Building Resilience and Finding Meaning in Life: A Guide for Teens

By June Rousso

Building Resilience and Finding Meaning in Life: A Guide for Teens is an interactive book meant to engage readers in learning how to face adversities in life and to find meaning in these experiences.  It gives the message that we have a treasu

• Language: English
• Publisher: June Rousso
• Release date: Feb 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985129915

June Rousso

Dr. June Rousso is a licensed psychologist, life coach, and writer. She is a Clinician Diplomate in Logotherapy and Existential Analysis and maintains a private practice in New York City working with children and adults. Dr. Rousso is on the advisory board to Child Resilient, a student-led nonprofit organization focusing on fostering emotional resilience and mental health wellness in children and adolescence thorough education, outreach, and awareness. She also is the author of The Little Book of Character Strengths that focuses on helping children become aware of their character strengths as a way to feel better about themselves and learn to face difficult situations in their daily life.

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Copyright © 2022 by June Rousso. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher and or author.

Author: June Rousso

For more information, contact the author at [e-mail]

www.junerousso.com

Illustrator: Maima Adiputri

Paperback ISBN 13: 979-8-9851299-0-8

eBook ISBN 13: 979-8-9851299-1-5

Published in the United States of America

Printed in the United States of America

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This guide is written in appreciation of the Viktor Frankl Logotherapy Institute and their dedication to disseminating the teachings of Dr. Viktor Frankl and to the VIA (Values in Action) Institute on Character for its groundbreaking research on character strengths. Special thanks to Drs. Cynthia Wimberly and Janeta Tansey for their classes and supervision on logotherapy which has been an invaluable learning experience.

The twenty-four character strengths used in this book are the VIA classification of character strengths. VIA Institute on Character (© Copyright 2004-2021, VIA Institute on Character. All Rights Reserved. Used with Permission. www.viacharacter.org).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Book Abbreviations for Quoted Material

Introduction

Viktor Frankl and the Search for Meaning

Suffering is Part of Life

Our Own Worst Enemies

Forewarned is Forearmed

Meaningful Moment Memory Bank

Will to Meaning

Goal Orientation

Our Conscience

Freedom of Choice

Responsibility

Love Beyond the Physical

Self-Transcendence

Faith

Idea and Ideals

Self-Distancing

Humor

Creativity

Imagination

Beyond Frankl: The Field of Positive Psychology

To a Better Life

Making More Meaning

References

References for Quotes

DEDICATION

To Ira, Leann, and Ian.

BOOK ABBREVIATIONS FOR QUOTED MATERIAL

Dr. Viktor Frankl had much wisdom to share with his audiences and to continue his message, he is quoted throughout Building Resilience and Finding Meaning in Life. Each quote has an abbreviated book reference that uses the following guide.

WM – Will to Meaning

YTL – Yes to Life

DS – The Doctor and the Soul

MSM – Man’s Search for Meaning

MSUM – Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning

UCM – Unheard Cry for Meaning

ML – Meaningful Living (Elisabeth Lukas)

VFL – Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy (Ann Graber)

Throughout the workbook, there will be opportunities to explore Dr. Frankl’s concepts and character strengths as researched by the VIA Institute on Character. The goal is to give you the opportunity to discover how these concepts apply to your own life. I would encourage you to express your thoughts in forms that are comfortable for you, whether in journaling, poetry, drawing, songwriting, a play or movie dialogue, or a home video. Choose ways to express yourself that suit who you are. There is no one way to answer these questions and others posed throughout the book. Too often we answer with what we think is expected of us. That is not what is asked for here. Just be yourself in answering them.

INTRODUCTION

Building Resilience and Finding Meaning in Life: A Guide for Teens is an interactive book meant to engage readers in learning how to face adversities in life and to find meaning in these experiences. The first part of the workbook sets the foundation for interactive exercises that will be included throughout the material.

The foundation of the guide is based on the teachings of Viktor Frankl, M.D., Ph.D., a psychiatrist, who while living in concentration camps, tested his theory of logotherapy that he had developed in prior years. He was able to apply what he learned – that meaning can be found in the individual moments of our lives, even in the worst of times – which he attributed to his survival in the camps (Frankl, 2000).

The guide’s foundation is also based upon the research findings of the VIA (Values in Action) Institute on Character whose research shows that understanding and applying character strengths helps in so many aspects of general well-being, such as boosting confidence, reducing stress, and building meaning and purpose in life (www.viacharacter.org).

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Building Resilience and Finding Meaning in Life is an informative and user-friendly guide, engaging teens in their learning to meet life’s demands and bounce back from setbacks while finding meaningful moments in life. It counters against living our teen years with a sense of emptiness and feeling that life has no real meaning, which Dr. Frankl defines as a state of existential despair (Frankel,