Are we sometimes too strong for our own good?Amid epidemics of anxiety and depression,threats of ecological and economic disaster, not to mention a pandemic, resilience has been the buzzword of the decade, the answer to every challenge we face as individuals, organizations, and communities. We seldom stop to ask if our insistence on persevering is really in our long-term interest. Does it trap us in patterns of behavior that no longer make sense, foreclose too soon...

How much do grit and positive thinking matter when the world around you is starved of support and opportunity?Finally, a book that explains why self-help gurus and motivational speakers mostly fail to deliver, and what really produces results."Michael Ungar's Change Your World shows that recovery, functioning and positive change in the face of adversity is not a lonely path trod by individuals; here lies the personal and social transformative power of resilience."-...

Processes of post-war reconstruction, peacebuilding and reconciliation are partly about fostering stability and adaptive capacity across different social systems. Nevertheless, these processes have seldom been expressly discussed within a resilience framework. Similarly, although the goals of transitional justice – among them (re)establishing the rule of law, delivering justice and aiding reconciliation – implicitly encompass a resilience element, transitional justice has not been explicit...

Therapist Michael Ungar uses the struggles of three families and his own history to help the parents of difficult children.Family therapist Michael Ungar, internationally renowned for his work on child and youth resilience, takes us into his world each Wednesday, when he meets with three families with very troubled children. Here, Michael shares a side of himself that is not the all-knowing therapist: he too was a troubled teen, growing up in an emotionally and phy...

"An eye-opening and heart-opening book."-Bonnie Benard, Senior Program Associate, WestEdIdentify and promote overlooked strengths to cultivate resilience.Now more than ever, counselors, teachers, community youth workers, and parents are striving to prevent individual and school-wide tragedy before it happens. Critical to the success of their efforts is a deep respect for the adolescent experience. In this book, author and social wor...

Multisystemic Resilience brings together for the first time in one volume a wide range of resilience scholars who have been wrestling with how to explain processes of recovery, adaptation, and transformation in contexts of change and adversity. With contributions from psychologists, epigeneticists, ecologists, architects, disaster specialists, engineers, sociologists, social workers, and public health researchers among others, this innovative volume creates a platform for an inter...

This new edition of Working with Children and Youth with Complex Needs provides detailed descriptions of techniques, ample case studies, fascinating and easy to understand explanations of research, and rich stories of how social workers, psychologists, counselors, child and youth care workers, and other mental health professionals can help young people become more resilient.Fully updated and including new discussions of trauma, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), resilie...

More than two decades after Michael Rutter (1987) published his summary of protective processes associated with resilience, researchers continue to report definitional ambiguity in how to define and operationalize positive development under adversity. The problem has been partially the result of a dominant view of resilience as something individuals have, rather than as a process that families, schools,communities and governments facilitate. Because resilience is related to the presence of...

Joey is not your typical social worker. He burns down houses to solve bureaucratic deadlocks, steals to get his clients bigger welfare cheques, and lies if it will help prevent his supervisor from intruding in the lives of his young clients.Joey knows all too well what if feels like to be a client. In and out of foster homes, his father dead, his mother an abusive emotional wreck, Joey puts his talents as a juvenile delinquent to good use, even when he's locked up in a secure deten...

Until researchers and theorists account for the complex relationship between resilience and culture, explanations of why some individuals prevail in the face of adversity will remain incomplete. This edited volume addresses this crucial issue by bringing together emerging discussions of the ways in which culture shapes resilience, the theory that informs these various studies, and important considerations for researchers as they continue to investigate resilience. Using research from major...

Wouldn't it be nice if your child committed herself to doing a simple act of kindness every day? As today's culture seems to grow more self-centered and obsessed with me,” Dr. Michael Ungar refreshingly points the way to raising we” thinkers. Perhaps most inspiring about Ungar's findings: today's kids are eager to help out and be noticed. What they need, though, is compassion, encouragement, and attentiveness to their most important connections-those made at home. By recounting ...

Engaging and timely, this book is an invaluable resource for parentsThough today's youth culture may seem totally self-centred, kids still want close relationships with the significant adults in their lives. Like generations before them, they also want to be noticed for the contributions they can make. What they need, though, is compassion and encouragement from their parents.Combining inspiring stories from his professional experience with expert research from around the w...