Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The clients discussed in this book are composite characters to protect their identities, and their stories have been pruned of verbosity and rambling in order to focus the reader's attention on the lessons in resilience to be learnt from their experiences. The book talks about the world of mental health several decades ago as a trainee in cognitive behavioural therapy, the focus was on maladaptive responses to adversity. Mental health was a misnomer: it was mental ill-health that was the real subject. The resilience literature, on the other hand, examined the factors that contributed to successful adaptation to adversity – what the person was doing right – and therefore resilience could be viewed as the bedrock of positive mental health. The book discusses a parallel education: understanding both maladaptive and adaptive responses to tough times.