Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: Basic knowledge about human psychology, CNS anatomy and physiology is an advantage, but not required.

Aim: This course enables a qualified debate about the relevance and applicability of current knowledge on stress and resilience to advance mental health and clinical practice.

Course responsible and lecturer: Karen Johanne Pallesen, PhD 

Venue: 14.-16. May 2025, 10:00-16:00, Richard Mortensen-stuen
AU Konference Center, Aarhus University, Fredrik Nielsens vej 4, 8000 Aarhus C.

Content

Stress, defined as a state of physiological and emotional disequilibrium, has a great impact on our everyday experiences, cognitive functions, well-being and health. This course explains the functions and power of stress in terms of subconscious processes of energy budgeting, predictive coding, and emotional impulses anchored in our personal and evolutionary past. We look into how stress processes play a critical role in human social interactions and interfere with psychological safety. Central mechanisms in the transformation of long term stress to toxic stress and diseases will be explained and exemplified in detail, raising the question of how we can protect ourselves from stress-related symptoms and diseases in a modern society that generates extraordinary high levels of stress. We dive into psychophysiological mechanisms of resilience, and how specific types of behaviour and practices may cultivate positive emotions and optimize the balance between autonomic states, hence enhancing our wellbeing and health. We will make some reflections and exercises, and discuss the possibilities and potential benefits of integrating the science of stress and resilience into clinical practice, education, workplaces etc.

Participation in the course is without cost for:

PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses