In the 1980s I began my career in education, becoming a teacher. Experience in the classroom and working in teacher training led me to realise the antagonism between educational theories and pedagogical practices conceived by teachers. On the one hand, there are teachers who are distressed and demotivated by teaching, and on the other hand, there are teachers who are enthusiastic, affectionate and dedicated to their work. This contradiction disturbed me and sparked a desire to understand this phenomenon, especially to study the intrinsic or extrinsic aspects of the teacher that favour coping with the adversities of the profession, fostering well-being and staying in the teaching career. The context of Brazilian public education today is complex and requires teachers to adapt and be flexible in the face of the various challenges to which they are exposed. In this way, learning about these challenges and the ways in which these professionals cope, based on the narratives of the research subjects themselves, made it possible to understand the process of resilience in teachers and its relationship with healthy development in a given school context.