A critical aspect of trauma treatment is recognizing the inherent resilience within survivors of trauma and enhancing it. Fostering resilience within survivors helps to stabilize them, promotes adaptive responses to adversity, and provides them with the capacity to transition from surviving to thriving. Mindfulness is a foundation for resilience as it produces emotional regulation, buffers against getting overwhelmed by thoughts, emotions, and experiences, and changes one’s relationship and reaction to adversity. In order to enhance resilience within clients, the mental health care professional must foster it first within themselves, through building their own mindfulness practice. As the mental health care professional cultivates their own mindfulness practice, they become a mirror and a model for the client to begin exploring their own path towards resilience.
I will be delivering a talk at Roots Through Recovery on February 26th discussing these crucial components of trauma treatment. The presentation will distinguish the importance of building resources for the mental health care professional and for the client, illustrate the significance of cultivating inherent strengths as a critical element of trauma treatment, and identify mindfulness skills and Buddhist psychology principles related to the manifestation of resilience.
