Ten more languages have been added to the newest self-reliance course offered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Finding Strength in the Lord: Emotional Resilience” helps people learn to strengthen themselves spiritually through the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

The 10-week course is now available in German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Albanian, Czech, Danish, Dutch and Hungarian. It has been available already in English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Topics covered in the course include building emotional resilience, developing healthy thinking patterns, managing stress and anxiety, understanding sadness and depression, overcoming anger, managing addictive behaviors and building healthy relationships.

The courses are taught by Latter-day Saint volunteers either in-person at Church meetinghouses, or online in some areas of the world. 

Read more: What is emotional resilience and how can I develop it? Learn about the Church’s new resource

Learning from the emotional resilience course

Ann-Marie Tate recently took the course in Jamaica, a country in the Caribbean.

“For 10 weeks, I enjoyed the feeling of family — of being supported. I knew that the struggles I was feeling, they were facing them, too, we were all in this together,” she told Newsroom.

Tate said before the course, she relied on others’ opinions of how they perceived her to be, and didn’t have much self-confidence. But now she knows who she is and knows her purpose. 

Bryan Woolery, Margia Dixon and Ann-Marie Tate study the Church’s emotional resilience course in Jamaica, January 2022.

Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

“A lot of us are silent strugglers, and this course helps us work on the many areas of our lives that sometimes we don’t realize we need help in. I encourage anyone, anywhere to partake of this course because it will help you to become the better version of you,” Tate said.

Bryan Woolery took the 10-week course at the same time as Tate: “I would invite everyone to this course — whether you are a doctor, lawyer, nurse. The reality is that all of us have emotions,” he said.

Read more: What Church leaders and members are saying about the new emotional resilience course

Jacquie Pineda from Pomona, California, said she deals with anxiety while juggling all that she is doing for her family, three part-time jobs, and a calling as Primary president. But she said the emotional resilience course allowed her “to become a better person who serves.”

“With the stress of COVID, the pressure of working under different circumstances has been really hard, so learning to support others and to just listen to them has been really helpful,” Pineda explained. “It has helped tremendously with my kids because now they feel that I am listening to them, and they feel heard and, I think, validated when there’s a concern. And that helps me be a better mother.”

She added: “The course … helped me understand the Savior better, which helped me understand myself better.”

Learning while leading the emotional resilience course

James Bell and his wife taught a group of approximately 10 people, including Pineda, last fall, reported Newsroom.

“We had fun in the class, we got to know each other very well and I think there is a bond there,” said Bell. “The big advantage of facilitating was really just knowing that when I have a responsibility, and no matter how overwhelming it seems … Heavenly Father knows it, and … He’ll help me do it.”

Bell was not able to work as a dentist for several months during California’s COVID-19 lockdowns. And he didn’t realize how much stress and anxiety he had at the time. 

“I ended up having a panic attack one day, and my wife took me to the hospital,” he said. “I think one of the things this class helped me with was realizing that there isn’t anything wrong with me. People have mental health issues all the time, and it’s part of life. … [The course] put it in perspective for me.”

A family portrait of James Bell and his wife and children. Bell, a dentist in Southern California, said the emotional resilience class offered by the Church helped him when he was forced to stay home from work during a quarantine.

Credit: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Kelly and Maria Stotts facilitated a pilot course in Geneva, Switzerland, in February 2020 and moved the course online when the pandemic began. 

“The Lord knew what He was doing with His timing, no question,” Kelly Stotts told Newsroom, “because as our worlds turned upside down, we were coming together with people and talking about topics that were really relevant to us at that time.”

Read more: Feeling anxious? Or is it anxiety? Here’s how to find hope and help

The training from the emotional resilience course has helped the Stotts better support their family.  Maria Stotts said the course gave them the push to help their son get the help he needed for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. 

“ADHD and depression are real. They became real for him, and they became real for our family as our son was an adult,” Kelly Stotts said.

Kelly Stotts also spoke about having an anxiety attack, brought on by the collective stress of home and work, but he said the skills he learned in the class helped him recover: “Even though I was a facilitator, I was very much a learner.”

Where to find the emotional resilience course

Downloadable manuals and videos for the emotional resilience course are available at ChurchofJesusChrist.org. They can also be viewed on the Gospel Library app under “Life Help.” Physical copies of the manuals are available for purchase at Church distribution centers.

Those interested in the free training are encouraged to reach out to their local Church leaders to learn when groups are scheduled to meet in their areas.

Other self-reliance programs offered by the Church are “Personal Finances,” “Starting and Growing My Business,” “Find a Better Job“ and “Education for Better Work.”