Brief Papers: Instructions, Rubric, & Prompts
Respond to the prompt listed below and write a 1–2-page paper on the topic.
You must include two or more citations from the week’s readings/materials and a reference list for
full credit.
Points & Comments
Criteria
/5
Responsiveness: Papers should respond to the specific prompt provided for each
respective week. Students are expected to provide clear ideas/responses to these
prompts. Feel free to use section headings to organize your thoughts.
/5
Integration: Students should incorporate relevant course concepts and content in
their papers. These responses should be thoughtful, reflective, substantive, and
informed by course readings and other materials. Points will be deducted on paper
that are underdeveloped.
/3
Organization: APA format is expected (i.e., in-text citations, margins, spacing,
citations, reference page, etc.). In addition, papers should be written with prope
organization, grammar, spelling, etc. You do not need to include a title page or
running head.
/2
Length/On-time: Papers should be turned in on time and should be 1-2 pages
long.
/15 Total Points
Brief Paper Prompts
Brief Paper #2
Due Sunday, Nov. 3 (before 11:59pm EST): Identify a population that is under stress, as well as the
stressors with which this population is dealing. Discuss how practitioners might apply Walsh’s resilience
framework to design a program/intervention to help the population address challenges.
Accepted Article
Article type
: Original article
Corresponding author mail id : fwalsh@uchicago.edu
Abstract:
This article addresses the many complex and traumatic losses wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. In contrast to individually-based, symptom-focused grief work, a resilience-oriented,
systemic approach with complex losses contextualizes the distress and mobilizes relational resources to support positive adaptation. Applying a family resilience framework to pandemic-related losses,
discussion focuses on the importance of shared belief systems in (1) meaning-making processes; (2) a positive, hopeful outlook and active agency; and (3) transcendent values and spiritual moorings for
inspiration, transformation, and positive growth. Practice guidelines are offered to facilitate adaptation
and resilience.
Key words: family resilience; complicated loss; grief; COVID-19 pandemic; Family Belief Systems; meaning making; family adaptation; disaster recovery
This article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as doi:
10.1111/famp.12588
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The COVID-19 global pandemic has had profound effects on all aspects of life for families and communities. In the upheaval wrought by the novel coronavirus, loved ones’ lives are lost and livelihoods are threatened, ways of living are upended, and the “new normal” ahead is unclear and precarious. The isolating constraints of social distancing heighten awareness that loving connections
are essential to thrive.
A RESILIENCE-ORIENTED SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
Loss is a powerful nodal experience that shakes the foundation of family life. Yet, research, theory, and practice have focused primarily on individual grief in the loss of a dyadic bond. A systemic
perspective expands our view of significant losses to the transactional processes and mutual influences that affect all family members, their interconnected bonds, and family functioning (Walsh
& McGoldrick, 2004; 2013).
In a highly stressful global pandemic, multiple losses impact the family. Shock waves reverberate throughout the relational network and ongoing stressors compound distress. In turn, key
family processes mediate the adaptation—or maladaptation—of all members, their relationships, and the family unit. From a systems perspective, family vulnerability, risk, and resilience are viewed in
light of multi-level recursive influences in dealing with highly stressful experiences and social contexts. Family distress may result from an overwhelming situation involving the death of a loved one or losses incurred in the wider impact of the pandemic.
A resilience-oriented approach to loss is guided by an understanding of family adaptational challenges, variables that heighten risk, and key transactional processes that foster recovery and
resilience (Walsh, 2007; 2016b). In the time of coronavirus, families are multi-stressed, struggling, and needing help in forging resilience: to grieve and adapt to devastating losses and dislocations, to
strengthen vital bonds, to tolerate uncertainties, and to overcome daunting challenges going forward.
This paper addresses the family impact of multiple, complicated losses wrought by the covid- 19 pandemic. Focused on the United States experience in the midst of unfolding challenges, it also has relevance for other hard-hit regions worldwide. Cultural and clinical constraints in working with
loss are noted, clarifying misconceptions and current research-based understandings of loss, grief, and
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adaptive processes for systemic practice. Applying a family resilience framework, discussion highlights the power of shared belief systems in (1) meaning-making of the pandemic experience; (2)
a positive outlook, hope, and focus on possibilities; and (3) transcendent values and spiritual moorings for inspiration, transformation, and positive growth. Throughout, I refer to our collective experience:
we are all affected–professionals and the families we work with–as we navigate the challenges
ahead.
