Date · Friday, 8 May 2026, 15:00 to 16:00 CEST
Hosted by · OSCE and UNDP
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Susanne Baberg · Senior Psychologist, Occupational Safety and Health Unit, OSCE · Bio
- Gulnara Zhakupova · Staff Counsellor, UNDP · Bio
In a rapidly changing work environment, uncertainty can trigger stress and affect our well-being. This session introduces practical ways to activate inner resources such as resilience, emotional balance, and self-awareness. Participants will learn simple, evidence-based techniques for managing stress in the moment, along with daily habits and longer-term strategies that support sustained well-being and performance. The session combines psychological insights with actionable tools to help colleagues stay centered, focused, and effective, even in challenging times.
Key takeaways
- Even positive change costs resilience. New job, new city, starting a family, the brain reacts to uncertainty itself, not just to bad outcomes. Plan recovery into the change, do not budget only for the upside.
- Use the William Bridges Transitional Model to separate the external change (which you do not control) from your internal transition (denial, anxiety, confusion, low point, upgrade). Naming the stage you are in normalises the dip and stops you reading it as personal failure.
- Resilience is a process and a set of capacities, not a personality trait. Bonanno’s research finds it is far more common after major loss/crisis than assumed. Most people adapt over time.
- Resilience is not turning bad into good and not the absence of pain. It is the ability to keep moving forward and to re-engage with ordinary life. Forced positivity is not a goal.
- Two pathways shape resilience: starting conditions (biology, biography, early development) and how you respond. The second is where you have leverage. The brain stays plastic for life.
- Apply Accurate Thinking to a haunting thought: what evidence holds up in court, what is a more realistic alternative, if the worst case happened how exactly would I cope in small concrete steps, and what one step can I take today.
- Stress is shaped not by the situation alone but by how you interpret your ability to cope (Lazarus). Two people facing the same uncertainty react differently because of that interpretation.
Gulnara Zhakupova
Gulnara’s contribution was to give participants a working understanding of what stress and uncertainty actually do to a person, so that the techniques later in the session could land on a clear diagnosis rather than a vague feeling. Her central move was to widen the definition of stressful change: even chosen, positive transitions (a new job, a new city, starting a family) demand resilience and strength, so the human cost of change should not be measured only against bad news. From there she named the deep human pull toward predictability (“our brain likes certainty; we sleep well when we know”), and used that to explain why ambiguity, unpredictability and doubt feel so destabilising even when nothing concrete has gone wrong yet. The framework she put on screen is the William Bridges Transitional Model, which she used to separate the external change (funding cuts, restructuring, political shifts that we do not control) from the internal transition that follows it. She walked the audience through a typical inner trajectory: first denial (“our brains do not want to agree”), then anxiety, shock, confusion and frustration, a low point, and only then a gradual upgrade where energy, creativity, hope and acceptance return. She was explicit that the model is classical and individual experiences differ, but the value is in normalising the dip rather than treating it as failure. She then catalogued the reactions that organisational change actually produces in teams, which she treated as warning signs to recognise in oneself and in colleagues: resistance, anxiety and stress, denial or avoidance, anger and frustration, conflict and competition between colleagues, survivor guilt when others have already left, heightened worry and overthinking, sadness and helplessness, and physical symptoms such as back pain and frequent flus. Her practical instruction was operational: identifying these reactions is the precondition for choosing what to do next, both for self-help and for knowing when to involve a staff counsellor.
Susanne Baberg
Susanne’s contribution was to convert resilience from a personality label into a learnable practice with concrete techniques. She opened by reframing resilience as a process and a set of capacities that can be built over time, citing Columbia University researcher George Bonanno’s finding that after major loss, crisis or trauma, resilience is far more common than commonly assumed: most people who experience distress are still able, over time, to adapt and continue functioning. She was deliberate about what resilience is not: it is not about turning something difficult into something positive (“a no can do, and not advisable”), it is not the absence of pain or struggle, and it does not erase the fracture; it is the ability to keep moving forward through difficulty and to re-engage with ordinary life. She named two pathways that shape resilience: the starting conditions we begin with (biology, temperament, early development, including chronic exposure to stress or active conflict zones, which she said showed up strongly in OSCE’s psychosocial workplace assessment) and the way we respond, which is the part most directly under our control. The keystone insight she anchored on was neuroplasticity: the brain remains adaptable throughout life, so even small, repeated experiences of regulation, support, meaning and recovery strengthen resilience over time. The first concrete tool she gave was Accurate Thinking from cognitive behavioural therapy: catch yourself in thinking traps (catastrophisation, worry cycles), then ask what is the actual evidence for the thought, what would hold up “in court”, what is a more realistic alternative, and if the worst case did happen, exactly how would I cope, in tangible small steps, and what one small step can I take today. She framed this through Richard Lazarus’s stress model: stress is shaped not only by the situation but by how we interpret our ability to cope with it, which is why two people can experience the same uncertainty very differently. Her second tool was a deliberate attention shift drawn from Gunther Schmidt’s hypnosystemic therapy: acknowledge the distress first as a necessary step, then intentionally direct attention to “surviving