The concept of resilience is as old as time, and has to do with the ability of a material, person or ecosystem to return to its initial state (from the Latin “resilio” – “to return”).
John Bowlby was the first to talk about resilience in the 1980s, although it was Boris Cyrulnik who popularized the term in his book The ugly ducklings: resilience. An unhappy childhood does not determine life.
In nature, resilience would be the ability of an ecosystem to recover and return to its previous equilibrium after a catastrophe. In serious physics it would be the ability of an object to recover its initial shape despite the blows it may receive and despite the efforts that may be made to deform it.
In psychology, resilience is the ability as human beings to adapt positively to adverse situations In vulgar terms, it would be the closest thing to “fortitude”, overcoming something adverse and coming out stronger.
From neuroscience it is understood that resilient people would have greater emotional balance in stressful situations, with a greater ability to withstand pressure. This provides a greater sense of control in the face of any contingency and a greater ability to face challenges.
Obviously, we will have to accept the idea that People who go to therapy are either not resilient or are not aware that they are resilient Therefore, we will often encounter the opposite case to resilience, with “asile” people.
Recently, some authors contrast “nomic resilience” o potential capacity of the individual to face adversity, compared to “asile anomie”, or belief of being incompetent in the face of adversity without being so
How can we make use of this innate capacity of our brain in therapy? The first thing that always comes to mind is the figure of the “resilience tutor”, a concept coined by Cyrulnik in 2005 and which would include “those people, instances, groups, a place, event, a work of art that provokes a rebirth.” of the psychological development after the trauma, which for the injured person is the starting point to try to resume or initiate another type of development; “Whoever suffers from suffering has the possibility of finding, in their emotional and social context, resilience tutors with whom they can feel loved unconditionally, grow and overcome.”
Can the therapist embody this figure in his clinical practice? Obviously, it will depend largely on your life experience. In my opinion, in most cases, the mere fact of having chosen therapeutic help as a way of life already makes us somewhat resilient or at least puts us on the path to developing this mechanism in ourselves. That is why, in my modest opinion, every therapist should do deep work on themselves.
Personally, I always frame my therapeutic approach in the following phrase from my personal harvest: “the key to living lies in ‘giving meaning to your life’, and this includes giving meaning to the ‘suffering’ that is also part of your life.” Always understanding that Understanding and developing a sense of resilience is key to any psychological healing process
At Vitaliza we have considered from the beginning whether, in addition to and beyond the classic cognitive-behavioral approaches or any other form of psychoeducation, there is the possibility of reinforce at a neurobiological level the capacity of our brain when it comes to responding to adversity
And the answer is, in our opinion, yes. And specifically, we talk about emotional regulation through neuromodulation and the development of Mindfulness
Biofeedback and Neurofeedback
Neuromodulation through bio and neurofeedback optimizes the response of our Autonomous and Central Nervous System when responding to the environment.
Biofeedback makes us aware of our autonomous response to stress (respiration, cardiac coherence, temperature, etc.) and allows us to regulate these constants in a functional and adaptive way. And Neurofeedback, a technique that regulates our brain electrical activity through a second-degree operant conditioning system, optimizes and reinforces our alert response and our ability to integrate stressful and anxiety-inducing states.
Both aspects, the ability to regulate our autonomic responses and the optimization and reinforcement of our response to the environment at a neurobiological level, are basic elements, functionally speaking, of our capacity for resilience.
Mindfulness
Another especially useful tool in this context is Mindfulness or Full Attention. Indeed, many field studies have shown, in line with the contributions of Siegel and Shore, that the practice of Mindfulness stimulates and develops the capacity of our brain when it comes to functionally integrate amygdaloid firing secondary to stressful or traumatic events
Our brain’s ability to digest the anguish produced by any painful, frightening or traumatic event is amplified, allowing a more balanced and functional response to them Speaking in terms of EMDR culture, we could say that the “window of tolerance” against anguish, fear and stress widens, with the consequent benefit in terms of emotional balance, a basic aspect as we have said before if we talk about resilience. .
To summarize, at Vitaliza the concept of resilience and the figure of the “resilient tutor” are key in our clinical intervention, especially with adults. This therapeutic approach is always accompanied by emotional regulation techniques, reflected more specifically in Neuromodulation (Biofeedback and Neurofeedback) and Midfulness or Full Attention.
Author: Javier Elcarte, neuropsychologist, trauma expert, founder and director of Vitaliza.