MULTIPLE LOSSES WITH COVID-19
Major disasters generally involve catastrophic conditions with loss of lives and widespread
disruptions (Masten & Motti-Stefanidi, 2020; Walsh, 2007). Most often, there is a local, shot-term crisis event, such as a hurricane or an act of terror, with wider ripple effects over time. But in a
pandemic, the extreme conditions can persist over months and even years, with ongoing deaths and a cascade of disruptions felt worldwide.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, many families are experiencing an ongoing, pervasive sense of
loss: the tragic deaths and threatened loss of loved ones; the loss of physical contact with family members and social networks; the loss of jobs, financial security, and livelihoods; the loss of precrisis ways of life and threatened loss of hopes and dreams for the future; and the loss of a sense of
normalcy in shattered assumptions about our lives and connections with the world around us.
Discussion focuses on loss with complicated and traumatic deaths, the most devastating of all losses,
with consideration of other significant losses and dislocations.
Complicated / Traumatic Deaths
As the worldwide death toll mounts to unimaginable millions, we may lose sight that every death is a tragic loss for loved ones. Of all human experiences, death poses the most painful and far-reaching
adaptational challenges for families. With a death in the family, members each experience the loss of their unique relationship: with a life partner, parent, child, or sibling; with a grandparent or
grandchild. Families may lose vital role functioning with the death of a breadwinner, caregiver, or
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matriarch. A death is often experienced as a hole in the heart of a family that will never again feelvintact.
Sudden deaths, most common in rapidly progressing, severe cases of COVID-19, are jolting experiences for families. A recovering loved one may suddenly take a turn for the worse. There is often extreme physical suffering before death, which is agonizing for loved ones, helpless on the
sidelines and lacking treatment options. With quarantine restrictions, family members are unable to be at the bedside, to provide comfort and say their good-byes. Additional heartache ensues when gatherings are prohibited for funeral and burial rituals that help families and their communities to
honor the deceased, share grief, and provide mutual support (Imber-Black, 2020).
My extended family experienced a heartbreaking death to coronavirus. In March, I received an anguished email from my cousin: she had been informed by her mother’s nursing home, that her
mother had contracted COVID-19, was in isolation and declining rapidly, but could receive no visitors. Family members hovered outside the building, unable to be with her as she declined and
died. They weren’t allowed to see her body or to hold a funeral gathering. A week later, her daughter, who had visited her mother just before symptoms appeared, contracted the virus herself, was in quarantine, and worried about having spread it to other grieving family members.
I was relieved to hear, a month later, that she was recovering from a mild case. But she and her siblings were deeply distressed over their mother’s death and furious that the facility had not informed
them that other residents had tested positive before her mother’s diagnosis. They were wracked with remorse that they had let her go to a care facility and had not insisted upon taking her in to live with
them.
Such heart-wrenching situations are all too common for families losing a loved one in this time of high contagion. The elderly and others with underlying medical conditions face heightened risk. With an unexpected loss, family members lack time to prepare emotionally or practically, to deal
with unfinished business, or to say their goodbyes. Grief can be complicated with regrets that it is too late to repair wounded bonds. In some cases, families and emergency care providers must make
agonizing end-of-life decisions to forego or end life support efforts. Strong disagreements or religious concerns can lead to long-lasting family distress.
Loss of Physical Contact; Isolation
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The isolating constraints of social distancing heighten awareness that our connections with others are vital to thrive. In traumatic experiences like a pandemic, when helplessness and confusion are
common, we have an urgent need to turn to one another for support, comfort, and safety. Separations are keenly felt. With high risks of severe illness and death for elders and those with chronic medical conditions, loved ones are fearful of bringing the virus to them. Travel safety concerns limit visits by
those living at a distance. Elders miss out on the rapid developments of grandchildren and yearn for a hug, a kiss, the scent of a baby’s breath.
Individuals in prolonged isolation, living alone or in care facilities, can suffer a sense of
disconnection and loneliness, which increases risks for physical and mental decline, substance use, emotional despair, and death (Caccioppo, Cacioppo, & Capitanio, 2015; Killgore, Cloonan, Taylor, &
Dailey, 2020). Families need to sustain connections across distance: phone and internet contact, cards and letters, and children’s drawings all offer vital lifelines.