strengths” and inner resources, which over time produces what Schmidt calls a “booster effect” or psychological vaccination, a lasting emotional resource that reduces vulnerability to future challenges. She gave four interrogation prompts to crystallise this: how would I need to interpret what happened so I can move forward in a healthy way, who was I before this period (in personality traits, strengths, talents, values), what coping skills and capacities did I develop through it that are already part of how I live today, and what am I therefore able to draw on next. She then used the Japanese art of Kintsugi as a self-compassion metaphor: broken pottery repaired with gold lacquer becomes more valuable for its visible cracks, and the equivalent move psychologically is to integrate what happened into the story of who you are without losing yourself, rather than pretending nothing happened. The third toolkit was bodily and immediate: a guided body scan (notice sensations from feet upward without trying to change anything), the Inner Circle exercise (with paper and pencil, draw a smaller circle of what you can directly influence and a wider circle of what you cannot, then redirect energy from struggle to agency), and progressive muscle relaxation (tense and release hands, shoulders/neck, face/jaw, then legs and feet for five-second holds), which she said is particularly useful for the muscular hypervigilance that uncertainty produces (back pain, jaw clenching, teeth grinding at night). She closed on the warning signs that mean self-help is no longer sufficient: noticeable decline in functioning or performance, persistent exhaustion or anxiety, withdrawal, hopelessness, uncharacteristic irritability or interpersonal conflict, and any thoughts of self-harm or suicide. Her instruction in that case was unambiguous: see a professional, reach out to a staff counsellor, do not try to manage it alone.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| William Bridges Transitional Model | Separates external change (what happens to you, often outside your control) from the internal transition that follows: denial, anxiety/shock/confusion, low point, gradual upgrade toward acceptance and re-engagement. | Locate yourself on the inner curve when an organisational change hits. Naming the stage normalises the dip and helps you choose the right response (information for denial, support for the low point, action for the upgrade). |
| Accurate Thinking (CBT) | A method for catching unhelpful thinking traps (catastrophisation, worry cycles) and replacing them with more realistic and self-compassionate alternatives. | When a haunting thought appears, write it down and answer: what is the tangible evidence for this, what is a more realistic alternative, if the worst case happened how exactly would I cope (in small concrete steps), what one step can I take today. |
| Lazarus’s Stress Model | Stress is determined not by the situation alone but by the appraisal of one’s ability to cope with it; this is why two people react differently to the same event. (Documented as a section of the Accurate Thinking page; not a standalone tool.) | Use as a diagnostic before reaching for a coping technique: ask whether the distress comes from the event itself or from the appraisal that you cannot cope. If it is the appraisal, work on resources and reframing rather than the event. |
| Booster Effect | From Gunther Schmidt’s hypnosystemic therapy: where you place your attention shapes your psychological experience. Acknowledging distress first, then deliberately attending to “surviving strengths” and inner resources, produces a lasting emotional resource (“psychological vaccination”). | Ask: how would I need to interpret what happened so I can move forward; who was I before this; what coping skills and capacities did I develop through this that are already part of how I live; what can I now draw on next. |
| Kintsugi (golden repair) metaphor | The Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold-mixed lacquer, so the cracks become honoured and visible. Used as a metaphor for integrating difficult experiences into one’s identity rather than hiding them. (Documented as a section of the Schmidt’s Attention Shift page; a metaphor, not a standalone tool.) | When tempted to “go back to as if nothing happened”, use the metaphor to permit visible integration instead: acknowledge what broke, name what changed, treat the experience as part of the story without letting it define you. |
| Body Scan | Guided mindfulness exercise: attention moves slowly from feet upward through the body, simply noticing sensations (warmth, pressure, tension, very little) without trying to change them. | Use as an in-the-moment grounding when stress is high or attention is scattered. No equipment needed. Doable seated, lying down or at a desk; eyes closed or with a soft gaze on a fixed point. |
| Cannot Control) | Two concentric circles drawn on paper: the inner circle holds what you can directly influence; the outer circle holds what you cannot. Redirects energy from unwinnable struggle to areas of agency. (Documented as the two-circle variant section on the cross-session Circle of Control page, alongside the three-ring version from Day 3 S7.) | Do it old-school with paper and pencil. Inside: behaviour, choices, what you wear, who you reach out to, how you respond. Outside: weather, others’ reactions, restructuring decisions, funding cuts. Act on the inner circle. |
| Progressive Muscle Relaxation | Tense and release sequence (hands, shoulders/neck, face/jaw, legs/feet), holding each contraction for five seconds, then letting go. Reduces the muscular hypervigilance that uncertainty produces. | Use when uncertainty is showing up in the body (back pain, clenched jaw, night-time teeth grinding). One full cycle is enough for relief; longer versions exist for deeper practice. |
Resources
| Resource | What it is / What it’s for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| UNDP Wellbeing portal | Collection of practical wellbeing resources used by UNDP staff: breathing exercises, body scan, progressive muscle relaxation, sensory mindfulness, mindful eating, inner circle exercises. Cited as the place to go for guided practice. | https://wellbeingundp.org |
| OSCE Mental Health Library | Internal OSCE collection of audio recordings, pocket guides and self-help materials curated by the Occupational Safety and Health Unit. Available to OSCE colleagues; reach out to Susanne or the unit for access. | (internal, OSCE only) |
Last updated 2026-05-10.