The Global Resilience and Inner Transformation (GRIT) Institute offers a Certified Resilience Trainer (CeRT) Program. The certification process trains individuals in the Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) model developed by Dr. Sood.
Two decades of research by the team and others shows that helping people learn about their neural traps and finding ways to transcend them can undo most of our brain's vulnerabilities. The Resilient Option program helps overcome these traps in four modules:
Each module shares science, stories, and skills through short videos enriched by text, reading material, and quizzes. You advance in small manageable steps, and the overall approach is structured and progresses in a logical sequence that we have tested in dozens of studies. The program is self-paced and usually takes eight to twelve weeks to complete.
The in-person version, SMART - Stress Management and Resiliency Training, is highly effective for decreasing stress and anxiety, and enhancing resilience, wellbeing, mindfulness, and health behaviors.
Cost: $1500
ENROLL NOWTransform offers you a new way to live your life based on timeless principles and cutting-edge advances in neurosciences. Transform course is for individuals who wish a deeper immersion in the resilience and wellbeing approach developed by Dr. Sood and also is the first step toward becoming a trainer in the SMART Program.
The Transform course is an immersion in understanding the neurosciences, philosophy, and psychology of stress and wellbeing, and from that understanding developing a scientific and structured approach toward peace, happiness, resilience, and thriving.
The program focuses on how we pay attention and how we interpret information. Research shows human attention instinctively focuses on threats and imperfections, especially in the past and the future. So, attention wanders; it ruminates. The human brain’s default mode (dominated by default network) hosts mind wandering. Scientists have shockingly discovered we spend half our day or more with a ruminative mind.
This excessive ‘dwell time’ in the default mode correlates with symptoms of anxiety, depression, and attention deficit. It also fatigues our brain, one reason you might feel completely wiped out by 6 o’clock in the evening.
The Transform Course offers a way out of this human dilemma by engaging the brain’s focused mode – not only to experience more uplifting emotions, but also develop better focus, enhanced creativity and productivity, better engagement at work, deeper relationships, and to find greater purpose in life.
- 2-day in-person or online course (presently all courses are offered online only)
- Next Course - February 2nd and 9th, 2024
- Cost: $1500
Cost: $1500
Application for EnrollmentBachelor’s degree or higher
- Complete the Transform Program
- Complete the Trainer Skills Intensive (TSI)
- Complete a minimum six hours of mentorship (in-person or telementoring) with a master certified resilience trainer (part of TSI)
- Conduct five SMART sessions
- Have an established personal resilience practice
- Submit evaluations from at least three sessions
- Provide recommendation letters from two individuals or supervisors who have worked closely with the applicant
- Score 80 percent or higher on knowledge and skills assessment written exam (multiple choice)
- Obtain a passing grade on a one-hour telephonic oral exam
Submit documentation of the completion of the above items with the application form and receive a Certified Resilience Trainer (CeRT) certificate from the GRIT Institute. Please email us to receive a copy of the application form.
The total cost of certification is $3000 (Transform - $1500 + TSI - $1500)
- Certified to teach the SMART sessions (four-module) to individuals or groups (Each module of the SMART program is approximately 30-45 minutes long)
- Receive all the trainer resources
- Membership in the network of the GRIT Institute Certified Resilience Trainers
- Participate in yearly retreat (optional)
- Complete CeRT program
- Be invited to apply for MCeRT (Master Resilience Trainer Certification is by invitation only)
- Have a Masters Degree or higher in Psychology, Social Work, Education, or related field
- Conducted over 500 resilience sessions (individual or group) with excellent reviews and taught resilience for more than five years
- Have an established personal resilience practice
- Score 80 percent or higher on knowledge and skills assessment written exam
- Oral Exam (one hour, telephonic)
- Submit a one-page essay of how you have applied resilience in your life
- Submit a one-page essay on how SMART and Transform programs can be improved
Submit documentation of the completion of the above four items with the application form to receive a Certified Master Resilience Trainer certificate from the GRIT Institute
- Certified to teach SMART sessions to individuals or groups
- As a Master Resilience Trainer you will be eligible to teach longer versions of the SMART program (half and full day)
- Receive all the GRIT Institute trainer resources
- Participate, in collaboration with the GRIT Institute, in conducting Trainer Skills Intensive
- Mentor Resilience Qualified and Certified Resilience Trainers
- A proportion of Certified Master Resilience Trainers will be invited to participate in, and eventually, teach the Transform course
You will be directly working with Dr. Sood for the entire training.
Most participants will take six months to complete. In some instances for students with considerable background training and experience, we offer an accelerated path that can be completed in three months.
The GRIT Institute will provide the following resources to help certified trainers succeed in teaching the program:
- Participant handout
- Instructor guide outlining the basic content of the course
- The four-module SMART PowerPoint presentation
- Inclusion in the list of trainers at the website resiliencetrainer.com- Access to yearly retreat
- Copies of the following books
- SMART with Dr. Sood: The Four-Module Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program
- Stronger: The Science and Art of Stress Resilience
- The Resilience Journal (for the Transform course)
These books will be provided to you during the in-person session for no additional cost.
We strongly suggest the trainers follow the structured four-module program. Each module of this program is approximately 30 to 45 minutes long. Within that construct, we will work with you individually to customize the program to your background and needs. The customization process will include integrating your stories and metaphors in the program, and adapting the program to your audience.
A certified resilience trainer has acquired the necessary knowledge and skills to teach the four modules of the SMART program and any additional curricula approved by The GRIT Institute to be taught by resilience trainers. Upon issuance of the trainer certificate, you can represent yourself as an approved trainer of the SMART program per The GRIT Institute. You will be included in the list of the GRIT Institute network of certified resilience trainers at the website resiliencetrainer.com.
Please note: This certification does not provide you with the credentials to teach SMART or another resilience program in clinical(medical or psychiatric) settings to patients for improving mental health or other medical conditions. This certification is for providing SMART training to enhance general wellbeing and resilience.
The training is not limited to a particular professional group. The most common professionals who have previously participated in the program are: psychologists, social workers, wellness coaches, health care providers, managers/directors of wellness and resilience programs, HR personnel, personal trainers, corporate executives, student leaders, K-12 educators, higher degree educators. The GRIT Institute welcomes these and other groups to pursue resilience training.
The core competencies of the certified trainers cover your skills in delivering high quality content and your commitment to lead a good virtuous life. The five core competencies are:
Passion
A drive to make a positive contribution to the world
Excellence
A desire to excel in the chosen work
Authenticity
A coherence in thoughts, words and actions
Compassion
A disposition of kindness toward others and self
Ethics
A commitment to live with the highest morals
In addition, your ability to engage and inspire individuals and group in a participatory program, will be important to successfully teaching the SMART program.
The GRIT Institute certified trainers teach SMART program in a variety of settings to adults, both as individuals and groups. Some of the common settings include corporate, schools, universities, hospitals, clinics, individual coaching, government entities, and others.
The initial certification is valid for two years. Individuals can renew their certification for two years by participating in a yearly retreat/course offered by The GRIT Institute, along with teaching the SMART program at least 10 times in the two years.
You can continue to teach the program based on your current training and credentials but would not be able to represent yourself as a Certified Resilience Trainer.
Since we have a wide variety of participants from different fields, we haven’t applied for the education credits. We typically provide the number of training hours along with the curriculum of the course and encourage individual participants to obtain credits from their respective organizations.
The following are some of the personal benefits previous participants and trainers have reported as a result of participating in the resilience programs:
- Improved personal resilience
- Decreased stress
- Improved wellbeing
- Lower anxiety
- Enhanced mindfulness
- Increased happiness
- Better health behaviors
- Improved relationships
- Greater clarity
- Improved physical health
- Weight loss
- Enhanced sense of self-worth
- Better focus
- Greater career success
- Deeper spirituality
Also, you will become part of a community of members who are committed to living a life guided by higher principles.
Please look at the description of the Transform course and Trainer Skills Intensive. We will provide you with more details after your registration.
The student can cancel their participation at any time.
The following is the reimbursement schedule on cancellation:
- Up to two-weeks prior to start of the course - 100% refund
- Within two-weeks prior to the start of the course - 50% refund
- After the start of the course - 25% refund
The GRIT Institute reserves the right to cancel student’s participation for disruptive behavior.
If The GRIT Institute cancels a student’s participation after the start of the TSI course, then 50% of the tuition will be refunded.
Upon receiving the Certified Resilience Trainer certificate, you will be able to license the SMART program.
No additional licensing fee will be charged for the first two years to the individuals. After the first two years, a $500/year licensing fee will be charged for maintaining the license. A small revenue share is part of the licensing for individuals teaching the program for profit.
If you are an employee of an organization, this license covers training up to one hundred employees. Please email us if you are an organization or a company, or wish to provide training within an organization, company, or any entity with more than one hundred employees, for details about an organizational license.
- Contribute toward improving the wellbeing of their community
- Live by the principles of gratitude, compassion, acceptance, meaning, and forgiveness
- Never misuse their position of power and respect
- Treat their students with courtesy, professionalism, and grace
- Follow the law of the land
Yes it is. A third of the Transform course participants take the course for their personal resilience and wellbeing and do not wish to progress to CeRT status.
The GRIT Institute’s purpose is to help create a stronger, kinder, and happier world. The initial activity of the GRIT Institute will be to support the training of individuals who wish to become certified resilience trainers. The GRIT Institute will expand its work and collaboration in the coming years depending on its resources and the felt societal needs.
We are a very lean operation and make every effort to bring you the highest quality solutions for the lowest cost.
We will never let the program costs limit participation. Please send us a note if you wish to receive a discount coupon
and the percentage of desired discount.
We are passionate about making wellbeing and resiliency accessible to everyone irrespective of their ability to pay and
will strive to honor every request we receive.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse varius enim in eros elementum tristique.
Duis cursus, mi quis viverra ornare, eros dolor interdum nulla, ut commodo diam libero vitae erat.
Aenean faucibus nibh et justo cursus id rutrum lorem imperdiet.
Nunc ut sem vitae risus tristique posuere.
Certified Resilience Trainer Program
Please complete and send to as@resilientoption.com and copy to
fuehrer.debbie@gmail.com.