Loss of Jobs, Livelihoods, and Financial Security
The severe economic shockwaves of the COVID-19 pandemic have far reaching impact for financial security and wellbeing in families. Job loss and the looming threat of prolonged unemployment,
business closures, and uncertain economic recovery can be devastating, especially for lower-income families who lack savings and barely scrape by, paycheck to paycheck. The loss of essential income can have cascading effects with loss of homes, disruptive relocations, and persistent housing and food
insecurity.
Loss of Hopes and Dreams
An untimely death in the pandemic is especially heartbreaking for families. The loss of a child, even one in early adulthood, upends life cycle expectations and shatters hopes and dreams for all that might
have been. In the rapid spread of the coronavirus, anticipatory loss (Rolland, 2018) is a constant concern, with worry about one’s own safety and the threatened loss of loved ones. Dire forecasts of a prolonged economic recession generate deep anxieties about future livelihoods and retirement
security. Young adults, facing the loss of educational and job plans, fear the loss of life dreams: in pursuing careers, gaining financial independence, finding life partners, and starting a family.
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Loss of Normalcy: Shattered Assumptions
The loss of a sense of normalcy is widespread. Life as we have known it has been derailed. Life forward is on hold, the future uncertain, and the road ahead unclear. There is much talk about the “old
normal” and the “new normal.” Yet, like the aftershocks of an earthquake, the ground keeps shifting, and nothing feels normal.
These harrowing times take a mental, physical, and emotional toll. Daily news reports increase a sense of overwhelm, with confusing and conflicting information and changing forecasts on what lies
ahead. A cartoon depicts a couple in their living room, with flames rising up around them. As one partner sits on the sofa, trying to read a book, the other stands transfixed in front of the large screen
TV watching the breaking news bulletin: “Hell still on fire.”
In this unprecedented pandemic, there is a collective experience of shattered assumptions in our worldview: our taken-for-granted beliefs and expectations about our lives and our connections to
our world (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). The invisibility of the virus, its lethal potential, and the possible spread by non-symptomatic persons heighten fears of infection. The death of a loved one, and loss of
physical contacts, life structures, and future life visions can shatter core beliefs and make our world seem unpredictable and unjust. As one father lamented, “Everything I thought I knew is shaken.” One global mental health specialist coined the term “COVID Cognitive Cloud” to describe the
disorganizing impact of the pandemic. Ambiguities cloud our thinking and decision-making. Who is trustworthy for leadership, information, and guidance? Where and with whom are we safe? We feel
trapped and angry at a loss of freedoms with lockdown and restrictions. Paradoxically, we also feel unmoored and adrift, swept by strong currents in a perfect storm of extreme events beyond our comprehension and control.
Variables Compounding Pandemic Loss Effects
The impact of loss is compounded with situational risks, larger systemic/structural forces, and/or complex family dynamics.
High Risk Situations and Socio-economic Disparities. The risk and pain of loss is intensified when loved ones are working on the front lines and in jobs with repeated exposure to the virus. It is
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heartbreaking for families of healthcare emergency workers who contract coronavirus while providing critical care, often lacking protective equipment, without respite from the overload of cases, and
suffering emotionally when lives can’t be saved. Those who self-isolate to protect their own family members miss their support.
Socio-economic and racial disparities render disadvantaged and marginalized communities at higher risk for multiple losses in major disasters worldwide (Norris, 2002). In a pandemic, crowded living and conditions, job and environmental hazards, chronic medical conditions, and discrimination in disaster response heighten risks. Blacks and Latinx have been disproportionately affected by
coronavirus across the United States and all age groups (Oppel, Gabeloff, et al., 2020). Stark disparities are seen in the highest death rates, particularly among low-paid workers and their family members. Many employees. are caught between troubling options: going to work for a needed
paycheck or losing their jobs and income if they stay home to keep themselves and loved ones safe.
Prolonged unemployment and financial insecurities have long-term effects,
Ambiguous loss. Ambiguity surrounding risk and loss generate anxiety, depression, and
conflict, interfering with adaptation (Boss, 1999). With COVID-19, ambiguities persist about how the virus is spread and whether a death was due to coronavirus. Unclarity about the diagnosis, symptoms,
severity can be an impediment in getting emergency care. Family members may fault themselves for not having understood risks or acted to prevent a death and remain unclear about their future risks.
