Learning to manage anxiety in ourselves and our students

Many of us are familiar with Rebbe Nachman of Breslov’s teaching about the whole world being like a narrow bridge. Rebbe Nachman urges us to not let fear overwhelm us, She’lo yitpached klal שֶׁלֹּא יִתְפַּחֵד כְּלָל. And yet, anxiety in ourselves and in our students is prevalent as we face challenges related to Covid-19, climate change, increased use of social media, and many other stressors.

Social Emotional and Spiritual Learning asks educators and our students to be self-aware and manage our own emotions. We further urge ourselves and our learners to use management strategies to manage emotions effectively. What did the Hasidic Masters have to say about the internal landscape of managing our emotions and where can we find sources of comfort and strength?

Join us for a 2-part series that will both give a foundation of how to work with anxiety within ourselves and our students, while learning from the resilience of those who came before us.

  • Aimed at: Jewish educators and Jewish communal leaders in all settings. Directors, teachers, clergy, and those in positions with social services are encouraged to attend with members of your team.
  • Structure: Online two-part series. You are welcome to attend one or both sessions.
  • Led by: Rabbi Dr. Ariel Mayse and Liora Brosbe, LMFT, RDT

Program Details

  • Dates: Join us on Tuesday, February 22 and/or Thursday, February 24, 2022.
  • Time: 11:00 am – 12:30 pm Pacific / 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm Eastern.
  • Location: Virtual program. Zoom link provided upon registration.

Session I: Tuesday, February 22

Participants will:

  • Receive an overview of how anxiety manifests in students of all ages.
  • Learn about the Hasidic teachers’ approach to emotional exploration of the self and how it connects to spiritual life.
  • Engage in a text study to explore a specific teaching related to this theme of anxiety and spiritual brokenness.
  • Identify how Social Emotional and Spiritual Learning can support well-being through self-awareness and self-management.

Session II: Thursday, February 24

Participants will:

  • Receive an overview of best practices  to manage anxiety and how to use them in personal and professional settings.
  • What was the “Hasidic” approach to anxiety and how might this build resilience for other challenges?
  • Engage in a text study to understand how acceptance can lead to resilience. 
  • Conclude our learning with identifying ways we can utilize text study, spiritual practices, and anxiety management tools to build resilience in ourselves and our students.

Registration

All Jewish educators and communal leaders are welcome. No prior experience with Hasidic text necessary.

Cost: $27 per session or $36 for both sessions.

All training at Jewish LearningWorks are subsidized by our generous donors and are offered free of charge to people furloughed or laid off from Jewish organizations. To register with a fee adjustment, please email [email protected].

This program is highly subsidized thanks to the generous support of the Jewish Community Federation and Foundation’s donor advised funds and the Fineman, King, Kohn, Kravitz-Fisher and Sugarman families.

These sessions are full. Registration is closed. 

Questions

For more information or any questions you may have, please contact Liora Brosbe, Senior Educator at [email protected].

More About Our Facilitators

Rabbi Dr. Ariel Evan Mayse joined the faculty of Stanford University in 2017 as an assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies, after previously serving as the Director of Jewish Studies and Visiting Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Thought at Hebrew College in Newton, Massachusetts, and a research fellow at the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Michigan. He also serves as a fellow at the Kogod Research Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and rabbinic ordination from Beit Midrash Har’el in Israel.

His current research examines the role of language in Hasidism, manuscript theory and the formation of early Hasidic literature, the renaissance of Jewish mysticism in the nineteenth and twentieth century, the relationship between spirituality and law in Jewish legal writings, and the resources of Jewish thought and theology for constructing contemporary environmental ethics.

He is the author of Speaking Infinities: God and Language in the Teachings of Rabbi Dov Ber of Mezritsh (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020; Hebrew translation, forthcoming in 2021), and the two-volume A New Hasidism: Roots and A New Hasidism: Branches, with Arthur Green (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, 2019). His newest book, As a Deep River Rises: Judaism, Ecology and Environmental Ethics is under contract with Brandeis University Press (Fall 2022).

He loves biking (mountain and road), hiking, and spending time with his fun-loving family!

Liora Brosbe, LMFT and RDT. A Bay Area native, Liora has worked as a Jewish communal professional for over 18 years. She is currently a senior educator at Jewish LearningWorks and she is passionate about working with professionals who support families to engage in a meaningful Jewish life.

Liora is a formally trained Maggidah, a Jewish storyteller and teacher. In addition to teaching in the Jewish community, Liora is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Registered Drama Therapist whose prior professional work included working with incarcerated women, foster youth, individuals living with grief and loss, and traumatized children and families in schools and clinics. Liora and her spouse live in Berkeley with their three children.