Unlike many congenitally hearing-impaired persons whose level of hearing has become an integral facet of their identity, persons who lose their hearing frequently experience trauma. That experience is strongly influenced by psychological, social and spiritual factors. This session describes how these factors are interwoven to shape the psyches and life-stories of persons with acquired hearing loss and longstanding hearing loss, particularly how they affect the relationship between the hearing health professional and patient. In addition, this sesion will describe recent psychological research on resiliency that helps explain how and why some people cope and benefit by their disability while others succumb to it. There are well-defined and teachable methods and attitudes which foster positive psychological adaptation and growth. These include developing mentor relationships; having real and/or guided imagery dialogues with like-others; a variety of cognitive-behavior, stress reduction techniques and re-balancing how one fulfills eight key psycho-social needs.