Resilience pioneer Ann Masten (2015) suggests that natural resilience is nurtured through ‘ordinary magic’…it is not in the ‘extraordinary’ processes but in the development of the ‘ordinary’ and common protective systems available to us all.
Resilience is not inherited, but learned through life experiences and the development of our stress management systems – therefore, resilience can be learned or developed as a skill.
Resilience offers a perspective to understand a person’s individuality. It recognises that if a person may be struggling with challenges in one area of their life, their ability to overcome this may come from drawing on strengths in other aspects of their life, using their own emotional and social ‘tool box’.
The lens of resilience enables the focus to be on supporting a person to develop their own reservoir of skills, abilities and knowledge. Family Compass’s Time to Make Sense groups enable an in-depth platform to understanding and building upon a child’s social reservoir, through building social networks, acquiring new skills and accessing new experiences (Luther 2006).