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Title slide for a presentation reads “Stress Busters for Parents: Put Your Oxygen Mask On First.” Below the title, the presenter is identified as Susannah M Horwitz, LPC, LMHC, a trauma-informed and nature-based expressive arts therapist, with the website www.susannahhorwitz.com

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Slide titled “Welcome and Intention Setting.” Text on the slide asks: “What brought you here today? What are you hoping to learn from this workshop?” followed by “Why is it so important to put your oxygen mask on first?” and “What is your oxygen mask, and how can you learn to access it?”

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Slide reads “Self-Care Looks Different in Survival Mode.” Supporting text states: “Drawing on trauma-informed practices to understand need for meeting basic needs and finding a sense of stability in the midst of survival.”

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Slide titled “Adjusting to the Varied Layers of a ‘New Normal’: Grieving the Loss of What Was Known Before.” Bullet points read: “As individuals,” “As individuals in relationship with others in our immediate environment and the greater world,” “As parents,” and “As all of these in the midst of an ongoing pandemic.”

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Slide titled “Wilderness Survival Needs.” Below the title are survival timeframes listed as: “Food: 3 weeks,” “Water: 3 days,” “Warmth/Shelter/Temperature Regulation: 3 hours,” “Oxygen: 3 minutes,” and “The will to live: 3 seconds.”

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Slide includes a photo of a woman sitting with her head lowered and her arms wrapped around herself. Text explains that when people are emotionally activated, their capacity to process logical information such as language or problem solving is significantly reduced because the brain shifts into survival mode described as “fight, flight, or freeze.” It adds that to reduce this activation, the nervous system needs to access a sense of safety.

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Slide titled “Quick Stress Buster Tools Part One: Simple Sensory Awareness.” Text explains using one or more of the five senses to discover what is actually happening in the present moment outside of one’s own thoughts and emotions about the past or future.

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Slide explains that when focusing on breathing is too difficult at first, simple tools can help shift from “doing mode” to “being mode.” One example encourages looking around and connecting with neutral or pleasant sensory information in the present moment using visual or tactile senses. Another example introduces the “5-4-3-2-1 Exercise,” which involves identifying five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

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Slide titled “Shifting Perspective: Outdoors, Indoors, in the Midst of Any Activity.” The slide explains that shifting perspective tells the brain and nervous system that something else is happening besides what is unpleasant. Listed examples include turning your head or shifting body positions, keyhole perspective, upside down perspective, widen perspective, and fox walking.

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Slide displays a quote: “Mindfulness is paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally,” attributed to Jon Kabat-Zinn.

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Slide presents two mindfulness practices. One section titled “Box Breathing” lists steps: slow exhale, slow inhale for four counts, lightly hold for four counts, slow exhale for four counts, lightly hold for four counts, and repeat as needed. The other section titled “Guided Body Scan” explains starting by noticing the whole body in the present moment while breathing, and when the mind becomes distracted, acknowledging it and gently returning attention to present-moment awareness rather than trying to force relaxation.

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Slide titled “Quick Stress Buster Tools Part Two: Using Imagination to Manage Overwhelm.”

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Slide titled “Container Exercise” explains using imagination to identify and describe details of a container that could safely hold distressing thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations. The slide also presents a “Calm Place Exercise,” which invites participants to describe a real or imagined place that brings peace, calm, and stability, moving through the five senses to describe it in detail. It notes that these exercises can be used with or without art or craft materials, and that incorporating art materials in the creative process can increase present-moment sensory awareness.

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Slide titled “Quick Stress Buster Tools Part Three: Using Imagination to Regulate Vulnerable Emotional States.”

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Slide titled “Attending to Child Self Exercise (Importing Support)” explains attending to what one’s “child self” would need during moments of vulnerability or distress. It lists common child needs: hug, play, nap, space, love or kindness, movement, and laughter. The slide also includes “Letting Go of What Is Not Yours (Setting Boundaries),” which suggests imagining something or someone holding a burden for you, or giving it back to the person who is actually responsible for it.

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Slide displays a quote: “You can strive to be like them but you cannot make them just like you.” The quote is attributed to “On Children” from *The Prophet* by Kahlil Gibran and notes it was sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock, followed by a YouTube link.

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Slide titled “Resource List: Books, Articles, Podcasts, and Websites.” Listed resources include Headspace at headspace.com, Yoga with Adriene at yogawithadriene.com, Somatic Experiencing at traumahealing.org, Therapy for Black Girls at therapyforblackgirls.com, Therapy Den at therapyden.com, and the Psychology Today Therapist Finder at psychologytoday.com/us/therapists. Podcasts listed include “Unlocking Us” by Brené Brown and the Headspace Podcast. An article titled “Your ‘Surge Capacity’ Is Depleted – It’s Why You Feel Awful” by Tara Haelle is referenced with a Medium link. Books listed include “Braving the Wilderness” by Brené Brown, “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel van der Kolk, and “In an Unspoken Voice: How the Body Releases Trauma and Restores Goodness” by Peter Levine.

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Slide reads: “For questions and more information, please contact.” Below is a business card for Susannah Horwitz, LPC, LMHC, identified as a Nature Based Expressive Arts Therapist, with contact information including a phone number, email address Susannah@SusannahHorwitz.com, and website www.SusannahHorwitz.com