Unacknowledged and stigmatized losses. When losses are unacknowledged, hidden, or
minimized, they leave families unsupported (Doka, 2002). The denial of the human tragedy of illness and deaths in the spread of COVID-19 by national authorities renders their suffering invisible. The stigma of possible contagion surrounding a COVID-related death fosters misinformation, secrecy, and estrangement, impairing social support as well as critical health and mental health care. Reports are also emerging of a spike in suicides and addiction-related deaths, with concerns about further
increases with long-term effects in the economy and vulnerable groups (Gunnell, Appleby, et al., 2020). Deaths by suicide or overdose are tormenting for families, who struggle to comprehend them
and may need help with anger, blame, shame, or guilt over how they might have made a difference (Walsh, in press).
Pileup of stressors. As the first wave of the pandemic surges in many places, with a second
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wave expected, most families experience a roller-coaster course in efforts to cope and adapt. Families can be overwhelmed by the emotional, relational, and functional impact of the many stresses in their
lives. Adaptation can be further complicated in highly conflicted, abusive, or estranged relationships or with reactivation of painful emotions around past trauma or loss (Walsh & McGoldrick, 2013).
OVERCOMING CULTURAL AND CLINICAL CONSTRAINTS
IN HELPING FAMILIES WITH LOSS
Facing Death and Loss
The dominant Anglo-American culture has fostered avoidance in facing death and loss, minimizing their impact, and encouraging people to quickly get “closure” and move on from losses and painful
emotions (Walsh & McGoldrick, 2004). Some seek reassurance that death happens to others who are unfortunate or at fault, to assuage anxieties about their own risks. Many are uncomfortable in responding to others’ loss experiences and may distract attention or avoid contact.
Reflecting the cultural aversion, many therapists working with families have been hesitant in addressing significant losses, leaving grief to bereavement specialists and pastoral counselors.
Moreover, there’s no safe professional boundary from emotional spill-over: Therapists, as well as clients, are impacted by the pandemic and are dealing with losses, disruptions, and anxieties in both
work and family spheres of life. Like our clients, we are trying to hold it all together.
In a larger cultural context and mental health field that favors brief solution-oriented
approaches, therapists need to appreciate that loss is not a problem to solve. We can’t bring back a deceased loved one or a livelihood or way of life that is gone. We can listen openheartedly to pain and
suffering in families, facilitate their mutual support, and encourage active efforts for positive adaptation.
Human Vulnerability, Interdependence, and Resilience
The cultural ethos of the “rugged individual” fosters expectations for self-reliance and fierce independence in dealing with serious life challenges. Vulnerability and dependence on others are shame laden, viewed as weakness and deficiency. Associated cultural images of masculinity constrain
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many men’s emotional expression and strain relational bonds. In couples, a distraught spouse may feel abandoned by an emotionally unavailable partner when mutual support is needed most.
This ethos also encourages individuals to tough it out on their own: “I should be able to
manage it all myself.” “I don’t want to ask for help or burden others.” Such expectations lead to burnout, especially for single parents, and leave no time to attend to emotional needs or find respite from pandemic-related stresses.
Vulnerability is part of the human condition. Distress is normal in abnormal times.. Although
some families are more vulnerable in this pandemic, most face losses and upheaval. False assurances of invulnerability are foolhardy. Acknowledgment of grief, suffering and hardship is a strength that
can rally mutual support and collective efforts for recovery.
We are relational beings. Recognition of our essential interdependence is vital for our
wellbeing and resilience. In turning to others for help, we can pay it back and pay it forward.
Mobilizing kin and social support, while challenging with social distancing restrictions, is crucial to build family and community resource teams. As a society, we are all going through this pandemic
together. We need and depend on each other for our lives and our future.
Understanding Grief, Adaptation to Loss, and Resilience
In this time of pandemic, there is much talk about widespread grief. It’s important to clarify current research-based understandings of loss, and common misconceptions from earlier theories positing a single, universal model of “normal,” or “healthy” grief. Epidemiological and cross-cultural studies have found wide diversity in responses to loss, with variation in the timing, expression, and intensity
of normal grief responses (Walsh, in press). In families, members may not be in sync, requiring respect for differences.
