The Resilience Workbook for Teens: Activities to Help You Gain Confidence, Manage Stress, and Cultivate a Growth Mindset

by Cheryl M. Bradshaw MA

Overview

It’s time to realize your full potential! In The Resilience Workbook for Teens, you’ll learn to bounce back from setbacks, develop grit and a growth mindset, and overcome any obstacle that comes your way.

Social media, online ads, and glossy magazines make it look easy to be a teen—everyone seems to be laughing, sun-kissed, beautiful, surrounded by friends, and wearing the perfect clothes. But if you’re like most teens and young adults, reality doesn’t look like a magazine ad, lifestyle blog, or Instagram feed. You may struggle with not fitting in or being bullied. You may feel overwhelmed by stress, experience a significant setback, or lose a parent or loved one. That’s why it’s so important to build resilience—the cornerstone of mental health and wellness. This workbook will show you how.

In The Resilience Workbook for Teens, author, psychotherapist, and youth mentor Cheryl M. Bradshaw will show you that the key to building resilience lies in your relationship with yourself. Through activities and interactive exercises, you’ll learn to balance your emotions, rewrite the negative stories you tell yourself, embrace who you are, and believe in your own power to bounce back from life’s biggest challenges.

The teen years are a critical time to learn the skills of resilience and to develop positive strategies for coping with stress and mental health challenges. Let this fun and friendly workbook guide you as you build your own resilience. It’s a gift you’ll take with you, beyond high school and well into adulthood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684032921
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	05/01/2019
Series:	Instant Help for Teens Series
Edition description:	Workbook
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	141,197
Product dimensions:	7.90(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	13 - 17 Years

About the Author

Cheryl M. Bradshaw, MA, is a registered psychotherapist working in private practice, and author of How to Like Yourself—a self-esteem guide for teens that was a #1 new release in its category on Amazon. She has been featured on various television shows, radio shows, and podcasts, including Breakfast Television, Global’s The Morning Show, CBC Radio, and Today’s Parent. Her book was also selected as a 2016 Foreword INDIES Finalist for the 2016 Young Adult Nonfiction category. In addition, Cheryl received the inaugural Outstanding Alumni Award from Yorkville University in 2017. Cheryl served as a counselor at both Sheridan College and the University of Guelph. She also has a background in teaching, and continues to work with and volunteer with schools and charities to talk about youth and young adult mental health, self-esteem, and also to support parents with their teens.

Cheryl resides in Hamilton, ON, Canada, with her husband, Andrew, and their dogs, Darwin and Kiara. Find out more about Cheryl at www.cherylmbradshaw.com, and on social media @cherylmbradshaw.

Table of Contents

A Note For Educators, Mental Health Professionals, And Parents vii

Dear Reader ix

Goal 1 Adapting To Change

Activity 1 Rewiring the Brain 2

Activity 2 Storytelling and Perspectives 8

Activity 3 Letting Go of Your Old Story 13

Goal 2 Overcoming Adversity

Activity 4 Understanding Stress 20

Activity 5 Grit and Growth Mindset 26

Activity 6 Distress Tolerance: The Ice Cube Experiment 35

Activity 7 Direct Discomfort Versus Indirect Discomfort 41

Goal 3 Finding Your Strength

Activity 8 Fear-Turn "What If" Into "I Can" 50

Activity 9 Letter To Yourself 56

Activity 10 Vulnerability: Finding the Strength to be Yourself 60

Activity 11 Taking Chances 68

Activity 12 Assertive Defense of the Self 73

Goal 4 Keeping Perspective

Activity 13 Self-Care 82

Activity 14 Mindfulness 90

Activity 15 Values Chart-What Drives You? 95

Activity 16 Life Is Messy…And Messy Can Be Funny 101

Goal 5 Staying Focused

Activity 17 SMART Goals 108

Activity 18 The DOTS of Avoidance 113

Activity 19 Keeping the Inner Critic in Check 120

Activity 20 End of Book Check-In 129

Acknowledgements 133

Works Cited 135

Interviews

Bradshaw resides in Hamilton, ON, Canada.

Editorial Reviews

Cheryl is an amazing, relatable, and down-to-earth psychotherapist. Her book is easy to follow, funny, and captures the most up-to-date strategies in mental health. Strategies such as self-care, mindfulness, goal setting, and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) make this a go-to book for any adolescent—one struggling with everyday issues or one who is struggling with more persistent mental health concerns. Cheryl makes the reader feel as though she is talking to them one-on-one. The exercises make the book fun. A good self-help book for teens, or a great resource to be used in conjunction with therapy.”
—Quynn Morehouse, PsyD, clinical psychologist in private practice in Portland, ME

