Dr Alia Bojilova: Being Held Hostages, the SAS & the Science of Thriving

Dr. Alia Bojilova former SAS lead psychologist, and the author of The Resilience Toolkit.

She’s worked with elite special forces soldiers, athletes, CEOs, people operating at the absolute edge of human performance.

But her story goes far beyond that.

In this conversation, we talk about everything from growing up in post-communist Bulgaria, where simple things like toilet paper, cheese and chocolate were rationed, to moving to New Zealand at 17 without speaking English, all the way through to working inside one of the most elite military environments in the world.

And then, there’s the moment where everything changes.

Alia shares, in incredible detail, the story of being taken hostage in Syria. A seven-hour ordeal involving armed militants, minefields, and the very real threat of an ugly execution.

But what’s remarkable isn’t just what happened: it’s how she processed it, what she learned from it, and how she’s used that experience to better understand human resilience.

Dr. Bojilova is a unique individual- she is a real breath of fresh air- smart, tough and very funny. I walked away from this one thinking differently. I hope you will too.

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