from you on either side of that continuum. And if you're anywhere in between, you know, we're trying to see the different experiences that people are having. And so it helps us actually to have participants that are not maybe having an easy time navigating this and I think most of us are having a challenge with this it's you know, a very unique stress that we're experiencing. And we'd like to hear about the challenges. So I think most of it is for us to learn what things are helpful and what things are not helpful. And even if you can share the things you've tried that haven't felt like they meet your needs. That's helping us understand what the struggles are. And it's no fault of your own. You know, if you've been struggling and you've tried some strategies to manage your mood during these hard times and you're feeling like they're falling short. Thank you. Part of what we want to learn is what isn't working for people so that we can creatively as a community think about how can we address those needs. How can we build on the things that you've tried and haven't been enough. As well as you know if you're feeling like this hasn't been a big stressor. We're interested in hearing your story as well. Right. So what, what hasn't, what has helped you navigate these times and what kind of tools have you found to be effective. So on both sides we're learning an excellent question. And just to clarify for the age so some, some folks would think of an older adult as 80. Some would say 60 some would say 65. Do you have a defined numerical number for an older adult who would be eligible to participate. Yes, so this, this may, it's, it's not, I don't make the rules, but it's over 60 is considered older enough for our study even though 60 is so young. The idea is that we just want to recruit folks that are over the age of 60 so that we can compare that experience to students that are under the age of 30. So we're kind of looking at those two groups in the study. So if you know anyone that may be interested in participating also that might not be listening into this show, you know, feel free to share this information with them also anyone is eligible to contact us. And if for some reason, you know, this, this study is wrapping up or something we always have additional studies going on that we can let you know about and our hope is that this can be a really collaborative kind of relationship between the university and the community. So that, you know, it's fun to participate. You can feel connected to the students. And you can be learning from the science. So that it's kind of a full circle kind of relationship, we don't want you to feel like you're, you're being scouted and then you never hear from us again we want to, you know, be familiar faces. And I, you know, would love to build start building that ongoing kind of scientific relationship with all of you. I feel like the best way to be a clinician is to really understand what works. And the best way to understand what works is to learn from the community what works and what doesn't. So, thank you for helping helping us. Yeah, that's great. And that's all that I had. Thank you so much. And if you would just switch back hosting to me so that I can get ready to. I can get guys. Thank you so much. So any any listeners or viewers who are watching this and are interested. If you want to contact Bruno, you can also contact her on the slides that were shared. If you didn't have a chance to write that down that's okay because I have her contact information and you can always reach us at the Amherst Senior Center at 259-3060 or by email. You can find our further information also on the town website under our page for the Amherst Senior Center. So please do consider if you want some support her psychological services. Would you mind sharing just what is the rate because I know that when you have shared it with me in the past it really is a greatly reduced rate and so that might also be a really important relevant consideration for individuals. So I can share that so for our building boosting sorry boosting resilience group, those classes are free so if you'd like to participate in the group. It's free. And if you're looking for individual therapy at this time. We do it offer it through zoom and telephone like I said and it costs $30 per 50 minute session. So it's a lot. It's comparable if not cheaper than most co pays, but we don't accept insurance so that's an important thing to say so we just charge $30 per session, but the first session is free. So, you know, we always have our initial session so you can get to know your therapist see, you know, learn more about the sort of therapy that we do. They can learn more about your background and what you're looking for and see if it's a good fit. So we don't charge for that. If you're interested, please do contact me and I'll also share my information with Mary Beth so she can share it with you all. We would love to help connect you with services if you're looking for that, and to learn from your experiences and in our research. Yeah, so we will share some flyers and if anyone wants to participate in that research, I think it sounds fascinating. If nothing else is a wonderful conversation for an hour and a half to talk about what we're all undergoing so I think I think that just from that perspective. It's an interesting sharing to spend some time thinking about how you're doing and how you're navigating all of that. So, thank you so much. I'm a big fan of therapy. I always feel like everyone can benefit from therapy so help if anyone is listening and thinking, Geez, maybe this is something I should consider. I'll just share this that when the fellows came with Bruna to our six week session. Many individuals were there who are older adults their first thought was, oh gosh, these folks are young like, you know, roll of the eye. What are they going to teach me by the end of that afternoon. So many of them come up to me and say this was just the best session of them all. And I feel so badly for even thinking that at the time, someone who's young who is not also an older person would have nothing to share and offer me. So I just would like to make sure that that's explicit because some folks might be thinking, oh gosh, you know, if they are students and training what would they know about my particular experience but the specialty in the way that you work with them. They were fantastic. So thank you for everything you do for our community. Dr. Bruna Martins Klein from UMass Psychological Services. Check her out if you need any support and we'll help people connect and thank you again and thank your students for all that they do. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. And I'm going to stop.