Life Paths Research Center
Dr. Sherry Hamby’s research institute is devoted to promoting resilience and social justice through individual, family, community and environmental strengths. Life Paths is also the home of ResilienceCon.
Stronger Than You Think: Building Lifelong Resilience
Sherry Hamby’s next book releases May 2026, pre-order now!
In a world rocked by pandemics, climate change, and political unrest, resilience has never been more essential.
In this groundbreaking book, trauma researcher, survivor, and professor Sherry Hamby reveals the truth about resilience: struggling with trauma doesn’t mean we lack it. Instead, it’s a sign that we’re facing life’s challenges head-on. What we need to know is how to bounce back and prepare better for future hardships.
Drawing on years of research and lived experience, Hamby introduces the concept of the “resilience equation”: by increasing our ‘strengths dosage’, we can offset our ‘trauma dosage’. In other words, adding more positive experiences can help us heal from the negative ones. It’s possible to thrive, even after significant trauma, and piece together a meaningful, fulfilled life.
This book empowers you with three core steps to cultivate resilience:
1. Find connection – through something larger than yourself
2. Master your emotions and behaviors – learn how to manage your impulses
3. Leverage your resources – tap into the support of family, friends, and community
From practices like mindfulness and forest bathing to deeper calls for social justice and activism, Stronger Than You Think equips you with tools to strengthen your own resilience and uplift others in the process. No matter what life throws your way, you’ll learn how to face it with strength, hope, and purpose.
ResilienceCon™ is a new approach to conferences that offers a variety of traditional and innovative formats. ResilienceCon is an international conference that offers opportunities to interact with colleagues who are interested in strengths-based approaches to understanding, preventing, and responding to violence and other adversities.
Life Paths Center Community
At Life Paths Research Center, we are committed to community and work to create spaces for scholars and advocates to gather and work toward our joint mission of reducing the burden of trauma. To that end, we have several ongoing opportunities for engagement, sharing, and communication.
We have the World Association for Resilience Professionals (WARP), ResComm Listserv, POWR-L Listserv, Webchats, and the Mindful Writing Group.
Sherry Hamby
Dr. Sherry Hamby 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 co-chair of ResilienceCon, a conference on strengths-based approaches to overcoming trauma. She has spent over 30 years studying violence, trauma, and pathways to healing, drawing on her experiences as a therapist, community advocate, and survivor. Dr. Hamby has authored or co-authored over 200 scholarly articles and five books, and her work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, and CBS News. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, two children, and two rescue dogs, Flopsy and Slim.
An influential researcher, she has been ranked in the top 1% among more than 10 million researchers in 22 disciplines based on citations to her work. Dr. Hamby’s work has appeared in the Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, CBS News, Psychology Today, and hundreds of other media outlets. Her awards include Outstanding Contributions to the Science of Trauma Psychology from the Division of Trauma Psychology, American Psychological Association and the Christine Blasey Ford Woman of Courage Award from the Association for Women in Psychology. Check out her TEDx talk, Trauma Is Everywhere But So Is Resilience.
Her next book, Stronger Than You Think: Building Lifelong Resilience, is forthcoming from Penguin Life in May 26, 2026. Pre-order now!
Dr. Sherry Hamby has been featured in:
