Coping Skills Practice Exercise

Instructions For Coping Skills Practice Exercise:

1. The following activity uses some common emotionally upsetting experiences pre-teens may have. This activity is designed to help kids practice healthy coping skills to get over these kinds of upsets more easily. First, you”ll want to read through the 3 Lessons about the “Coping Brain.”

2. Next get a paper and pencil so you can write down each of these six upsetting experiences that may cause a pre-teen to become stressed or upset.

3. Listed below are six examples of experiences that effective coping skills can help you to get over. Start by reading through the list of upsets to see if there is one of these that has really happened to you! Start the exercise using that one.

4. If you”ve not experienced any of these six upsetting experiences, write down another upsetting situation you”ve had that”s been hard for you to get over . Start the exercise using that one.

Important Reminder: There are no “right” or “wrong” answers in this exercise. This exercise helps you to learn by practicing coping skills using words that describe what your real feelings and experiences might be.

Write down this list and answer questions for each of these statements:

EMOTIONALLY WOUNDING EXPERIENCES PRE-TEENS MIGHT HAVE

• I have to move to another city far away from my friends.
• My pet dog or cat dies.
• A person I like doesn”t want to do things with me anymore.
• Some students call me bad names.
• A friend is spreading false rumors about me.
• Someone I trust has been lying to me.
• A group of kids are laughing and making fun of me.
• I”m being criticized in front of others.

Remember, if you haven”t had any of the above experiences, write down an upsetting experience you”ve had that was difficult to get over.

Next – go on to the exercise below:

Coping Skills Practice for Getting Over Each Above Upset

For each upsetting experience write down your answers to these 4 ?”s

1. Name which types of upset your experience might be called. Is it a Loss; Rejection; Betrayal or Humiliation? (Hints: You can look up meanings of these and other words by clicking Definitions Page. Remember, any upsetting event could be more than one of these 4 types of upsets .

2. What does this upset make me feel like inside? (Hint: Try to use words other than just: “mad,” “bad” or “sad”)

3. How does this upset make me feel about myself? (Hint: You might use names you might call yourself because of having this experience.)

4. This upset hurts since it tells me what is really important to me. (Hint: Usually this answer shows what you really want and need that is the opposite of the upsetting experience you”ve had. So write down what positive thing you”ve found out about yourself by going through this upset and coping exercise.)