The Resilience Workbook for Kids: Fun CBT Activities to Help You Bounce Back from Stress and Grow from Challenges

by Caren Baruch-Feldman PhD, Rebecca Comizio MA, MEd, Robert Brooks PhD (Foreword by)

Overview

Fun and easy skills to help kids bounce back from stress and rebound from adversity.

As a parent, you want to protect your child from life’s difficulties. But this isn’t always possible. In order to face the uncertainty and inevitable setbacks of life with confidence, children need the right tools. The good news is that you can give them these tools. Designed for kids ages 7 to 12, this workbook provides actionable techniques to help kids cope with stress, manage powerful emotions, and grow through life’s challenges.

The Resilience Workbook for Kids offers engaging activities grounded in evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and positive psychology to help your child recover from difficult experiences. Your child will learn how to “make friends with” their emotions, focus on the things in life that make them happy, and connect with what really matters to them. Finally, your child will discover how helping others can make them feel good about themselves, so they can move beyond feelings like sadness, fear, and anger.

Resilience can help kids stay strong and recover from the psychological impact of stress. This workbook will help your child find the tools needed to build resilience in the face of stress, so they can bounce back even better.

In these increasingly challenging times, kids and teens need mental health resources more than ever. With more than 1.6 million copies sold worldwide, Instant Help Books are easy to use, proven-effective, and recommended by therapists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781684039180
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	04/01/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	208
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	7 - 12 Years

About the Author

Caren Baruch-Feldman, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and a certified school psychologist. She maintains a private practice in Scarsdale, NY; and works as a school psychologist in Harrison, NY. She is also author of The Grit Guide for Teens. Baruch-Feldman has authored numerous articles and led workshops on topics such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques, helping children and adults cope with stress and worry, helping people change, and developing grit and self-control. She is a fellow and supervisor in rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), a type of CBT. Visit her online at www.drbaruchfeldman.com.

Rebecca Comizio, MA, MEd, was named Connecticut’s 2019 School Psychologist of the Year. She is a practicing school psychologist, and licensed professional counselor at the New Canaan Country School in New Canaan, CT; and the Waverly Group in Old Greenwich, CT. Comizio is founder and cohost of the School Psyched Podcast. She also serves in leadership roles for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Comizio is coauthor of 70 Play Activities for Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning, and Behavior.

Foreword writer Robert Brooks, PhD, is coauthor of Raising Resilient Children and The Power of Resilience.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

A Letter to Parents and Professionals xii

A Letter to Kids xv

Part 1 Understanding Resilience

Activity 1 What Is Resilience? 3

Activity 2 How Resilient Are You? 8

Activity 3 Why Resilience Matters 11

Activity 4 Stress: Helpful vs. Unhelpful 15

Activity 5 Toxic Stress 29

Part 2 Making Emotions Your Friends

Activity 6 Naming Emotions to Tame Them 29

Activity 7 Feeling Emotions in Your Body 34

Activity 8 Accepting the "Yuck" 38

Activity 9 Pumping Up Positive Emotions 43

Activity 10 Developing an Attitude of Gratitude 49

Activity 11 Staying Present and Mindful 52

Activity 12 Being Your Own Best Friend 56

Part 3 Creating Resilient Thinking

Activity 13 Thinking, Feeling, and Doing 69

Activity 14 Discovering Your Thinking Traps 71

Activity 15 Challenging Your Negative Thoughts 81

Activity 16 Building Optimism 90

Activity 17 Growing a Growth Mindset 96

Activity 18 The Power of "And" and "Yet" 100

Activity 19 Tapping into What's Important 101

Activity 20 Hope and "Failing Forward" 108

Part 4 Resilient Actions' Ready, Set, Go!

Activity 21 Building "I Can Do It" Muscles 119

Activity 22 Being Brave 123

Activity 23 Coping with Hard Things 127

Activity 24 Solving Problems and Seeking Solutions 131

Activity 25 Bending, Not Breaking 136

Activity 26 Using Your Strengths 141

Activity 27 Taking Care of Yourself 145

Part 5 Building Resilience All Around You

Activity 28 Making Connections 157

Activity 29 Finding Your Community 160

Activity 30 Helping Others 163

Activity 31 Developing Meaning and Purpose 166

Activity 32 Putting It All Together 171

Acknowledgments 182

Answer Key 182

Interviews

Baruch-Feldman resides in Scarsdale, NY; Comizio resides in Greenwich, CT.

