> Deb Gould is a STARTTS Clinical Psychologist and clinical supervisor.

A child walks along a beam, balancing delicately. On the way he falls (or is he pushed?). Does he:

• Walk away and never walk on it again
• Climb back up
• Get caught by his mates
• Ask the playground staff to help him back up
• Break his arm and climb back on the next
   day, arm in plaster
• Stay on the floor unable to get up?

Many factors interact to produce the outcome. These would include:

• the event - falling onto hard ground;
• the context -playground mates, his community;
• his family - parental attunement to his needs and
• his own qualities - biology, constitution.

These are the areas offering protection against damage and thus contributing to resilience. Thus, there probably isn’t a 'resilient child'. The child who never approaches the beam again might be able to go back into the pool after nearly drowning; vulnerability is associated with context, and the meaning of this context for the child. Resilience too is associated with context. Another example - the child whose early attachments were secure might be more resilient to later loss.

But how do we spot resilience? It is not just the child who appears to be doing ok or who says they are doing OK. It is also not just the child who has no symptoms. The fact that there is no solid, agreed upon definition for the concept (even though we all know what we mean) means that we won't always know.

There are many definitions of resilience; most relate to hardiness, flexibility and survival. If resilience relates to survival, the student who fights before talking through problems would be resilient - in the context of a violent neighbourhood, this might have served him well. However, a violent response to perceived threat in playgrounds outside of that context would be a sign of lack of resilience.

While it is interesting to think about definitions, I believe it is more useful to listen to children’s  own narratives detailing how and why they coped..." I was patient, I knew that tomorrow would come the bus to take us away from there".  It is on these narratives that we can base our work with traumatised young people.  They also provide clues for developing practices in the school environment that support and promote resilience.

More on this next month.

> Deb Gould
Deb is a Clinical Psychologist and clinical supervisor at STARTTS. She was trained in South Africa and has over 20 years experience as a clinician and supervisor in the psychotherapy field.

© 2009 STARTTS  Contact: hintsforhealing@startts.org.au