The term 'resilience' refers to a person's capacity to handle difficulties, demands and pressure without experiencing negative effects. Traditionally, social work has focused on the nature and impact of resilience in children and adults who have experienced traumatic events, but it is increasingly recognised that social workers need to develop personal resilience to manage the emotional demands of the job effectively and sustainably.

Developing Resilience for Social Work Practice provides social workers with a tool-box of strategies to help them enhance their resilience and protect their wellbeing. Written by experienced practitioners in the field, the book draws on key research to present a series of evidence-based interventions. These strategies are designed to help social work students and practitioners develop important qualities that underpin resilience, such as self-awareness, time management, relaxation skills and empathy as well enable them to gain support from their personal and professional networks.

Grounded in both theory and practice, each chapter explores how the various resilience techniques can be applied to help social workers manage the complexities and challenges they face in everyday practice. The use of relevant and engaging case studies throughout is particularly useful in bringing the book to life for the reader.

Gail Kinman is Professor of Occupational Health Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire, UK. She is a Chartered Psychologist with the British Psychological Society and co-chairs their Work-life Balance Working Group which communicates evidence-based practice to organisations and employees. Gail has a long-standing research interest in occupational health psychology and has published widely in this field, with a particular focus on the wellbeing of people who work in emotionally demanding professions. Gail is currently involved in research projects at a national level with several occupational groups such as nurses, academic employees, prison officers, police, and fire and rescue service personnel. She is currently working with health and social care professionals to enhance the factors that underpin emotional resilience to stress.
Louise Grant

Louise Grant is a Principal Lecturer in Social work at the University of Bedfordshire. Prior to joining the University she worked as a social worker and as a manager in Children's Services. For the last 7 years, she has taught qualifying and post qualifying social workers. Her experience enables her to have an understanding of the complexities of social work practice and its emotional demand, and the tools required to ensure wellbeing and emotional resilience in practice. Louise has published several articles in high impact peer reviewed journals (such as the British Journal of Social Work) and in the general social work press, and presented her work at national and international conferences. She is working towards a PhD by published works.