Assess Your Stress
NOTE: This is a Zip file and contains two folders: one with the instructions and files for printing and one with files for screen sharing.
Product Description
Assess Your Stress is a Social Emotional Learning (SEL) tool that can help your clients/students:
1) learn the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress.
2) engage in dialog with you to assess the impact of stress on their lives.
3) learn about the role of coping strategies (”stress-busters”) in helping them deal with stress.
What can you use Assess Your Stress for?
1. Social Emotional Learning (promotes SEL goals of self awareness, self-management, and problem solving)
2. All types of counseling and therapy (as an assessment and treatment tool)
3. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (includes introduction to central CBT concepts)
CONTENTS
Introduction ……………………………………….…………..5
Part 1: Healthy vs Unhealthy Stress ……………………….6
Part 2: Levels of Stress (The Stressometer) ………….……….7
Part 3: Detect the Facts (Facts vs Thoughts) ……..….……….8
Part 4: Assess Your Stress (Stress Assessment) ..….…..…9-11
Part 5: Top Four Stress-Busters .…………..…..………….12
ACTIVITY PAGES
for print version (8.5x11)
Healthy vs Unhealthy Stress .………………….……………14
The Stressometer ……………………………….……………15
Detect the Facts cards ………………………….……………16
Assess Your Stress ………….………………….……………17
Top Four Stress-Busters ……………………………….……18
ACTIVITY PAGES
for screen share version (11x20)
are included in a separate file
INTRODUCTION:
Rationale:
Stress is a natural part of life and some stress can actually be good for us--it’s called healthy stress. However, too many stressors and/or too few effective strategies for coping with stress cause unhealthy stress. It is helpful for clients/students to be able to accurately identify not only the sources of stress (the stressors) in their lives but also to be able to measure their personal stress level, assessing where they fall on the healthy-unhealthy stress continuum.
Application/Treatment modality:
This activity is an assessment tool for individual work with a client/student.
Goals:
1. Teach the client/student about the difference between healthy and unhealthy stress and the role of coping strategies in responding to stressors.
2. Introduce the “Stressometer” as a tool to differentiate and describe: a) levels of stress and b) success in using coping strategies.
3. Help the client/student identify situations in their lives that cause stress, both healthy and unhealthy. In making these identifications, they practice differentiating facts from thoughts.
4. Lead the client/student through an assessment (Assess Your Stress).
5. Bonus Activity: Top 4 Stress Busters
If the client/student has revealed significant levels of stress, it is important to follow up by letting them know that your role is to help them:
• eliminate or transform some of the stressors in their life;
• learn some healthy methods of coping with stress. Top 4 Stress Busters can
be used to introduce them to four categories of coping strategies.