Headington Institute Resilience Inventory (HIRI): The Workbook

A practical guide for applying the Headington Institute Resilience Inventory to your daily life.

Humanitarians are subjected to unusually high levels of stress that have physical, emotional, and behavioral consequences. One extremely important and powerful tool we have to fight off stress, burnout, and negative traumatic responses is resilience. But what exactly is resilience? Resilience can be defined as the capacity to adapt and bounce back during traumatic incidents so that one not only survives but thrives. Resilience can also be simply defined with a metaphor; for example, the ground is “resilient” when, after a flood or fire, it is able to provide new life for plants, new animals, starting another kind of life. It is not the same as before but renewed.  That soil had the right ingredients in order to bounce back and create new space for growth and development.

Here at Headington Institute, we utilize a dynamic approach to predict this adaptive capacity and have identified seven key dimensions that make up resilience as a multifaceted construct[1]. The seven dimensions of resilience as defined by the HIRI (Headington Institute Resilience Inventory) are as follows:

  • Emotion Regulation
  • Behavioral Regulation
  • Adaptive Engagement
  • Physical Fitness
  • Sense of Purpose
  • Life Appreciation
  • Spirituality

This workbook is your guide to ensure that you can be as resilient as you possibly can be to not only survive, but thrive in your work as an aid worker.

[1] The Headington Institute Resilience Inventory (HIRI): Development and validation for humanitarian aid workers. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-02180-004