A Resiliency Curriculum?

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People have asked me for years, “Is resiliency a trait you are born with or can it be learned?” The answer is yes. The capacity for overcoming is “hard-wired” into the human make-up. Everyone overcomes a multitude of challenges, small and great, throughout their lives.

It is true, however, that it is easier for some people to overcome challenges, especially traumas and crises, than others. The analogy I like to use is one of riding a bike: Everyone can learn to ride a bike. Both my brothers jumped on a bike and took off instantaneously–so it seemed to me watching them at the time. In my case, I did learn to ride a bike, but it was a struggle that included several collisions with trees and bushes in our backyard…and it took me a lot longer to learn.

A “resiliency curriculum” should focus on growing the existing capacity for overcoming that is inherent in all, with a particular focus on how a person has already overcome challenges in his or her life. The strengths/resiliency builders a person has used to overcome should be named specifically so the person can begin to consciously own these aspects of himself or herself and apply this existing resiliency to current life challenges.

Then, the six environmental resiliency builders diagrammed in The Resiliency Wheel should be strengthened. A curriculum can support each person in building their personal Resiliency Wheel.

You can read more about this in the free article on this website, “Hard-Wired to Bounce Back” and in “The Resiliency Quiz” (also free). A diagram of The Resiliency Wheel is included there.

P.S. My newest book, The Resiliency Workbook, does exactly what I have suggested here. And I have just completed a “Leader’s Guide to Using The Resiliency Workbook” with more than 24 specific ideas about how to turn this book into a resiliency curriculum for any class or group. It is available free of charge to anyone who purchases The Resiliency Workbook at resiliency.com.

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What is Resiliency and Why is it So Important?

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Resiliency is the ability to overcome challenges of all kinds–trauma, tragedy, personal crises, plain ‘ole’ life problems–and bounce back stronger, wiser, and more personally powerful.

It’s important because this is what we need to do when faced with life’s inevitable difficulties. AND it’s important because there is a growing body of social science research that explains how: How can you bounce back, even from a lifetime of “risk factors” or very painful trauma or tragedy, and how can you help those you care about bounce back?

This is the most useful under-publicized research information everybody should know. There are steps you can take today and every day to make it more likely that you will bounce back from any problem or challenge “stronger, smarter & with more self-esteem…”and more likely your family and others you care about will bounce back, too.

My work and writing is dedicated to sharing these life-correcting, life-strengthening strategies.  My latest book, The Resiliency Workbook,  synthesizes my 20 years of studying resiliency into a useable-by-anyone format.  I am excited about this book because it makes the decades of social science research on how people can overcome accessible to everyone!

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“Resiliency-informed, trauma-informed” practice: Why they must go together.

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“Trauma-informed” has become the latest focus in counseling, education, and the providing of social services, and it is very important. It means:

  • An awareness of how behaviors and symptoms connect to traumatic experiences.
  • An emphasis on physical, psychological, and emotional safety for staff and clients.
  • An opportunity for people to regain a sense of control.
  • And a focus on strengths rather than deficits.

A first step in grasping the meaning of trauma-informed care is to recognize how common trauma is and to create a foundational understanding that any person you engage with may be coping with the after-effects of trauma.

It is crucial to also take the first step of realizing every person you encounter has demonstrated some level of resiliency in their lives, and it is their resiliency characteristics that will be a lifeline in healing from trauma.

Strategies for “resiliency-informed, trauma-informed” care include:

  • Establishing and prioritizing the physical and emotional safety.
  • Building trust by following through, regulating your emotions, and actively listening.
  • Offering choices and options when possible.
  • Recognizing the signs and symptoms of trauma exposure as it relates to physical, emotional, and psychological health.
  • Helping clients/students/family members see their strengths and how they can apply them to life challenges.
  • Ensuring collaboration by developing mutually agreed-upon goals with whomever you seek to help.
  • Providing care based on cultural humility with a recognition of cultural strengths (as well as historical trauma).
  • Use “The Resiliency Wheel,” “The Resiliency Quiz,” and the list of individual resiliency builders at www.resiliency.com to assist others in bouncing back from their adversity. (Read the free article: “Hard-Wired to Bounce Back.”

Buy The Resiliency Workbook: the perfect workbook for anyone wanting to know more about how to bounce back from life’s challenges.

“Where the Crawdads Sing” is Powerful Resiliency Instruction

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A Review of “Where the Crawdads Sing

The character Kya in the book and movie “Where the Crawdads Sing” is an embodiment of studies of resilient kids. Research from psychology, sociology, and psychiatry document the factors that contribute to resiliency — so wonderfully portrayed in this story. Abused and abandoned as a small child, Kya winds up in adulthood with wisdom, strength and life success. Her example is instructive for all of us dedicated to helping traumatized children and youth.

It is tempting to watch this powerful story, just released on Netflix, and think Kya is an exception. But according to the body of resiliency research, she is not. As resiliency pioneer researchers Drs. Steve and Sybil Wolin write in their excellent book, The Resilient Self: How Survivors of Troubled Families Rise Above Adversity, Kya demonstrates the finding that kids in traumatic circumstances do experience pain and have significant wounds, but in addition to “damage” many, if not most, also meet life’s adversities as “a challenge.” The Wolins admonish us to adopt the perspective of “the challenge model” which “recognizes each person’s capacity for self-repair.”

“Self-repair” could be considered a theme of this story. Completely abandoned, Kya sets about learning to survive on her own, and that surviving eventually turns to thriving. Just as resiliency research documents, she draws on her own inner qualities of perceptiveness (discerning how she can “make a living” even as a child), creativity (her art becomes her haven), perseverance, and love of learning. She also embraces the gift of her innate powerful connection to the natural world. And her environment also provides, often from unlikely sources, the most important environmental resiliency factor – caring and support. It comes from a husband and wife who run a local store, from a friend who later becomes a boyfriend, from a long-retired attorney who is moved to step up to help her, and eventually from publishers who see her amazing talent.

Too many helping professionals “steeped in the language of disease…and mastering an alphabet soup of symptoms and syndromes,” as the Wolins write in their book, would likely see Kya only as a compilation of so many abusive childhood experiences. Her story inspires all of us to follow dictates of resiliency research to meticulously look for evidence of strengths, gifts, and resiliency in the face of great adversity. Those qualities and gifts are lifelines to overcoming, and we must not only see them, but also water them, and do whatever else is needed to help them grow.

 

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Be an Effective Resiliency-Builder Now

Resiliency Research is Producing Quizes/Lists and Questionnaires to Help you be an Effective Resiliency-Builder Now

AS REPORTED LAST MONTH: “Resilience research is surging,” reports preeminent resiliency researcher Ann S. Masten in her recent comprehensive report: Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. She notes this surge is growing right along with the increase in concerns about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Masten (and her co-author Andrew J. Barnes) state:

“Resilience science suggests that human resilience is common, dynamic, [and] generated through myriad interactions of multiple systems.” [Read more…]

Adverse Childhood Experiences & How to Build Resiliency

How to Build Resiliency (Especially for those with High ACEs)

“Resilience research is surging,” reports preeminent resiliency researcher Ann S. Masten in her recent comprehensive report: Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. She notes this surge is growing right along with the increase in concerns about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Masten (and her co-author Andrew J. Barnes) state:

“Resilience science suggests that human resilience is common, dynamic, [and] generated through myriad interactions of multiple systems.” [Read more…]