Stress, Pressure, Anxiety?? Helping Girls Navigate Stress Culture

Course overview

Today's world provides a wealth of pressures and challenges for girls. Girls report that they are under constant pressure and feel that there is no one to talk to about their feelings. Girls are experiencing distinct challenges with connectedness vs. loneliness and internally cultivated self-worth vs. externally imposed perception of value. Today's girls live in an environment where they define and experience happiness as a direct result of feedback and reinforcement that is received from others. Couple this with pressure to fit in with their peers, desire to please parents or teachers and pressure to look, act and perform everything flawlessly, girls are navigating a complex and stressful world. From appearance to academics to sports to college admissions, girls are under a critical microscope that is near impossible to circumvent. Girls are reporting high rates of anxiety: most say they are stressed-out and few have adequate skills to handle the pressures they are facing. So how are they coping? Research suggests that girls are more likely than boys to cope through seeking support and expressing their emotions, however, we also know that girls' relationships with peers and adults can become tense, competitive or even combative during the adolescent years. Utilizing first-of-its-kind, groundbreaking research from The Girls' Index, this workshop will take a deeper dive into the complex experiences of girls, their relationships and their primary sources of stress. Participants will leave this workshop equipped with strategies to help girls develop self-compassion, healthy friendships and boundaries and the coping skills necessary for navigating stress and pressure in a complex world.