Dr Maria Kukhareva, Resilience

Originally from St Petersburg, Russia, Dr Maria Kukhareva has lived in the UK since 2001. Describing herself as a social scientist that sees art in everything and an artist who sees science in everything Maria has worked as a youth worker, project manager, researcher and a lecturer as well as running a successful photography business. She is currently in the process of publishing from her doctoral research, which focused on risk and resilience of young people who were placed in care or excluded from school. Maria believes that the lives and stories of these young people can teach us a lot about ourselves. Maria will join us to talk to about resilience, what it means for each one of us and how we can be aware of our own resilient patterns. Resilience is a ‘hot topic’ right now, with politicians, media and scientists talking about ‘resilient communities’, ‘resilient business environments’ and ‘resilient individuals’. Maria aims to bring the topic closer to home and explore it on a deeply individual level. A study she conducted revealed that young people who are often seen as ‘victims’ or ‘out of control’ are in fact resilient individuals, who are negotiating their life experiences on a daily basis. Maria will explain how we can learn a lot from these young people, from understanding what gets us through adversity to building a more fulfilling life.