You can move past toxic stress, let go of fear and anger, and build resilience! This workbook will show you how.
Do you often feel sad, anxious, angry, or upset and dont really know why? Do you no longer enjoy the things you used to enjoy, or feel like the world is a bad place? If youve experienced extreme stress or traumasuch as abuse, neglect, a family member's illness, or living through a natural disasteryou may need help healing and moving forward in your life. Its important to know that you are not alone, and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Most importantly, there are ways to feel better.
Written by an expert in teen mental health, this healing workbook offers powerful skills to help you overcome the effects of toxic stress, trauma, and adversity using mindfulness, neuroplasticity, and emotion regulation. Youll learn all about how your mind and body respond to stress, how to identify triggers, and how to ground and calm yourself in the moment when your emotions feel too big to handle.
If youre struggling with the effects of stress or trauma, you should know that you can move forward in your life with confidence, self-compassion, and resilience. This workbook will help you, every step of the way.
Teens who experience toxic stressstrong, frequent, and prolonged adversity such as family illness or economic hardships, neglect, and abusegrow up at risk for life-long mental and physical health consequences. Written by an expert in teen mental health, this important workbook offers powerful skills for overcoming trauma and adversity using mindfulness, neuroplasticity, and emotion regulation.
Foreword |
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Section I Your Go-To Trauma and Adversity Toolbox You Can Overcome and Recover from Prolonged Toxic Stress, Adversity, and Trauma |
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3 | (3) |
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Welcome Yourself to This Moment |
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6 | (2) |
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Things in This Moment: TITM |
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8 | (6) |
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14 | (4) |
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18 | (4) |
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Section II Your Life Experiences: Toxic Stress, Adversity, and Trauma Awareness and Insight Can Lead to Change, Growth, and Health |
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Activity 1 The Backstory on Pain and Stress |
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22 | (4) |
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Activity 2 How Stress Affects Your Functioning |
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26 | (7) |
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Activity 3 Toxic Stress and Your Safety |
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33 | (4) |
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Activity 4 Your Adverse Youth Experiences (AYEs) |
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37 | (7) |
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Activity 5 Your Lifeline: The Timeline of Your Life |
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44 | (6) |
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Activity 6 Your Adversity Response |
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50 | (5) |
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Activity 7 How Resources Impact Health Positively |
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55 | (6) |
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Activity 8 Dive Deeper: The Impact of Trauma in Your Life |
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61 | (4) |
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Activity 9 Responses to Trauma |
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65 | (4) |
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Activity 10 Negative Coping and Self-Harming Behaviors |
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69 | (6) |
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Activity 11 Not Having Resources Hurts Your Health |
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75 | (7) |
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Section III Navigate Your Adversity: Resource Yourself with Mindfulness-Based Skills Emotional First Aid to Help You Cope with and Work to Manage Stress |
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Activity 12 The Power of Mindfulness: Responding and Reacting |
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82 | (6) |
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Activity 13 Reactions to Trauma and Stress: Your Nervous System in Action |
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88 | (5) |
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Activity 14 Identifying Your Rocks: The Things Weighing You Down |
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93 | (6) |
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Activity 15 Your Relaxation Toolkit |
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99 | (3) |
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Activity 16 Your Brain in Action: Taking in the Good |
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102 | (3) |
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Activity 17 Grounding Yourself: Calm and Connect |
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105 | (5) |
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Activity 18 Choice Awareness: The Actions You Take and the Choices You Make |
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110 | (3) |
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Activity 19 Managing Your Anger Constructively |
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113 | (7) |
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Section IV Pivot and Start Again: Growing Through Adversity From Surviving to Thriving: Paving the Way Toward Health and Hope |
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Activity 20 Setting Healthy Boundaries |
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120 | (5) |
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Activity 21 Engaging in Self-Care to Be There for Yourself |
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125 | (7) |
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Activity 22 Cultivating Your Gratitude Garden |
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132 | (6) |
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Activity 23 Your Past Does Not Define Your Future |
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138 | (5) |
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Activity 24 Letting Go and Forgiving |
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143 | (6) |
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Activity 25 Treating Yourself with Compassion |
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149 | (5) |
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Activity 26 Building Your Tribe: Finding Those You Can Trust |
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154 | (5) |
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Activity 27 One Day at a Time: Drop Your Rocks to Lighten Your Load |
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159 | (6) |
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Activity 28 The Bank of Weil-Being |
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165 | (7) |
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Activity 29 Resourcing Yourself |
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172 | (3) |
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Activity 30 Controlling the Controllables |
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175 | (6) |
Safety Check |
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181 | (1) |
I Need Immediate Assistance Right Now |
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182 | (5) |
References |
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Gina M. Biegel, LMFT, is a San Francisco Bay Area-based psychotherapist, researcher, speaker, and author specializing in mindfulness-based work with adolescents. She is founder of Stressed Teens, which has been offering mindfulness-based stress reduction for teens (MBSR-T) to adolescents, families, schools, professionals, and the community since 2004. She created MBSR-T to help teens in a large HMOs outpatient department of child and adolescent psychiatry, who were not receiving relief or amelioration of their physical and psychological symptoms with the use of a multitude of other evidence-based practices.
Biegel is an expert and pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based approaches to youth. She is author of Take in the Good; Be Mindful and Stress Less; The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens; and the Be Mindful: A Card Deck for Teens. She also has a mindfulness practice audio CD, Mindfulness for Teens: Meditation Practices to Reduce Stress and Promote Well-Being to complement the MBSR-T program. She provides worldwide, intensive, ten-week online trainings, and works with teens and families individually and in groups. Her work has been featured on The Today Show and CNN, and in Psychology Today, Reuters, The New York Times, and Tricycle to name a few. For more information, visit her website at www.stressedteens.com.
Stacie Cooper, PsyD, received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University in 2009. She has counselled teens and young adults privately and in a variety of inpatient and outpatient settings, as well as led groups and psychoeducational trainings on adolescent mental health issues. She is certified in MBSR-T, and has facilitated workshops in community centres and schools throughout Orange County, CA