Restoration Psychology Institute | Restoration, Resilience, and Human Flourishing

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What Is Restoration Psychology®?

Restoration Psychology® is an area of scholarship dedicated to understanding how people rebuild identity, meaning, purpose, and direction following adversity, life transitions, and significant change. Rather than focusing solely on the causes of distress, Restoration Psychology examines the psychological processes that support restoration, resilience, and human flourishing over time.

The Restoration Psychology Institute advances Restoration Psychology® through scholarly inquiry, conceptual development, research, publication, and education. By integrating insights from psychology, human development, resilience science, positive psychology, and related disciplines, the Institute seeks to build a rigorous theoretical foundation that informs future research, professional practice, and meaningful application.

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Research Areas

Identity Reconstruction

Examining how individuals rebuild a coherent sense of self following adversity, trauma, major life transitions, and significant personal change.

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Meaning-Making

Exploring the cognitive, emotional, and existential processes through which individuals develop meaning, purpose, and understanding from lived experiences.

Resilience

Investigating the psychological strengths, protective factors, and adaptive processes that enable individuals to respond effectively to adversity and life's challenges.

Human Flourishing

Studying the conditions that promote psychological well-being, purpose, meaningful relationships, personal growth, and long-term thriving.

Life Transitions

Understanding how individuals navigate developmental milestones, role changes, loss, uncertainty, and periods of significant personal transformation.

Restoration PRocesses

Developing theoretical models that explain how individuals move from adversity toward restoration by integrating evidence across multiple areas of psychological science.

Latest Publications

Featured Scholarship

RESTORATION PSYCHOLOGY® OVERVIEW

Research One-Pager

A concise overview of the field, its research areas, the 5R Restoration Model®, and the Institute's scholarly mission.

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About the Founder

Dr. Shannon Imhof-Clark, Ph.D., founded the Restoration Psychology Institute to advance scholarship on how individuals rebuild identity, meaning, purpose, and direction following adversity.

Through research, writing, teaching, and scholarly collaboration, she is developing Restoration Psychology® as an area of psychological inquiry while translating research into practical resources that support resilience, restoration, and human flourishing.