Main description:

This edited volume recognizes that resilience, and the most effective means of harnessing it, differ across individuals, contexts and time. Presenting chapters written by a range of scholars and clinicians, the book highlights effective evidence-based approaches to nurturing resilience, before, during and after a traumatic experience or event.

By identifying distinct therapeutic tools which can be used effectively to meet the particular needs and limitations associated with different age groups, clients and types of experience, the volume addresses specific challenges and benefits of nurturing resilience and informs best practice as well as self-care. Approaches explored in the volume include the use of group activities to teach resilience to children, the role of sense-making for victims of sex trafficking, and the ways in which identity and spirituality can be used to help young and older adults in the face of pain and bereavement. Chapters also draw on the lived experiences of those who have engaged in a personal or guided journey towards finding new meaning and achieving posttraumatic growth following experiences of trauma.

The rich variety of approaches offered here will be of interest to clinicians, counsellors, scholars and researchers involved in the practice and study of building resilience, as well as trauma studies, psychology and mental health more broadly. The personal and practice-based real-life stories in this volume will also resonate with individuals, family and community members facing adversity.

Contents:

Helene's Story: What Does Resilience look like? A Personal Testimony on My Journey; 1. Introduction: Resilience - When, Where, Why and For Whom is it Relevant?; Part I: Developing Resilience Prior to Facing Mental Health Challenges and Adversity; 2. An Experiential Learning Tool for Teaching About the Promotion of Child Resilience to Mental Health Concerns: Moods Managed; 3. Social Media and Resilience; 4. Resilience in the Older Adult; 5. Identity and Resilience in Victims of Trafficking for Sexual Exploitation; Part II: Resilience and Identity During Adversities; 6. Resilience, Spirituality, and the Imaginary in the Context of Chronic Pain; 7. A Resilient Identity; Myth or Reality?; 8. Resilience as it Relates to the Young Adults with a Sudden Onset of Chronic Illness; 9. Acculturation Stress and Resilience Among Immigrant Families; Part III: Nurturing Resilience Following Traumatic Events; 10. Grieving and Resilience Factors for the Widow(er): Role Transition; 11. Relationships as Resilience and Posttraumatic Growth Factors for War-Time Survivors with Interpretations of Rape as Sexual Taboo: Healing Embrace; 12. The Narrative of Resilience through Social Media in the Black Community: #Overcome; 13. Conclusion: The Lessons We Learned on Resilience and Adversity