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Why I Promote the Science of Hope over Resilience

 

When I first began studying childhood trauma, particularly its connection with leadership, I would search numerous news articles for certain keywords. One of those words was "resilience."

At the time, between 2018 and 2019, almost every article on resilience dealt with climate change. In other words, how the earth was resilient and was capable of recovering from damage if humans changed their ways - today.

And then COVID hit. Within a short few months, climate change resiliency was replaced by the need for humans themselves to be resilient.

Everyone spoke about "bouncing back" through the process of being mindful or compassionate; taking up journaling or a hobby; or thinking positively or setting goals.

I will readily admit I'm no expert on resilience. Perhaps some or all of these suggestions are helpful in some manner. However, I could never seem to get my head wrapped around these ideas completely because how people defined resiliency seemed to be all over the map.

So I did what I regularly do: I started reading scientific articles on the subject.

The first thing I learned was that "resilience has been described as a trait, a process, an outcome, or an all-encompassing combination of all three."

In fact, resilience has been described by some as "an empty word that can be filled with almost any meaning" (Munoz, R. T., Hanks, H., & Hellman, C. M., "Hope and resilience as distinct contributors to psychological flourishing among childhood trauma survivors," Traumatology, 26(2), 177–184, 2020.)

Well, that's not good. How do you measure someone's resilience? Can you really teach resilience if we can't agree on what it really is? Do we teach a variety of techniques and just pray that someone becomes resilient?

To finish reading the complete article, click here.

If you'd like to know more about my primary topic, "(Re)Building Trust: A Trauma-informed Approach to Leadership," please visit my website at mrchrisfreeze.com.

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Not sure if this will post as a comment or not - but I actually looked up
the definition of resilience at one point - and the example they used was
of palm trees - that stay rooted, and have the "strength" and "flexibility"
to move with the winds... vs the deciduous trees that are "strong" and not
flexible - and that break in a strong wing or are just totally uprooted...

not sure if that helps in this context - but it gave me a good picture of
the difference between being resilient and being "strong."

just a thought...
Lois Hall

On Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 10:35 AM ACEsConnection <
communitymanager@acesconnection.com> wrote:

Thank you for pointing this out, Christopher. I am currently training in trauma and resilience. I have always felt cringy toward the word resilience as it suggests that a child is somehow "bouncing back" from a previous point where they were balanced. But, the truth is that a lot of kids with toxic stress have never experienced this point of equilibrium. Except, in a metaphysical sense, perhaps.

Children who have experienced trauma are naturally strong or "resilient" and vulnerability is not something that the tend to gravitate towards. I think at some point there may be a point where this term of resilience may be replaced with something new, as new research and studies continue to investigate it.

Thank you, Mary, for sharing your thoughts. I still use the word resilience, but I'm finding that it does have a different meaning for me now. If we can tie with hope that would be great! In the meantime, finding the best way to help children with trauma is the mission. I appreciate your service in this area!

Thank you for pointing this out, Christopher. I am currently training in trauma and resilience. I have always felt cringy toward the word resilience as it suggests that a child is somehow "bouncing back" from a previous point where they were balanced. But, the truth is that a lot of kids with toxic stress have never experienced this point of equilibrium. Except, in a metaphysical sense, perhaps.

Children who have experienced trauma are naturally strong or "resilient" and vulnerability is not something that the tend to gravitate towards. I think at some point there may be a point where this term of resilience may be replaced with something new, as new research and studies continue to investigate it.

@Lois Hall posted:

thanks for this - helps one think...    I work for the  Grief Recovery Institute - and would suggest you check out our programs at www.griefrecoverymethod.com.  When I teach the training program I always tell the participants that while they came to us to learn about grief and loss - and how to help people recover from their losses - in fact they are going out as HOPE bringers!

Grief - loss - change - robs us of our hope...  times seem "hopeless" and we become overwhelmed and believe there is "no hope."  The GRM programs have been around for over 40 years, all around the world, and the Helping Children with Loss program - for adults to help the children/youth in their care - for 20 years.

It's why I'm so passionate about these programs - they bring back hope - and teach skills that can be used throughout our lives... to prevent even losing hope to the point we might have before we knew these tools.

You might also check out The Grief Recovery Method Comunity - on the community tab on the website....where you'll meet and hear the stories of people who have had their hope restored.

There are over  6500 trained  Grief Recovery Method Specialists in the US alone - ready to provide these programs in their local communities.  And the 8 week GRM has been shown to be evidence based in a study conducted by the Kent State University  College of Public Health.

HOPE - the real key to our survival!  Through Covid - and beyond.

thanks for this article!

Lois Hall, MS

Thank you @Lois Hall. I will definitely check out the resources you mentioned. Thank you for your work in this area!

thanks for this - helps one think...    I work for the  Grief Recovery Institute - and would suggest you check out our programs at www.griefrecoverymethod.com.  When I teach the training program I always tell the participants that while they came to us to learn about grief and loss - and how to help people recover from their losses - in fact they are going out as HOPE bringers! 

Grief - loss - change - robs us of our hope...  times seem "hopeless" and we become overwhelmed and believe there is "no hope."  The GRM programs have been around for over 40 years, all around the world, and the Helping Children with Loss program - for adults to help the children/youth in their care - for 20 years. 

It's why I'm so passionate about these programs - they bring back hope - and teach skills that can be used throughout our lives... to prevent even losing hope to the point we might have before we knew these tools. 

You might also check out The Grief Recovery Method Comunity - on the community tab on the website....where you'll meet and hear the stories of people who have had their hope restored. 

There are over  6500 trained  Grief Recovery Method Specialists in the US alone - ready to provide these programs in their local communities.  And the 8 week GRM has been shown to be evidence based in a study conducted by the Kent State University  College of Public Health.

HOPE - the real key to our survival!  Through Covid - and beyond.

thanks for this article!

Lois Hall, MS

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