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The world is in economic and geopolitical crisis lacking an apparent clear plan for recovery.

The field of disaster psychology offers an empirically formulated roadmap for resilience planning.

History teaches from adversity can come not just recovery, but growth as well.

The world seems to be in crisis. Communities in the United States are deeply divided on issues of economic disparities and immigration, while extreme weather patterns have disrupted, if not devastated, many communities. Internationally, wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have wrought havoc upon economic and geopolitical well-being. Lastly, artificial intelligence has already sent shock waves through stock markets and employment patterns, and fueled fears of a Huxleyan dystopian “brave new world.” It seems a daunting task to even begin to think about how we may assist communities throughout the world to endure the uncertainty and adversity they currently face. More daunting yet, how do we help communities bounce back and bounce forward? Pasteur once noted chance favors the prepared mind. And hope is not a strategy. With that said, the field of disaster psychology can help us formulate a roadmap for resilience and beyond.

Two foundational books help us remove the mystery and inform our interventions. Disaster Mental Health (Myers and Wee, 2004) and When a Community Weeps (Zinner and Williams, 1999) are must-read primers. Leading Beyond Crisis (a 2022 book by psychologist Amy Athey and myself) provides insight into crisis leadership that spawns flourishing, not just resilience. Myers and Wee’s major contribution is the discovery and delineation of the predictable psychological phases of a disaster. This allows us to monitor psychological well-being and allocate scarce resources most effectively. Zinner and Williams provide powerful case study examples of how adversity unfolds at the community level and how to harness natural resilience mechanisms. Lastly, Everly and Athey performed case studies and analyzed the most effective leadership actions during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The key prescriptive guidance on helping communities during and in the wake of adversity is summarized below.

Healing Must Be Communal

Both small-scale crises and large-scale disasters have communal impact. They send shock waves into a community that exerts a ripple effect well beyond those most directly affected. Workplace violence, school violence, communicable diseases, natural or human-made disasters, and anything that leads to community upheaval and unrest not only adversely affect those directly affected but can shred the fabric of what makes a community. They can destroy cohesion and turn neighbor against neighbor, as we have seen. As a result, healing must be communal, as well.

A Five-Step Plan to Strengthen Community

First, remember, information is power. Create public information briefing forums whereby information can be shared, rumors can be addressed, and ongoing updates can be provided. Acknowledge the incident publicly and as soon as possible. Failure to do so leaves survivors feeling invalidated, isolated, and needing to withdraw into interpersonal isolation, sometimes referred to as the trauma membrane. While acknowledging the incident is helpful, that alone is not enough.

Second, catharsis reduces stress and aids in validation. Create large group listening forums, such as town hall meetings, where concerns of those affected can be simply expressed. Failure to do so leaves survivors feeling they have no voice and are not valued. While cathartic expression is helpful, it’s not enough.

Third, create culturally informed small interactive groups such as support groups, debriefings, school circles, homeowners' association meetings, and workplace workgroup discussions that can serve as platforms for interactive resilience and recovery planning. These can energize and foster hope when well-conducted. Failure to do so leaves survivors believing the previous meetings were disingenuous and “all talk.”

Fourth, memorialize the loss and heroism. Community adversity will shape the subsequent identity and well-being of the collective. Failure to provide some form of memorialization, in a culturally sensitive manner, surrenders this inevitable process to chance or to the well-meaning but potentially ill-informed.

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Fifth, mobilize informal and formal mental health resources. Provide information on signs and symptoms of mild versus severe psychological and behavioral reactions, tips on stress management, healthy grief, and community resources available to assist. Educators, religious leaders, emergency services personnel, and physical healthcare providers should be trained in psychological first aid to lessen the surge of demand upon mental health clinicians. Clinicians should be specifically trained in culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, and crisis-oriented care. This training is often over and above traditional training.

Lastly, crisis leaders must follow the principles of crisis communications: Timeliness, truthfulness, and transparency. They must look optimistically beyond the short-term goal of survival and see the post-disaster future through a lens of hope.

© George S. Everly, Jr., PhD, 2026

Everly, G. S., & Athey, A. B. (2022). Leading beyond crisis: The five pillars of transformative resilient leadership. American Psychological Association.

Myers, D., & Wee, D. (2004). Disaster mental health services: A primer for practitioners. Routledge.

Zinner, E. & Williams, MB (1999). When a community weeps: Case studies in group survivorship. Routledge.

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