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Coping Skills Part 1

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This 3-minute video for students and families features Mental Health Therapist Stephanie Dann talking about coping skills (part 1). Coping skills are anything we do to help us with uncomfortable thoughts or feelings. Think about coping skills like a buffet, you should try lots of them and you can use different kinds based on the situation. -Distraction is absorbing your mind in something else, examples include conversation, tv, reading, arts and crafts, video games, listen to music, organize, clean, do a project -Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment, examples include noticing sights, sounds, smells around you, scanning your body and noticing how it feels, deep breathing -Catharsis is letting out how we feel physically, examples include run, cry, laugh, yell/scream, cold shower, popping bubble wrap, dance, journal, playing sports Challenge: Use distraction, mindfulness, or catharsis as a coping skill this week, extra points if you try something you have never done before! Try to “sample” something new from the coping skill buffet.

Show Transcript

Hi. My name is Stephanie Dann. I'm a mental health therapist that works with the White River School District and today I wanted to talk about coping skills. Coping skills are anything that we do, or use when we're having a hard time, to help us. I like to think about coping skills like a buffet. There's lots of different things that you can use, and you can try lots of things. So today I wanted to talk to you about three different categories of coping skills. The first one is called distraction, and distraction, it just means observing your mind into something else that's not the problem. So examples of this might be talking to somebody else not about the problem, TV, reading, arts and crafts, video games, listening to music, organizing, cleaning, doing a project. What's good about distraction is it provides really short term immediate relief. It does work. It can be helpful in a crisis, and it also gives you a chance to take an emotional and mental break. Some of the negatives of using distraction, is it's not a long-term solution to the problem. It doesn't get to the root of the issue and it really can be over used. The second category of coping skill that I want to talk about today is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment on purpose, keeping our mind in the here and now and not focusing on the past or the future. Examples of this might be paying attention to the sights, sounds, and smells around you. Scanning your body and noticing how it feels, deep breathing excercizes, eating a snack, and paying attention to what it tastes like. Even things like changing our physical sensations, like holding an ice cube. Mindfulness can be good because it brings you back to the present moment and it often decreases negative emotions like anxiety, sadness, and anger. One of the cool things about mindfulness is that you can do it anywhere. Some of the negatives about mindfulness is, it's difficult to do in a crisis and it often takes some practice. The third and final coping skill category I want to talk to you about today is called the catharsis. Which just means letting it out! Letting out how you feel. Because often how we feel is accompanied by our body feeling uncomfortable. So some examples of catharsis are things like running, crying, yelling laughing, taking a cold shower, popping bubble wrap, dancing journaling, even playing sports. Some of the positive things about catharsis is it's really useful for intense emotions like anger, and helps you to feel the emotion all the way through. Some of the negatives about using catharsis is you can't always do it in public. That would be embarrassing if we're yelling at a meeting, and it's not a long-term solution to the problem. So those are three categories of coping skills. Distraction, mindfulness and catharsis. Try using one of those this week. And next week in my video I'm going to talk about three more categories of coping skills that you might consider using.

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Coping Skills Part 1

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