Quynn Morehouse

What an incredible resource! Cheryl’s warm and down-to-earth voice provides an engaging invitation for teens (and their parents) to understand themselves more deeply. Through metaphors and powerful stories, Cheryl helps teens understand that they are not alone in feeling like their inner landscape sometimes seems like unfriendly territory. This book provides a clear road map and simple, fun activities for anyone who is ready to understand the patterns they’ve been in, see their own inner strength, and embrace who they are. I’m so excited to share this book with my clients!”
—Deanne Barrett, MA, teenage expert and life coach, founder of HeartShift Club for Moms of Teens, and director of Gratitudeworks Enterprises Inc. in Calgary, AB, Canada

Deanne Barrett

In The Resilience Workbook for Teens, Cheryl M. Bradshaw has achieved the impossible. She has written an evidence-based workbook on building resilience that will intrigue teens and effectively help them develop the factors that foster resilience. In a voice that is present and personal, she seems to be sitting next to the teen as she makes sense of theory, acknowledges resistance to change, and then makes change possible in small, interesting steps set up in a workbook format. Cheryl clearly knows teens and knows how to engage them in developing resilience. Her book is a contribution to teen development.”
—Suzanne B. Phillips, PsyD, ABPP, psychologist, psychoanalyst, coauthor of Healing Together, and host of Psych Up Live on International Talk Radio

Suzanne B. Phillips

In The Resilience Workbook for Teens, Cheryl brilliantly pulls together a range of activities and tools that have helped me better understand myself; a book every young person needs to read. As a young adult trying to figure out my purpose and where I fit in this world, this accessible, practical, and easy-to-read guide allowed me to work these things through, alongside an author who felt like not only a mental health professional, but a confidant and friend who wanted absolutely nothing but the best for me. Anyone, at any age, can learn something from the concepts, ideas, and activities in this book. I wish I could hand this to my younger self and would encourage anyone reading this to share it with all the young people in your life.”
—Jessica Fazio, youth mental health advocate and speaker, www.jack.org network representative alumna, IAYMH executive member, and passionate leader and changemaker

Jessica Fazio

Adolescence can be a challenging time for many individuals, and learning to adapt and be resilient in the face of so many changes can be especially difficult. The good news is, resilience is a set of skills that can be learned. In The Resilience Workbook for Teens, Cheryl Bradshaw has transformed resiliency skill building into practical, engaging, and memorable activities to help you learn to bounce back from whatever life has to offer. Her writing is clear, charming, and engaging. Cheryl’s warmth and compassion shows through as though she is in the room with you, guiding you on your journey.”
—Sheri Turrell, PhD, clinical psychologist working with teens and adults in Toronto, ON, Canada; Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) peer-reviewed ACT trainer; and coauthor of ACT for Adolescents

Sheri Turrell

Achieving success in any arena stems from having grit, and The Resilience Workbook for Teens is a wonderful resource. Cheryl Bradshaw knows how young people think and work, and she has written an engaging and practical how-to book that contains a wealth of strategies and activities that will develop self-awareness and lead to resilience. These pages facilitate reflection, analysis, and action. I am sure that it will be very helpful to any young person (and be useful to not-so-young people, too!).”
—Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD, emeritus head of the New City School; scholar in residence at the University of Missouri–St. Louis; and author of The Formative Five

Thomas R. Hoerr

Engaging and transformative! The Resilience Workbook for Teens fuses acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and CBT in the perfect recipe for change. An essential resource that delivers the ingredients and fosters hunger for teens to make meaningful change in the relationship they have with themselves!”
—Erin Lipsitt, MSW, RSW, counselor/therapist at the University of Guelph, and mother of teens

Erin Lipsitt

The Resilience Workbook for Teens is an interesting, important, and fun guide for young people to develop their resilience skills in the face of an ever-growing stressful world. Cheryl Bradshaw has created exercises that are highly engaging. I would highly recommend this book to teens and those who work with teens. Can’t wait to use the workbook with my clients!”
—Caren Baruch-Feldman, PhD, psychologist and author of The Grit Guide for Teens

Caren Baruch-Feldman

In our world today, many youths lack the ability to face challenging situations without becoming overwhelmed, often resulting in escalating stress, anxiety, and depression. The Resilience Workbook for Teens offers a full array of different types of activities to help teens gain confidence in their ability to traverse emotionally charged situations, face their fears, be vulnerable, and come out on top. Writing exercises allow readers to articulate their own feelings and values, and checklists offer specific ways in which readers can directly take care of themselves when energy is low. A great resource for all teens!”
—Karen Bluth, PhD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry, and fellow at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and author of The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens

Karen Bluth

So many of us who work with young people have been asking for a manual exactly like this one. It is full of practical examples, easy-to-understand science, and engaging exercises ideal for high school students, mental health professionals, and parents who are keen to help teens improve their resilience. Integrating new ideas about individual resilience, Bradshaw offers readers a tool for self-reflection and a deeper understanding of how stress and self-doubt make teens vulnerable. It’s a great resource, ideal for both clinical and educational settings.”
—Michael Ungar, PhD, author of Change Your World; Canada research chair in child, family, and community resilience; and professor of social work at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, Canada

Michael Ungar

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