Teen Resiliency-Building Workbook (Teen Mental Health and Life Skills Workbook Series) (Spiral-Bound)

Reproducible Assessments, Exercises, & Educational Handouts

Building resiliency is critical in the life of teens. It is currently called a host of other names including hardiness, psychological resilience, emotional resourcefulness, and mental resiliency. Regardless of the name you choose, resiliency is the ability of a teen to interact with the environment, handle stresses that occur, and bounce back from these stressful events. It is the process by which well-being is promoted and protection factors are activated against overwhelming feelings of stress. Teens that have developed resiliency are able to bounce back from the negative impact of difficulties.

Resiliency can be thought of as a skill that allows teens to:

• manage life's challenges, stresses, changes, and pressures effectively
• cope with and adapt successfully to adversity
• bounce back to a balanced state after facing a major disruption in life or career planning

The Teen Resiliency-Building Workbook contains five separate sections to help participants learn more about themselves and how to build the resiliency which will enable them to thrive in times of adversity, change and stress. They will learn about the importance of building resiliency skills to turn change and stress into opportunities and challenges, to live life zestfully, and to take positive actions in order to live their lives with less stress.

Teens have an innate ability to demonstrate resiliency as they build resiliency skills into their lives. Resilient people are able to adapt successfully under adverse circumstances such as poverty, mental illness, disasters, terrorism, physical or psychological trauma, parents' divorce, parent's job loss and financial problems, family members in prison, loss of a loved one, peer pressure, physical or sexual abuse, self-induced pressure to achieve in school, or a lack of safety. Resiliency, or a positive behavioral adaptation, is critical when people encounter any type of trauma.

Teens that are resilient...

• work hard at school work and study because they enjoy it and want to achieve
• react in optimistic ways
• see problems and difficult situations as challenges
• take positive risks and actions
• think of changes as natural
• go with the flow
• have a high self-esteem, self-confidence, self-concept and sense of self
• thrive under challenging situations
• believe that they can influence events and their reactions to events
• recognize that with good stress comes growth
• have hope for their future
• overcome obstacles with confidence
• create goals and work at accomplishing them
• possess a keen sense of control over their life
• bounce-back from disappointments

Research also indicates that resiliency can be built through skill development by enhancing communication, developing an optimistic outlook, building a greater sense of control, creating a more realistic sense of self, and learning how to effectively deal with change. The purpose of this workbook is to provide teens with the requisite skills they need to manage their emotions and to develop and maintain resiliency.

The five sections of the book include:

• Optimistic Outlook Scale.
• Sense of Control Scale.
• Sense-of-Self Scale.
• Ability to Bounce Back Scale.
• Change Management Scale.