CSEA2026 Resources

Stress & Anxiety?

Deepening Resilience for University Leaders & Career Coaches

A Coach-Approach to Future-Proof Teams & Students

RED ZONE: Your Brain Under Stress

Cognitive & Structural Impact

• Working Memory Reduction — 20% reduction under stress. Arnsten, A.F.T. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.
• IQ Bandwidth Tax — 13-point drop under stress. Mani, A., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., & Zhao, J. (2013). Poverty impedes cognitive function. Science, 341(6149), 976–980.
• Hippocampal Volume & Memory — Sustained stress over time linked to 14% smaller hippocampal volume and measurable memory deficits. Lupien, S.J., de Leon, M., de Santi, S., Convit, A., Tarshish, C., Nair, N.P., Thakur, M., McEwen, B.S., Hauger, R.L., & Meaney, M.J. (1998). Cortisol levels during human aging predict hippocampal atrophy and memory deficits. Nature Neuroscience, 1(1), 69–73.
• Neural Circuit Disconnection — High-level circuits responsible for judgment, creativity, and empathy physically disconnect under stress. Arnsten, A.F.T. (1998). The biology of being frazzled. Science, 280(5370), 1711–1712.
• Uncertainty Worse Than Pain — Physiological stress responses higher with 50% chance of shock than 100% certainty. de Berker, A.O., Rutledge, R.B., Mathys, C., Marshall, L., Cross, G.F., Dolan, R.J., & Bestmann, S. (2016). Computations of uncertainty mediate acute stress responses in humans. Nature Communications, 7, 10996.

Relational Impact

• Empathy Erosion — Stress reduces activation in brain regions associated with empathy and perspective-taking. Singer, T., & Klimecki, O.M. (2014). Empathy and compassion. Current Biology, 24(18), R875–R878.
• Hostile Attribution Bias — Stress significantly increases tendency to interpret ambiguous communications as hostile. Nasby, W., Hayden, B., & DePaulo, B.M. (1980). Attributional bias among aggressive boys to interpret unambiguous social stimuli as displays of hostility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89(3), 459–468. See also: Dodge, K.A. (1980). Social cognition and children’s aggressive behavior. Child Development, 51(1), 162–170.

BLUE ZONE: Your Brain Supported

Cognitive Impact

• Clinical Problem-Solving — Physicians in a positive state make faster, more accurate diagnoses and are less anchored to initial assumptions. Isen, A.M., Rosenzweig, A.S., & Young, M.J. (1991). The influence of positive affect on clinical problem solving. Medical Decision Making, 11(3), 221–227.

• Creativity — 4x increase after positive emotional induction; 75% solved the Duncker Candle Task vs. 20% in neutral state. Isen, A.M., Daubman, K.A., & Nowicki, G.P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52(6), 1122–1131.

Physiological Impact

Cardiovascular Recovery — Positive emotions produce 2x faster heart rate and blood pressure recovery from stress. Fredrickson, B.L., Mancuso, R.A., Branigan, C., & Tugade, M.M. (2000). The undoing effect of positive emotions. Motivation and Emotion, 24(4), 237–258.

Relational Impact

Hand-Holding & Threat Response — Social connection reduces brain threat-center activity. Coan, J.A., Schaefer, H.S., & Davidson, R.J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–1039.

CONNECTION

Neural Synchrony

• Speaker-Listener Neural Coupling — Brain synchrony underlies successful communication Stephens. G.J., Silbert, L.J., & Hasson, U. (2010). Speaker-listener neural coupling underlies successful communication. PNAS, 107(32), 14425–14430.
• Leader-Follower Neural Synchrony — Leaders who mirrored followers neurally were rated significantly more transformational and effective. Jiang, J., et al. (2015). Leader emergence through interpersonal neural synchronization. PNAS, 112(14), 4274–4279.
• Brain-to-Brain Synchrony — Cooperative pairs solve problems up to 30% faster; group brain states predict learning outcomes better than individual brain states. Czeszumski, A., et al. (2020). Hyperscanning: A valid method to study neural inter-brain underpinnings of social interaction. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 14, 39.
• Mirror Neurons — Original discovery of the neural infrastructure underlying emotional contagion and co-regulation. di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Experimental Brain Research, 91(1), 176–180.

Presenter Research

Permeability & Parallelism in Coaching — Psychodynamic study of experienced coaches triggered into the Red Zone mid-session; findings on projective identificationt and containment in coach-client relationships. Britton, S. (2025). From Distress to Development: The Transformative Power of Containment in Coaching. Executive Master in Change, INSEAD.