The concept of resilience is as old as time, and has to do with the ability of a material, person or ecosystem to return to its initial state (from the Latin “resilio” – “to return”).

John Bowlby was the first to speak of resilience in the eighties, although it was Boris Cyrulnik who popularized the term in his book The Ugly Ducks: Resilience. An unhappy childhood does not determine life .

In nature, resilience would be the ability of an ecosystem to recover and return to its previous balance after a disaster. In serious physics it would be the ability of an object to recover its initial shape despite the blows it may receive and despite the efforts that may be made to deform it.

In psychology, resilience is the capacity as human beings to adapt positively to adverse situations . To put it vulgarly, it would be the closest thing to “fortitude”, overcoming something adverse and coming out stronger.

Neuroscience understands that resilient people would have greater emotional balance in the face of stressful situations, with a greater ability to withstand pressure. This provides a greater sense of control in the face of any contingency and a greater ability to face challenges.

Resilience in psychological therapy

Obviously, we will have to accept the idea that people who come to therapy are either not resilient or are not aware that they are . Therefore, we will often find ourselves with the opposite case of resilience, with “asylums”.

Recently, some authors contrast the “nomic resilience” or potential capacity of the individual to face adversity, with “assiduous anomie”, or the belief of being incompetent in the face of adversity without being so

How can we make use of this innate capacity of our brain in therapy? The first thing that always comes to mind is the figure of the “resilience tutor”, a concept coined by Cyrulnik in 2005 and which would include “those people, instances, groups, a place, an event, a work of art that causes a rebirth of psychological development after trauma, which for the injured person are the starting point for trying to resume or initiate another type of development; whoever suffers from suffering has the possibility of finding, in his emotional and social context, tutors of resilience with whom he can manage to feel loved unconditionally, grow and overcome”.

Can the therapist embody this figure in his clinical practice? Obviously, it will depend to a great extent on his or her life experience. In my opinion, in most cases, the mere fact of having chosen therapeutic help as a way of life, makes us already somewhat resilient or at least puts us on the path of developing this mechanism in ourselves. That is why, in my modest opinion, every therapist should do a thorough job on himself.

Personally, I always frame my therapeutic approach in the following phrase from my personal harvest: “the key to living lies in ‘giving meaning to your life’, and this includes giving meaning to ‘suffering’ which is also part of your life”. Always understanding that the understanding and development of the sense of resilience is key in any process of psychological healing .

Techniques that help overcome adversity

In Vitaliza we have considered from the beginning whether, in addition and beyond the classic cognitive-behavioral approaches or any other form of psychoeducation, there is the possibility of reinforcing at a neurobiological level the capacity of our brain to respond to adversity .

And the answer is, in our opinion, yes. And specifically, we talk about emotional regulation through neuromodulation and the development of Full Attention .

Biofeedback and Neurofeedback

Neuromodulation by means of bio and neurofeedback optimizes the response of our Autonomous and Central Nervous System when responding to the environment.

Biofeedback makes us aware of our autonomous response to stress (breathing, cardiac coherence, temperature, etc.) and allows us to regulate these constants in a functional and adaptive way. And Neurofeedback, a technique that regulates our brain’s electrical activity through a second-degree operating conditioning system, makes our alert response and our capacity to integrate stressful and anxious states optimized and reinforced.

Both aspects, the capacity to regulate our autonomous responses and the optimization and reinforcement of our response to the environment at the neurobiological level are basic elements, functionally speaking, of our capacity for resilience.

Mindfulness

Another tool especially useful in this context is Mindfulness. Indeed, many field studies have shown, in line with the contributions of Siegel and Shore, that the practice of Mindfulness stimulates and develops the capacity of our brain to functionally integrate secondary amygdalian triggers to stressful or traumatic events .

The capacity of our brain to digest the anguish produced by any painful, frightening or traumatic event is amplified, allowing a more balanced and functional response to them . Speaking in terms of the EMDR culture, we could say that the “window of tolerance” in the face of anguish, fear and stress is widened, with the consequent benefit in terms of emotional balance, a basic aspect as we said before if we talk about resilience.

Conclusion

To summarize, in Vitaliza the concept of resilience and the figure of the “resilient guardian” are key in our clinical intervention, especially with adults. This therapeutic approach is always accompanied by emotional regulation techniques, reflected more specifically in Neuromodulation (Biofeedback and Neurofeedback) and Midfulness or Full Attention.

Author: Javier Elcarte, neuropsychologist, expert in trauma, founder and director of Vitaliza.