Can individuals become more resilient? Studies have shown that certain forms of psychotherapy can enhance psychological attributes associated with resilience. For example, cognitive behavioural therapy can enhance optimism and facilitate reappraisal of traumatic events in a more positive light. Other forms of therapy can promote meaning making and help to preserve a person's sense of purpose in the face of trauma125. Interventions early in development are likely to maximize stress resistance. In addition, findings from animal and human studies might eventually yield new pharmacologic agents that can maximize the adaptive function of the HPA axis as well as monoamine, neuropeptide and other neurochemical stress response systems. Finally, new intervention modalities might become possible with increased understanding of the neural circuitry that underlies resilience, as illustrated by recent studies demonstrating that individuals can be trained to modulate their own brain activity using real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback126,127.
