Restoration Psychology Institute™
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.
Research Areas
Identity Reconstruction
Examining how individuals rebuild a coherent sense of self following adversity, trauma, major life transitions, and significant personal change.
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
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.
In addition to leading the Restoration Psychology Institute, Dr. Shannon Imhof-Clark regularly shares this work through speaking engagements, educational workshops, teaching, writing, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
