Recently I got thinking about the concept of resilience, as it occurred to me that resilience is a term that I use a lot - that we all use a lot – but that I didn’t actually know a lot about. In my mind, resilience was about ‘bouncing back’ when faced with adversity but I had a hunch that there was much more to learn about resilience, and I was right.
In my research I came across Jurie Rossouw and the team at Hello Driven, who have conducted interesting research into resilience. On the basis of prior research, psychological models of resilience and neurobiological principles, Rossouw and researchers developed a meta model of resilience that incorporates 6 psychological and health domains that they believe contribute to a person’s level of resilience. Follow-up research (conducted by the same authors) suggests that their model is reliable. Like all theory, it will be good to see the research into this model continue and for it to continue to be tested in different ways, but in the interim it’s a good model of resilience to be considering and I want to share it with you today. The reference to their original research paper is below.
As written by the Rossouw and his team, there are six domains of resilience. The six domains are: Vision; Composure; Reasoning; Tenacity; Collaboration; and Health. Let’s explore each of them individually.
Vision is an interesting concept that truthfully, I hadn’t considered to be a part of resilience until now. This domain is reportedly all about your capacity to have a vision for yourself, a sense of meaning and purpose for your life and a clear vision of what you want to achieve and why. Vision is proposed to be a part of resilience because it helps you to feel driven, it helps you to make hard decisions and will serve as a guide during tough times, because it helps you to know what the struggle is for and why it’s important to keep on going. That makes a lot of sense to me.
Composure is the second domain, and this is the domain that is very similar to what I had conceptualised resilience to be. Composure is all about your capacity to regulate emotions and to stay calm in moments of pressure, your ability to manage stress and discern what’s worth getting worked up about and what’s not worth your time and precious energy. Composure is also about having realistic expectations, an acceptance that adversity is a part of life and the belief that you can manage it when it does.
The third domain is Reasoning, which is a domain all about how you think. Within this domain, high levels of resilience is reported to be correlated with good problem solving and planning abilities, resourcefulness and the ability to be proactive, cognitive flexibility and lateral thinking. These skills are proposed to contribute to higher levels of resilience because you can anticipate problems and build a strategy to handle them, you can think creatively about a problem so that you don’t get stuck and you can be open to new ideas that help you continue pursuing your goals.
Tenacity comes next, which is also what I thought of when I thought about resilience. Tenacity is about persistence and not giving up, recognising that solving problems or achieving your goals can take time, having a growth mindset and being patient with skill building, knowing that mistakes lead to growth and that realistic optimism is helpful. All of these skills help with motivation, the capacity to persistently work towards your goals and to recover after a challenge.
After Tenacity is Collaboration. This one surprised me. Rossouw and his team wrote that resilience is not about always coping on your own. They believe that instead, it is about knowing that a support network is a strength, and we cope better when we are connected. They suggest that people who are connected with a support network, perceive themselves as connected, are able to ask for help and are able to have healthy boundaries in relationships are correlated are more likely to have higher resilience scores.
The final domain is Health, which the authors propose is an important foundation for resilience. The authors propose that resilience is fostered best in a person who can implement good self-care strategies, use healthy boundaries, prioritise sleep when needed and engage in movement and exercise.
I think what appealed to me about this model is not only that it makes sense conceptually, but that it gives us a framework for development and growth. You can easily work through each of the six domains and consider your areas of strength and relative difficulties and what you might need to target to build your resilience.
I have found this 6-domain model of resilience really interesting to think about, and I will continue to consider what it means for the clients that I work with and how to put these concepts into action. For more information you can seek out the research papers in the International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy (reference below) or visit home.hellodriven.com.
If you would like support to think about and build your resilience, visit our website www.melbournewellbeinggroup.com.au or call our administration team on 9882 8874. We’d love to hear from you.
Rossouw, J.G., Rossouw, P.J., Paynter, C., Ward, A., Khnana, P. (2017). Predictive 6 Factor Resilience Scale – Domains of Resilience and Their Role as Enablers of Job Satisfaction. International Journal of Neuropsychotherapy, 2(1), 25-40. doi: 10.12744/ijnpt.2017.1.0025-0040