Raising Our Resilience in Times of Risk

This chapter discusses the important concept of resilience and the hope we have for one another following a critical or traumatic life experience. It uses a relational frame to explore how people can strengthen their resilience and transform their experience through creative change cultivated through mutually supportive relationships. The chapter discusses some traditional modes of thought on emotional strength and what it means to be resilient. It distinguishes these concepts from perspectives that carry a nuanced relational context. The chapter looks at the lived experiences of people enduring serious conditions of stress, crises, trauma, and loss, and discusses the complexity of resilience. Through this discussion, it also considers those situations in which people are able to transform pain into purpose and consider the relational conditions that support this transformation.