As High Adversity Resilience Training (HART) continues to grow across sectors such as emergency services, mining, and defence, maintaining the quality and integrity of delivery becomes increasingly important. To support this, we’re pleased to announce Andrew Palacios as Driven’s first HART Master Trainer.
Andrew brings a depth of experience that strongly aligns with the environments HART is designed for. With 16 years in the Australian Army, including Infantry and Special Forces roles, followed by extensive work across high-adversity industries, he has trained more than 300 participants in HART and consistently delivers strong engagement and impact.
This announcement also comes at a meaningful time, following the release of the latest HART research, which highlights the program’s measurable impact on resilience, engagement, and wellbeing. As HART continues to expand, the Master Trainer role represents a step towards supporting instructors, strengthening delivery, and ensuring the program continues to have real-world relevance in the environments it serves.
We sat down with Andrew to share more about his background, his experience delivering HART, and his perspective on what it takes to build resilience in high-adversity settings.
We sat down with Andrew to share more about his background, his experience delivering HART, and his perspective on what it takes to build resilience in high-adversity settings.
Q&A With Andrew Palacios
Q. To get started, tell us about your background and the path that led you into this work.
A large part of my working life has been in high-adversity environments. I spent 16 years in the Australian Army, including time in Infantry and Special Forces. During that time, I worked as a team leader, instructor, and operator across a range of roles in high-pressure, complex environments.
Following my transition out of the military, I faced some personal challenges and had to rebuild. During that period, I was introduced to psychoeducational approaches, including programs like HART, which played a key role in helping me regain structure, purpose, and direction.
That experience shaped the path I’m on now. I moved into the psychoeducational space with a focus on delivering practical mental health and resilience training. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to train hundreds of participants across a range of industries, particularly within emergency services and the mining sector.
What drives me is not just building awareness, but equipping people with practical, usable skills and tools they can apply in the environments they operate in every day, especially when it matters most.
Q. What drew you to HART specifically?
The HART skill sets resonated strongly with me. I had already been using elements of these skills in my own experience, but I didn’t have a clear framework or language around them. HART gave structure, clarity and it put names to what I had been doing, while also introducing new skills that expanded my understanding.
What stood out was that it’s practical, structured, and built for real-world application. The Predictive 6-Factor Resilience Model provided a framework that made sense operationally. It aligned with what I had seen work in high-performance environments; having simple, repeatable tools that help you stay clear-headed, make effective decisions, and support the people around you when things aren’t going to plan.
Alongside this, the 13 skill sets within the program, and how they address the three main challenges (operational, organisational, and relational) strongly resonated with my own experience, particularly from my time in the Army. It reflects the reality of working in high-adversity environments, where performance isn’t just about the task at hand, but also how you operate within systems and alongside others.
From that point, I knew this was something I wanted to be involved in and deliver to others working in similar environments.
Q. What have you noticed from delivering HART to so many participants?
The biggest thing I’ve noticed is how strongly most people connect with the content, particularly when it’s delivered through lived experience. A common comment I hear is that they wish they had access to this training earlier in their careers, especially those in first responder and high-adversity roles.
People don’t just want theory; they want something they can actually use. When they can see how the skills apply directly to their work and home environments, engagement increases significantly.
For many, there’s also a clear shift in how they view stress, mental health, and resilience. It moves away from stigma and becomes more about performance, awareness, and supporting the people around them.
At the same time, not everyone connects with it straight away. Like any training, some participants take longer to engage, often depending on their mindset or where they’re at in their own experience. However, even in those cases, the practical nature of the training tends to create moments of reflection over time.
Q. What seems to make the biggest difference for people in the training?
Two things stand out. The first is awareness: understanding how stress is affecting them in real time. Once people can recognise what’s happening, they’re in a much better position to manage it.