Editorial Reviews

It’s hard to be a kid today. Kids see more, know more, and do more today than ever before but some of what they see are bad examples, some of what they know is challenging to everyone, and some of what they do are what those bad examples encourage. This book is a practice field for good, showing children in a step-by-step way how to develop the flexible strength needed to prosper. If you love children, you will love the support for healthy growth this book provides. Highly recommended.”
—Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Nevada Foundation Professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno; and originator and codeveloper of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Steven C. Hayes

The Resilience Workbook for Kids is filled with tons of rich ideas and creative strategies to help children develop resilience. The ideas are presented in ways that will work both for children and for the adults who work with them. The graphics, puzzles, and interactive features are quite attractive and make pursuing resilience fun. I heartily recommend this book to educators, caregivers, and kids!”
—Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD, scholar in residence at UM-St. Louis, and author of many SEL books, including The Formative Five

Thomas R. Hoerr

This terrific workbook is filled with tips and techniques to help kids develop their resilience. The activities and reflections allow kids to be deeply involved in learning about themselves in a fun way. This is an invaluable resource for parents, teachers and counselors.”
—Lea Waters, PhD, author of The Strength Switch

Lea Waters

A fitness routine for emotions. A guide to beating stress. A road map to mental wellness. The Resilience Workbook for Kids is all of this wrapped into an exciting and engaging tool kit for young people facing emotional challenges. From introducing and teaching the science of resilience, all the way to practice and habit building, this book is a total wellness package.”
—Renee Jain,New York Times bestselling coauthor of Superpowered, and founder of GoZen!

Renee Jain

How do we help children build resilience? By giving them The Resilience Workbook for Kids! This brilliant guide is professional and practical, timely and timeless, warm and wise. Children need to build their resilience muscles; Caren Baruch-Feldman and Rebecca Comizio have written the book that will serve as the perfect gym.”
—Lisa Damour, PhD, author of Untangled and Under Pressure

Lisa Damour

Resilience is more than a buzzword. It’s a critical component of our health and wellness because it allows us to weather and withstand life’s challenges big and small. The Resilience Workbook for Kids is a beautifully written, inclusive, engaging, fun, work-as-you-go guide with relevant and sensitive examples that will help kids understand resilience and strengthen it within them. A timely must-read for kids, teens, and the adults who mentor, teach, and love them.”
—Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult

Julie Lythcott-Haims

The Resilience Workbook for Kids is a practical, kid-friendly book full of accessible and evidence-based activities for self-directed learning. It gives young people clear directions on why each skill is an important resilience skill, and how they can learn, do, and strengthen it. This workbook superbly achieves rigor in terms of the psychological constructs and research on which the activities are based, and a format that will actively engage young people. Resilience is more important than ever, and I highly recommend this book to parents, teachers, and to the young people in our lives.”
—Toni Noble, PhD, adjunct professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at Australian Catholic University; and coauthor of the award-winning Bounce Back! Wellbeing and Resilience Program

Toni Noble

Caren Baruch-Feldman and Rebecca Comizio have written a wonderful, science-based guide to help children manage their emotions and enhance their resilience. Authoritative, comprehensive, and accessible, The Resilience Workbook for Kids is a gift.”
—Ethan Kross, PhD, director of the Self-Control and Emotion Laboratory, and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan; professor of management and organizations at Ross School of Business; and author of Chatter

Ethan Kross

This urgently needed workbook brilliantly engages young people to build their resilience skill sets. They’ll be better prepared to handle life’s curveballs and to get the most out of life in joyful times. I love that this work honors emotions and teaches kids how to own them, process them, and even celebrate that they have them. Critically, The Resilience Workbook for Kids will also prepare you to be the kind of adult who can nurture young people in their resilience journey. I genuinely believe this wonderful tool kit will change lives!”
—Kenneth R. Ginsburg, MD, MS, Ed, coauthor of Building Resilience in Children and Teens, and director of the Center for Parent and Teen Communication at www.parentandteen.com

Kenneth R. Ginsburg

This book is a much-needed guide to help children navigate the world today. A highly creative, engaging, and enjoyable book for children, and one that can help all kids build their resilience.”
—Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, humanistic psych psychologist; author of Transcend, Wired to Create, and Ungifted; and host of the Psychology Podcast

Scott Barry Kaufman