When we get goosebumps at a concert, when our eyes tear up at the words we hear spoken onstage, or when we hold our breaths out of excitement during some other type of performance, what we’re experiencing are one-of-a-kind moments that can’t be reproduced in all their aspects—or, for that matter, repeated in exactly the same way.

After eighteen months of more alone-time than usual, including some long periods of purely digital contact with others, more than a few of us have ended up with a new take on how we feel about community and the presence of others.

Numerous factors—be they social, economic, or of some other nature—play significant roles in how we’ve been dealing with the situation that has faced us since March 2020. One of these significant factors is what we call “resilience”.

Therapists Marion Herbert, Evelyn Jahn, and Alexander Parte provide insights into their work, point out the themes that dominated the COVID crisis, and reveal what can help us (better) deal with such situations.

Be it a concert for hospitalised cancer patients, a neighbourhood forum in a newly developed residential area, or making music together in a park: community outreach can take on all kinds of shapes.

One needn’t to look far to see how things like undue political influence, state interventions, economic conditions, national borders, and lots more can infringe upon human rights, whose enjoyment thus by no means goes without saying.