Coping skills education

The purposes of this assignment:

• See yourself as capable of helping others make changes
• Practice client, family, and community education (WAC 246-811-030.3.n)
• Promote your own wellness.

Tasks:

1. Review the variety of articles, blogs, and videos provided in this unit:

We come to this work to help people. One of the best ways we can do so is to empower them with healthier coping mechanisms, with better ways of dealing with distress. Please read/watch the following guidance. While doing so, consider whether (or how) you could help others learn these skills. Keep in mind that people using a variety of different coping strategies tend to have the best results.

• , ideas from social worker Amy Morin (2020).
• Javier Sanchez (2018) shared his TED Talk
• . This video is 15 minutes long.
• A
• (with a LONG list of ideas) from Courtney Akerman.
• Addiction counselor and person-in-recovery Mandy Saligari’s (2017) TED Talk is
• . Her talk is 18 minutes in length.
• SAMHSA (2020) offers some ideas for
• after a disaster.
• Preetha Ji made her presentation
• in 2017.
• Finally, we have
• from therapist Kati Morton (2018).

Charles Darwin helped the world learn that those beings who adapt to their circumstances survive and thrive much more often than those who do not. Coping skills are tools to help us adapt, to manage our feelings during difficult times.

Some of us need reminders of our options. Or new ideas. Or encouragement to make use of the strategies we’ve learned. Or external validation that they can work, that they are worth the effort. We hope that you can provide clients with ideas and motivation.

1. Consider the (sometimes harmful) choices people make to reduce the distress caused by difficult emotions.
2. Look for alternatives to such behaviors. Research realistic options, coping skills that ordinary people can use amid stress, fear, sadness, hunger, anger, loneliness, or fatigue. Look for skills that people can use in the moment, on their own, when their counselor (or even friends) are not available.
3. Choose one skill. Practice it.
4. Create a handout describing how to use the coping skill. On the handout indicate a trustworthy source that validates the use of this skill. Submit that handout here. (This is submission #1 of 2 you make for this assignment.)
5. Record a video teaching the coping skill. Submit that video (or a link to it) here. (This is submission #2 of 2 you make for this assignment.)

The instructor will share your flyers and videos with classmates through the , for their education.

Notes: Choose a skill that is realistic and shown to be effective.

Coach. Teach. Clearly identify the coping strategy. Explain to people what to do, how to do it, and why. Tell me & show me what to do.

This, too, is a real world job skill. Case managers, care coordinators, and counselors regularly coach their clients on these skills. This is a chance to develop your ability to do so.

Create the sort of materials (video and handout) that you could provide to clients in need.

Grading criteria: Please see this

.

Help available/useful sources of information: This course module is full of ideas! You can also use other outside resources: counselors, self-help books, academic journals, the internet… Students who took PSYC 330 can borrow ideas from that course. DBT is full of self-help skills intended to be used as alternatives to risky or harmful behaviors. Here’s an example of a previous and

(provided with their approval). BTW, our campus library has loaner equipment with which to make recordings.

Suggestions: Start early. Give yourself time for the steps involved.

Focus on one skill. Focus on a skill, rather than an activity.

Teach that skill in writing and via demonstration. Show how to do it and explain.

Focus on the skill, not the problem.

AI use encouragement and rules for this assignment: For this assignment students ARE ENCOURAGED to explore the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Any such use must be appropriately acknowledged and cited, as explained in the program handbook. (Passing off any AI generated content as your own will be treated as plagiarism. Any copy and paste submission is plagiarism. Any use of AI-generated language without it being cited as a quotation is plagiarism. If you have any questions about what constitutes a violation of this requirement, please contact the instructor.) Because AI generated content is not necessarily accurate or appropriate it is each students responsibility to assess the validity and applicability of any generative AI output that is submitted.