About this resource
Resilience comes from many sources. This map helps clients identify inner strengths, people, practices, places and sources of meaning, then plan how to draw on them during hard times.
Purpose
To make resilience resources visible and usable.
Who it is for
Primary profession: Counsellors and therapists. Also relevant for youth workers, social workers.
Client or participant group: Adolescents and adults in counselling.
Practice setting: Individual counselling and group programs.
Suggested uses
- Building coping resources
- Relapse prevention
- Group programs
- Strengths-based work
Instructions for practitioners
- Help the client notice resources they overlook.
- Include cultural and spiritual resources.
- Plan specific ways to use resources.
- Revisit as resources change.
Instructions for clients or participants
- Fill in each area.
- Circle the strongest.
- Plan how to use them.
Accessibility considerations
Can be drawn or made into a collage.
Scope and limitations
A reflective tool for use within counselling.
Research basis
Gratitude and savouring practices have small but real effects on wellbeing, and are best used alongside support for any difficulties. The strengths model, a recovery-oriented approach, builds on people's own abilities, interests and resources. Understanding, naming and choosing strategies for emotions are central to emotion regulation; putting feelings into words and finer emotion distinctions are linked to better regulation.
- Bryant, F. B., & Veroff, J. (2007). Savoring: A New Model of Positive Experience. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
- Davis, D. E., Choe, E., Meyers, J., Wade, N., Varjas, K., Gifford, A., Quinn, A., Hook, J. N., Van Tongeren, D. R., Griffin, B. J., & Worthington, E. L. (2016). Thankful for the little things: A meta-analysis of gratitude interventions. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000107
- Gross, J. J. (2015). Emotion Regulation: Current Status and Future Prospects. Psychological Inquiry, 26(1), 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/1047840x.2014.940781
- Kashdan, T. B., Barrett, L. F., & McKnight, P. E. (2015). Unpacking Emotion Differentiation: Transforming Unpleasant Experience by Perceiving Distinctions in Negativity. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414550708
- Kircanski, K., Lieberman, M. D., & Craske, M. G. (2012). Feelings Into Words: Contributions of Language to Exposure Therapy. Psychological Science, 23(10), 1086–1091. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443830
- Rapp, C. A., & Goscha, R. J. (2012). The strengths model: A recovery-oriented approach to mental health services (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press.
What is included
A 2-page printable A4 PDF, including a practitioner notes page with the research basis (version 1.0).
Originality
Original Practitioner Plus content: wording, activity structure, layout and icons were created for this resource. No third-party worksheets, illustrations or text were reproduced.
