Stronger Than You Think: Building Lifelong Resilience

We've never been in greater need of resilience. We've also never misunderstood it more.

At one point or another, life will break us open. This is when we need resilience most--but as psychologist Dr. Sherry Hamby reveals, many of us are going about it the wrong way. Resilience isn't something you either have or don't. Instead, it is a modifiable process--meaning anyone can learn, practice, and benefit from it across every stage of life.

Drawing on more than thirty years studying violence, trauma, and recovery, Dr. Hamby reveals that the key to becoming more resilient lies in harnessing the necessary resources and assets to thrive after hardship. She calls this your resilience portfolio. The more and different kinds of strengths in your portfolio--in the form of internal assets like meaning-making and regulatory skills, and external resources like supportive social networks and physical environments--the more quickly you can bounce back from adversity, and the better prepared you'll be to weather future hardship.

Accessing and nurturing these strengths is simpler than you think. Through client stories and her own journey of resilience, Dr. Hamby walks readers step-by-step through evidence-backed tools and strategies for regulating impulses and emotions, modifying your social and physical ecologies to promote greater wellbeing, and infusing your day-to-day with a deeper sense of purpose.

Loss, betrayal, and suffering might break us open, but it is never too late to put together the pieces of a good life. Stronger Than You Think invites us to access the kinds of strengths that stand the test of time.

Author: Sherry PhD Hamby
Publisher: Penguin Life
Published: 05/26/2026
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.98lbs
Size: 9.27h x 6.23w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9780593512777


Review Citation(s):
Booklist 04/01/2026

About the Author
Sherry Hamby, PhD is an award-winning distinguished research professor of psychology at the University of the South. She is also the director of the Life Paths Research Center and founder and cochair of ResilienceCon, a conference on strengths-based approaches to overcoming trauma. Dr. Hamby has authored or coauthored more than two hundred scholarly articles and five books, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, and HuffPost, and on CBS News. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, two children, and two rescue dogs, Flopsy and Slim.