Beyond Resilience: Helping Students Bounce Forward

When we talk about trauma-informed practice, the focus is often on resilience. Resilience is the ability to “bounce back” — to return to one’s baseline level of functioning after experiencing adversity. For our students, this means learning how to regulate, re-engage their learning brain, and find stability after disruptive or painful events. And resilience is essential. It keeps students grounded and helps them feel safe enough to learn.

But what if we aimed even higher? What if our role as educators, social workers, and school leaders wasn’t just to help students bounce back — but to help them bounce forward?

This is where Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) comes in.

What Is Post-Traumatic Growth?

The term post-traumatic growth was coined in the mid-1990s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi, PhD, and Lawrence Calhoun, PhD. Their research examined how, in the aftermath of trauma, many people experience positive psychological changes that extend far beyond their previous baseline. To measure these changes, they developed the Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI).

Unlike resilience, which focuses on recovery, PTG is about transformation. It’s not just about surviving trauma — it’s about using that experience as a catalyst for growth. PTG involves developing new perspectives, a deeper appreciation for life, a stronger sense of purpose, improved relationships, and a recognition of inner strength that may not have been visible before.

In short:

• Resilience = bouncing back

• Post-Traumatic Growth = bouncing forward

Trauma-Informed Practice as the Bridge

Trauma-informed practice is often thought of as the foundation — safety, regulation, and connection. These are essential for students who have experienced adversity. Without safety, the nervous system cannot shift out of survival mode into learning mode.

But once that foundation is built, we can use trauma-informed strategies to move students toward PTG:

• Naming Strengths: Help students reframe their stories by pointing out their perseverance, creativity, and courage.

• Building Voice and Choice: Give students opportunities to make decisions and take ownership, fostering a renewed sense of agency.

• Modeling Meaning-Making: Encourage reflection on how challenges have shaped who they are, guiding students to find purpose in their experiences.

• Cultivating Empathy and Connection: Show students that their struggles can deepen their understanding of others, transforming pain into compassion.

Helping Students Turn Trauma into Strength

Every student’s path is unique. Some may need time simply to find stability. Others may begin to grow in ways they never imagined possible. Our role isn’t to push students toward growth before they’re ready, but to create conditions where growth is possible.

When we move beyond resilience into PTG, we are saying to our students: You are not defined by what happened to you. You are defined by what you choose to build from it.

That’s the heart of trauma-informed education — not only restoring students to who they were, but walking with them as they become who they are meant to be.

~Dr. Abi