Grief and recovery processes do not follow an orderly stage sequence or timetable as
proposed by Kubler-Ross and Kessler (2005). Common reactions of shock and disbelief, anger, bargaining, sorrow, and acceptance are better seen as facets of grief, which ebb and flow over time.
While usually decreasing in intensity, various facets can surface unexpectedly, particularly around nodal events.
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In the COVID-19 pandemic. initial shock and disbelief are common, but unshakable denial
becomes detrimental in not facing the reality that must be dealt with. In families, tolerance is needed for different reactions: one member may be consumed by sadness and yearning while another is
enraged by the unfairness of a loss. A breadwinner may need to keep emotions under wraps to function at work. Small children may show anxious clinging or need constant contact while adolescents may distance (Walsh & McGoldrick, 2013).
Adaptation involves a dynamic oscillation in attention alternating between loss and
restoration, focused at times on grief and at other times on emerging challenges (Stroebe & Schut, 2010). With pressing demands, many don’t have the time and space to process complicated losses, which may find expression in substance use, relational conflict, or child-focused problems. Many
only seek counseling much later, after initial social support wanes and the full impact of loss-related challenges is felt. This will require pacing of interventions attuned to each family, weaving back and
forth in attention to grief, coping efforts, and future directions.
Adaptation to loss does not mean full recovery or resolution in the sense of some complete, once and for all, getting over it. Recovery is best seen in terms of adaptation over time, rather than a final outcome. Many recover from coronavirus, yet some suffer long-term sequelae not yet understood. Recovery from the economic effects of the pandemic may be partial, as will be recovery
of aspects of past ways of life. Efforts will be needed for both continuity and adaptive change.
Likewise, resilience in response to loss and other major disruptions does not mean “just
bounce back,” quickly rallying and moving on unscathed (Walsh, 2016b). Healing and resilience occur gradually over time. Grief is a healing process: We don’t get over grief–we go through it.
Resilience is forged through suffering and setbacks; it involves struggling well and integrating painful loss experiences into our life passage.
FAMILY RESILIENCE IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
The concept of resilience—the capacity to overcome adversity—is finding valuable application in situations of widespread disaster, collective trauma, and loss (Landau, 2007; Masten & MottiStefanidi, 2020; Saul, 2013; Walsh, 2007; 2016b). With advances in research, resilience is now
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understood as involving dynamic multilevel systemic processes over time. The response to a disaster by communities and larger systems can make the difference for individual and family wellbeing and
resilience. For instance, abysmal failures in government response to Hurricane Katrina compounded widespread suffering and loss. In contrast, the coordinated response to the Oklahoma City bombing tragedy by community leaders and agencies provided immediate support and fostered long-term
positive adaptation (Walsh, 2007; 2016b).
Family resilience refers to capacities in family functioning to withstand and rebound from disruptive life challenges in adversity. More than surviving loss and coping with disruptions, resilience involves positive adaptation: regaining the ability to thrive, with the potential for
transformation and positive growth forged through the searing experience.
A family resilience orientation is finding broad application in strengths-based, collaborative, systemic training, practice, and research (Walsh, 2016a, 2016b). A resilience-oriented approach with
loss (a) contextualizes the distress; (b) attends to the challenges, suffering, and struggles of families,
and (c) strengthens relational processes that support coping, adaptation, and growth. With a multisystemic lens, this approach draws on extended kin, social, community, sociocultural andspiritual resources, and strengthens larger systemic/structural supports.
To help families forge resilience in response to pandemic-related losses and the myriad of
challenges they face, therapists can usefully apply this author’s family resilience framework. Designed
as a practice map to guide intervention with families facing extreme adversity, it has been applied to
traumatic and complicated losses in communities and with widespread disaster (Walsh, 2007; 2016b).
The COVID-19 pandemic is a perfect storm of stressors, involving acute crisis and loss
events, disruptions in many aspects of life, and ongoing multistress challenges with evolving
conditions. This situation is so extreme that families are experiencing the strains of grief and sadness
over so much loss, fears for loved ones, and anxieties about the future. How a family deals with stress
and loss is crucial; therapists can help families strengthen key transactional processes for mutual
support and mobilize active efforts to overcome challenges. In gaining resilience, they strengthen
bonds and resourcefulness in meeting future challenges.
