Speculation about the apparent explosion in mental ill-health, especially among young people, shows no sign of abating. A recent BBC article asked whether the problem is a lack of resilience. It is a question that resonates across education, where staff see daily the impact of poor mental health on learning, attendance and progression.

Yet the idea that young people simply “lack resilience” risks oversimplifying a complex reality. From a psychotherapy perspective, resilience is not an innate quality you either possess or don’t; it is a process shaped by relationships, environments, and skills that can be developed over time.

Resilience Reframed

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a helpful framework for understanding resilience. Rather than seeing resilience as “toughing it out,” ACT defines it as psychological flexibility: the ability to notice and accept complex thoughts and emotions, while continuing to take action in line with one’s values.

In practice, this means teaching young people to:

  • Recognise that pain and distress are part of being human.

  • Avoid rigid avoidance strategies, as they often backfire.

  • Hold thoughts more lightly (“I’m having the thought that I can’t cope” rather than “I can’t cope”).

  • Anchor their choices to values, friendship, fairness, creativity, and learning that provide motivation and direction.

Resilience, then, is less about bouncing back quickly and more about bending without breaking.

 

The Role of Language and Awareness

One factor in today’s mental health landscape is the shift in language. Awareness is higher than ever, which is a welcome reduction in stigma. However, psychotherapy reveals how language can shape our identity.

A student who once said, “I feel nervous before exams,” might now say, “I have anxiety.” The first frames distress as a passing state; the second risks fixing it as a permanent identity. ACT-based approaches help unhook young people from such labels, empowering them to see themselves as more than their difficulties.

This is not about dismissing distress, but about helping young people relate to it in a way that keeps space for growth and possibility.

Prevention and Early Intervention

Our current systems are heavily weighted towards crisis management. By the time many young people access services, problems have already escalated. From a psychotherapeutic perspective, this is costly, both for the individual and for the system.

What is needed is a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention:

  • Emotional Literacy in Schools and Colleges: Embedding Coping Strategies into Everyday Learning.

  • Accessible counselling and mentoring: available early, without long waits or stigma.

  • Community connection: activities that build belonging and protective factors outside of formal education.

  • Family support: strengthening attachment relationships and building resilience within the home.

ACT-based skills, such as mindfulness, values clarification, and committed action, can be taught proactively, equipping young people with lifelong tools to navigate challenges.

Meeting Young People Where They Are

In psychotherapy, progress begins when people feel “met” where they are. For education, this principle means creating safe and accessible spaces, both in-person and online, that respect young people’s realities and provide meaningful help at the point of need.

Support should shift the focus from “What’s wrong with you?” to “What matters to you, and how can we help you move towards it?” That subtle change in framing makes a profound difference in building resilience.

A Collective Responsibility

Resilience is not an individual responsibility alone. Poverty, climate anxiety, digital pressures and the cost-of-living crisis all shape how young people experience mental health. We cannot ask them to simply “be tougher” while ignoring these structural realities.

What we can do is:

  • Equip them with psychological flexibility through evidence-based approaches.

  • Provide early and accessible support that reduces the escalation of crises.

  • Invest in education and community infrastructure that fosters a sense of belonging and purpose.

A Way Forward

The mental health crisis cannot be resolved by resilience alone. But if we reconceptualise resilience as something teachable and share responsibility for fostering it, we stand a better chance.

The real question is not whether young people are resilient enough, but whether our systems are giving them the conditions, skills, and support to become so.