While aging often brings physical and emotional vulnerabilities, emerging evidence highlights the potential for stress to act as a catalyst for resilience rather than decline. This presentation introduces the STRIVE Model (Stress Transformation and Resilience through Intentional Values-based Empowerment), an integrative framework designed specifically for older adults. Merging principles from cognitive-behavioral therapy, narrative psychology, positive psychology, and neuroplasticity research, STRIVE reframes stress as a biopsychosocial signal, not a threat. Core components include Triadic Adaptation (body-mind-spirit alignment through biofeedback, cognitive reframing, and values clarification), Resilience Narratives (re-authoring life stories to highlight adaptive strength), Intergenerational Scaffolding (mutual mentorship across generations), Volitional Flexibility (training cognitive pivoting), and Empowerment Through Legacy (channeling stress into meaningful, lasting contributions). The model leverages both high-tech tools, such as wearable biofeedback devices and gamified apps, and low-tech, community-based approaches to ensure accessibility. Grounded in cutting-edge theories such as polyvagal theory, socioemotional selectivity theory, and post-traumatic growth, STRIVE offers a holistic pathway to transform stress into a force for conscious evolution in later life. Participants will gain insights into practical applications of the model in both clinical and community settings, and will be invited to rethink aging not as a narrative of decline, but as a chapter of creative empowerment.

Authors:
Alisa Byteva, Higher School of Economics, Russia

About the Presenter(s)
Alisa Byteva is a business psychologist, cognitive-behavioral therapist, certified professional coach (ICF), student of the Master's Program in Psychoanalysis for Business at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia).

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