Resilience is a concept derived from life experience. It offers a better understanding of various factors that, through their interactions, help the person, their family or their community carry on with their lives despite a sobering prognosis and emerge from it, sometimes for the better. This article has several objectives : to define the concept of resilience ; to describe how it differs from and resembles other concepts — such as coping, empowerment, and a sense of coherence — that have been proposed for rehabilitation interventions with persons presenting physical impairments ; to develop a concept of resilience that comprises personal, family and community dimensions ; to compare the concepts of resilience and bereavement, since persons who sustain a trauma or live with physical disabilities sometimes face multiple losses and bereavements ; and to develop potential applications of resilience in physical rehabilitation.