The definition of resilience is sometimes hard to pin down. It is often thought of as the ability to bounce back in the face of adversity but as you will see, it is not that simple.

Does one think that an individual who goes through a trauma and returns to work the next day is more resilient than the individual who goes through a similar trauma, suffers with PTSD and has 6 months of therapy but then returns back to work? Both individuals have bounced back, but one took a little longer, and that’s fine. The question is whether we can maximise our ‘springiness’  when it comes to bouncing back.

Two important days are recognised in June that are relevant to this discussion. The first of which occurs in the USA on June 4th is ‘National Hug Your Cat’ day and the second is June 8th, which is ‘International Best friends day’. While they add a little chuckle as we search for a feline friend to cuddle the important point is that friendships are...

 Covid has disrupted families, broken hearts and affected minds and with the latest statistics on mental health just emerging, what do we see? According to Eddie Hawthorne, the chief executive of Arnold Clarke (a large car retail group) “mental health concerns have hit the roof”. Combine this with the latest from the University of Glasgow who found that lockdown had a major escalation in suicidal thoughts, depression, loneliness and self-harm and one can see that as we tighten up restrictions again, the resilience of our mental health is once again being put under fire.

Over the past few months, mental health teams have reported that patients with existing mental health conditions have suffered from significant relapses in their conditions and most surprisingly, people with no known mental health issues have presented in acute crisis.  

There’s no definitive reason why some took lockdown like a beach holiday and others felt as though they were...