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Coping with Change Workbook – Featured Product!

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Coping with Change WorkbookFacilitator Reproducible Guided Self-Exploration Activities

In today’s society, many people find themselves living through multiple, extensive, often debilitating changes in their lives. Change manifests itself in many facets of a person’s life including: workplace, health, home and family, and social network.

Although change has always been a part of the lives of human beings, the rate of this change is increasing exponentially, increasing the stress in people’s lives. Change is not going to stop, and must be managed carefully to avoid elevated stress levels to continue over extended periods of time. The ability to cope with change is rapidly becoming a critical life skill that can be the difference between living a life of success or one of disappointment.

The Coping with Change Workbook contains assessments and guided self-exploration activities that can be used with a variety of populations to help participants cope more effectively with the various forms of change. Each chapter of this workbook begins with an annotated Table of Contents with notes and examples for the facilitator. Each chapter contains two primary elements:

1. A set of assessments to help participants gather information about themselves in a focused situation, and
2. A set of guided self-exploration activities to help participants process information and learn more effective ways of behaving to cope with anxiety in their lives.

The activities are divided into four chapters to help you identify and select assessments easily and quickly:

Chapter 1: Types of Change helps participants identify and explore the changes that are currently occurring in their lives, as well as identify and explore the changes they anticipate in the future.
Chapter 2: Change Management helps participants identify the life skills they possess in managing the change in their lives.
Chapter 3: Ways to Cope with Change helps participants explore how well they are coping with change in their lives, and learn some techniques for enhancing their ability to cope with change.
Chapter 4: My Attitude helps participants explore their attitudes related to future change in their lives.

All of the guided activates are fully reproducible for use with your clients/participants.

Life Changes and Stress

Internal or external change is unavoidable. If too much happens too fast, you’ll end up feeling stressed. If things change too slowly, you’re bored.  Both positive and negative changes are stressful and your mind and body need time to recover. