Speakers - 2026

Title: The Well and The Tree: Building Resilience

Abstract

Resilience is often misunderstood as endurance—pushing through adversity at any cost. In recovery spaces, leadership roles, and high-demand environments, this misconception frequently leads to burnout, disengagement, and relapse rather than sustainable growth.

The Well and The Tree: Building Resilience introduces a practical and accessible framework for understanding resilience as capacity rather than toughness. In this model, the well represents internal resources such as self-regulation, meaning, emotional safety, and self-trust, while the tree represents outward functioning—work performance, leadership, relationships, recovery progress, and community impact. When internal resources are depleted, external growth becomes fragile, regardless of outward strength or commitment.

Drawing from lived experience, organizational leadership, and recovery-centered principles, this presentation explores how individuals and organizations can recognize early signs of depletion, restore internal capacity, and build systems that support long-term resilience rather than short-term performance. The session challenges shame-based productivity models and replaces them with sustainable strategies grounded in compassion, accountability, and nervous system awareness.

Participants will gain language and tools to reframe burnout not as failure, but as feedback. This framework is applicable across recovery services, peer support, leadership development, and organizational culture, offering attendees a model that can be immediately implemented in both personal and professional contexts.

What will the audience take away from presentation:

Participants will be able to:

• Apply the Well and Tree framework to assess internal capacity before addressing performance or behavior issues
• Identify early warning signs of depletion in themselves, peers, and teams before crisis occurs
• Shift from shame-based motivation to sustainable resilience practices
• Implement practical strategies to restore internal resources while maintaining accountability
• Improve leadership, peer support, and recovery outcomes by aligning expectations with capacity

How this helps the audience:
This presentation provides a practical solution to burnout, disengagement, and relapse by offering a model that simplifies decision-making, improves emotional regulation, and supports long-term effectiveness in recovery and leadership roles. It enhances workplace sustainability, peer engagement, and individual well-being without requiring additional clinical resources.