Since we’ve been talking about the process of resilience, a visual would help to show you what that means. In his article, The Metatheory of Resilience and Resiliency, Glenn Richardson gives us a great model of what this process looks like. I love this model!
Richardsons Resilience Model
People, resilient or not, begin at biopsychospritual homeostasis, which is a big word that means they are in their comfort zone of body, mind, and spirit. They have adapted to their situation, whether good or bad. Then, a disruption occurs. This can be a trauma, abuse, accident or a perceived stressor. It knocks the person out of homeostatis and forces them to reintegrate to put things back together. They can reintegrate in one of four ways: dysfunctional, with loss, back to homeostasis, or resilient. People are barraged with stressors, adversity and life events, and these can be external or internal. The protective factors, or qualities that promote resilience, buffer those adversities and help the person experience resilient reintegration. It’s important to note that the resilient reintegration in the model shows people as doing better than they were before.
This model shows how people move from before the adversity, through the adversity, and then become resilient with the help of the protective factors identified in the research from Wave One.
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Richardson, G. E.(2002). The metatheory of resilience and resiliency. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 58, 307-321.