THE POWER OF FAMILY BELIEF SYSTEMS
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The Walsh family resilience framework identified nine key processes–facilitative beliefs and
practices– in three domains of family functioning: family belief systems, family organizational
processes, and communication / problem-solving processes (Walsh, 2003, 2016b). Discussion in this
paper focuses on the powerful influence of family belief systems in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shared facilitative beliefs are the heart and soul of family resilience. Each family’s belief
system, rooted in multi-generational and sociocultural influences comes to the fore in times of crisis
and loss, shaping members’ experience and their pathways in adaptation. Family resilience is fostered
by shared beliefs (1) to make meaning of the crisis and challenges; (2) to (re)gain a positive, hopeful
outlook that supports active agency, and (3) for transcendence: to rise above suffering and hardship
through larger values, spiritual beliefs and practices, and experiencing transformations in new
priorities, a sense of purpose, and deeper bonds.
Making Meaning of the Pandemic Experience
Core beliefs ground and orient families, providing a sense of reality, normalcy, meaning, or purpose
in life. Well-being is fostered by expectations that others can be trusted; that communities are safe;
that life is orderly and events predictable; and that society is just. When the losses and upheavals in
this pandemic shatter such assumptions, as noted above, there is a deep need to restore order,
meaning, and purpose (Janoff-Bulman, 1992).
Meaning making and recovery involve a struggle to understand what has been lost, how to
build new lives, and how to prevent future tragedy. Meaning reconstruction is a central process in
healing in response to trauma involving both death and non-death losses (Neimeyer & Sands, 2011).
It involves sense-making efforts over time, not simply a final stage in resolving grief, an “aha”
moment when everything makes sense. In this pandemic, at first it is hard to understand what is
happening, without previous experience to relate it to. As we grapple with the implications, we
gradually try to come to terms with the situation, what can be known and the uncertainties that persist.
In families, meaning-making processes involve shared attempts to make sense of the loss, put
it in perspective to make it more bearable, and, over time, integrate it into personal and relational life
passage (Nadeau, 2008). Resilience is strengthened in helping families gradually forge a sense of
coherence through shared efforts to make loss-related challenges comprehensible, manageable, and
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meaningful to tackle (Antonovsky & Sourani, 1988). This requires dealing with ongoing negative
implications, including the loss of hopes and dreams. Contextualizing members’ distress as common
and understandable in their situation–normal in an abnormal times–can depathologize intense
reactions and reduce blame, shame, and guilt.
In the context of COVID-19, therapists need to explore both the factual circumstances of
losses and the implications they hold for family members in their social and developmental contexts.
Commonly, they grapple with painful questions: “How did this happen?” “Could it have been
prevented?” “What will happen to us?” “What does it mean for our lives? Such concerns persist when,
for instance, the source of viral transmission, the development of vaccines and treatments, or the
future of the economy remain unclear. Causal attributions concerning blame, self-blame, and guilt
can be strong when questions of failed responsibility or negligence arise, such a not following public
health guidelines. Meaning-making efforts and future planning are hampered by repeated unclear and
inconsistent information by government authorities. Frustrations may boil over in anger that more
should have done to prevent widespread viral contagion and economic losses. Systemic therapists can
help family members to voice such concerns, come to terms with reasonable limits of control in the
situation, and seek greater accountability and leadership by those in charge at local and national
levels.
Families may struggle to envision a new sense of normality, identity, and relatedness to adapt
to altered conditions. They can become trapped in helplessly waiting to hear what will happen next or
in the future. A sense of active agency is vital for resilience: What can we do about it? What are our
options? Clinicians can support efforts to gain and share helpful information and become involved in
community efforts.
Helping professionals are cautioned not to ascribe meaning to a family’s unique experience.
Our role is not to provide meaning for those who are struggling, but to facilitate their meaningmaking process (Frankl, 1946). The multiple meanings of a particular loss evolve over time as they
find expression in continuing patterns of interaction and are integrated with other life experiences.
Over time, adaptation involves weaving the painful experience and the resilience forged into the
fabric of individual and collective identity and life passage.
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Positive Outlook: Hope
Abundant research has found the importance of a positive outlook for resilience (Walsh, 2016b).