Resiliency in Schools

Resiliency is thought of as a strong and tough characteristic. Someone with resiliency demonstrates the capacity to recover and rise from difficulties they have faced.  

• Do young adolescents have the capability to be resilient?  

• Can students overcome hardships with toughness to change, cope, and grow?  

•  What if those hardships are living in poverty, having endured sexual abuse, or the death of a parent? 

With support from caring adults who promote resiliency, lives of teenagers can be dramatically influenced to overcome their circumstances and use their experiences to succeed. School counselors have knowledge, skills, and expertise to provide support to help make students successful.  Together with teachers, counselors can provide interventions in school to increase student resiliency.

School counselors play a crucial role in identifying students who have been negatively impacted by life experiences and promoting and teaching resiliency.  Students can be empowered when taught resiliency skills to help stabilize their lives no matter what adversity they have faced or will see in their life.  Counselors have a special position to help students build a toughness and an ability to bounce back and be even stronger than before with a little guidance and a positive school community.