The second is the practical skills within the course. Skills such as Brain Balanced Breathing, High Adversity Reappraisal, and Sustainable Compartmentalisation may sound simple, but when applied consistently, they make a real difference. One skill that consistently stands out is 3 Good Things within the Tenacity domain. When participants focus on gratitude through this practice, it often has a powerful and lasting impact.
It’s not about one big change – it’s about small, repeatable actions that build over time.
Q. What does becoming the first HART Master Trainer mean to you?
It’s a privilege to be the first HART Master Trainer, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to have trained so many people through the program.
HART is growing, particularly across sectors like mining and emergency services, and maintaining the integrity of the program as it scales is critical. For me, becoming a Master Trainer is about supporting that – ensuring instructors are confident, capable, and delivering the program in a way that stays true to its intent.
It’s also about contributing to something bigger than individual course delivery. It’s about building capability across the industry and creating a sustainable pathway for others to step into these roles.
Importantly, I’d like to see more people from a range of lived experiences, especially those from high-adversity environments, step into HART Instructor and Master Trainer roles. That diversity strengthens the program and increases relatability, ensuring the training continues to resonate across different sectors and audiences.
Q. What do you think makes someone a strong HART Instructor?
I think there’s a common perception in the resilience space that instructors should have everything together and not struggle or face challenges. But that’s just not how life works.
A strong HART Instructor isn’t just knowledgeable in the content they deliver; they actively apply the skills in their own lives. They’re not perfect, and they don’t need to be. What matters is their ability to reflect, adapt, and continue using the tools, especially during challenging times.
You won’t always get it right, and that’s part of the process. It’s not about always winning; it’s about how you respond, how you push through, and how you show up when things aren’t going to plan.
That authenticity is what builds credibility and connection. When instructors genuinely strive to lead by example and bring real experience into the room, even when they don’t always get it right, it makes the training more relatable, practical, and impactful for the people they’re working with.
Q. How would you like to support other HART Instructors going forward?
The focus is on building confidence and consistency. This is why we are nearing completion of the first in-person HART Instructor course in Australia, creating a structured pathway for instructors to develop their capability in a practical, applied environment. It also means:
- Supporting instructors through clear development pathways
- Providing guidance on delivery and facilitation
- Helping them understand not just what to deliver, but why it matters
A big part of this is being able to share my own lived experience from delivering HART; what has worked well, what hasn’t, and where there are opportunities to improve. This includes exploring ways to enhance the training experience through practical activities that reinforce learning and make it more engaging and applicable.
Q. What do you hope HART can continue to achieve in high adversity sectors?
I hope to see HART integrated into how organisations operate, alongside their core training and hard skills; not just as something that’s delivered once.
That includes expanding into more high-adversity organisations such as the military, hospitals, and emergency services, where these skills are not just valuable, but essential.
If we can:
- Improve how people manage stress
- Strengthen team support and communication
- Build awareness of psychosocial risks
Then you start to see change not just at an individual level, but across teams and organisations.
Ultimately, it’s about helping people perform better, stay safer, and look after each other in environments where that really matters.
Q. Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for the invitation to share a bit about this work and my experience as a HART Master Trainer.
One of the biggest things I’ve taken from this work is that resilience isn’t just about physical strength, it’s about being able to keep going when things aren’t going to plan.
If people can walk away with a few skill sets that help create a paradigm shift, then that’s a win.
That’s where this training delivers meaningful impact, both professionally and personally.
Andrew’s perspective reflects a consistent theme seen across HART delivery – that resilience is not built through theory alone, but through practical, repeatable skills applied in real-world environments.
As the first HART Master Trainer, Andrew will also play a role in supporting the broader instructor community. This includes contributing to instructor development, sharing practical insights from the field, and helping build confidence and consistency in how HART is delivered across different sectors.
With increasing demand for resilience capability in high-adversity environments, the focus is on ensuring that individuals and teams are equipped with skills that help them perform effectively, build personal sustainability, and support those around them when it matters most.
If you’d like to learn more about HART, explore the latest research, or connect with Andrew regarding training and delivery, you can find more information below.
