Our Origin, Mission & Vision

In high-stress industries – such as emergency services, the military, and high-stakes corporate or finance – professionals are asked to perform under constant pressure. They must deliver their best work, make critical decisions in real-time, and stay composed in the face of adversity. But what happens when the weight of this pressure becomes overwhelming? How can organisations ensure their teams not only withstand stress but also continue to perform at their peak? These are the questions we aim to answer at Resilience Rises.

The Origin of Resilience Rises

Resilience Rises was founded by Dr Kat Aguilera, a Chartered Psychologist with over 13 years of experience working in high-stress environments. Dr Aguilera’s professional journey began in 2012 within His Majesty’s Prison Service where she worked as an assistant psychologist delivering Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) group programmes to offenders. Following this, she worked within a psychosis service in the NHS where she began her psychology doctoral training and her work as a trauma therapist. Dr Aguilera worked in the NHS for 10 years, leaving her last role as Lead Psychologist for the Hertfordshire psychosis service. Since leaving the NHS, Dr Aguilera has continued her work in trauma and runs a private trauma psychology practice as well as working with the veterans’ mental health charity, Combat Stress, helping veterans overcome PTSD as a result of their military service. Through her work in these sectors, Dr Aguilera has become intimately familiar with the psychological challenges faced by professionals who must maintain performance under extreme pressure.

Resilience Rises was born from a desire to address the gap between resilience and performance. While many organisations offer resilience training, few focus on how to help professionals excel in high-pressure environments long term. Dr Aguilera saw this gap as an opportunity to create an approach that combines resilience-building with performance enhancement, helping teams maintain optimal performance, even under the most challenging circumstances.

Our Mission

At Resilience Rises, we have a singular mission: to help high-stress organisations build sustainable, high-performing teams. We are committed to providing evidence-based psychological training that addresses both performance challenges and the underlying stressors that contribute to burnout, high turnover, and reduced team efficiency.

Our approach is about more than just preventing burnout – it’s about helping organisations optimise performance in a way that is both practical and sustainable. We believe that with the right tools, teams can manage their stress effectively while continuing to deliver outstanding results.

Our Vision

Our vision is to become the cornerstone of support for high-stress organisations. We aim to create environments where stress management and performance enhancement are deeply embedded in organisational culture. By equipping teams with the tools they need to manage stress, recover quickly, and continue performing at their peak, we help organisations become more resilient, efficient, and successful in the long term.

We see a future where high-stress organisations are equipped to not only survive the demands of their industries, but excel. By focusing on both resilience and performance, we aim to help teams maintain high levels of productivity, even in the face of ongoing pressure.

Our Core Values

At Resilience Rises, we are guided by a set of core values that shape everything we do:

• Commitment to Practical Solutions: We believe that the best solutions are those that are rooted in practicality. We provide tools and strategies that teams can use in their daily operations, ensuring that our interventions lead to real, measurable improvements in performance.
• Evidence-Based Practices: Our programmes are grounded in psychological research and proven methodologies. We don’t rely on trends or quick-fix solutions; instead, we focus on psychological strategies that have been tested and shown to deliver long-term results.
• Sustainability: Performance enhancement is not a one-time effort. We work to ensure that the changes we implement are sustainable over time, helping teams continue to perform at their best, even as the demands on them increase.
• Tailored Approaches: Every organisation is unique, and so are its stressors. We tailor our interventions to meet the specific needs of each team, ensuring that our solutions address the root causes of performance issues.

How We Support High-Stress Organisations

Resilience Rises is more than just a training provider – we are a strategic partner for organisations looking to improve team performance in high-stress environments. We offer a comprehensive range of services designed to address the specific challenges that come with high-pressure roles.

Our programmes are designed to help organisations:

• Reduce burnout and absenteeism: Burnout is one of the leading causes of reduced performance and turnover in high-stress environments. Our interventions focus on helping teams manage stress effectively, reducing the risk of burnout and improving overall productivity.
• Improve team cohesion and collaboration: High-stress environments can strain team dynamics, leading to communication breakdowns and conflicts. We provide strategies to strengthen team cohesion, improve communication, and enhance collaboration, ensuring that teams work together effectively, even under pressure.
• Enhance decision-making under pressure: Professionals in high-stress roles must often make quick decisions in high-stakes situations. Our training equips teams with the tools they need to remain focused, make sound decisions, and respond effectively to challenges.

The Future of Resilience Rises

As we look to the future, we remain committed to helping organisations thrive in high-stress environments. We continue to refine and improve our methodologies, ensuring that we stay at the forefront of stress management and performance enhancement.

Our vision is to expand our reach, working with a wider range of organisations across different sectors. As the demands on high-stress industries grow, the need for practical, sustainable performance enhancement strategies will become even more critical. We are ready to meet that challenge, providing organisations with the tools they need to build high-performing teams that can withstand the pressures of their roles.

In summary, Resilience Rises is more than just a company – we are a partner in helping high-stress organisations unlock their full potential. We believe that resilience is not about bouncing back from adversity; it’s about building the capacity to consistently perform, even in the most demanding conditions. Through our evidence-based, practical approach, we help organisations become stronger, more cohesive, and better equipped to handle the challenges of today’s high-pressure world.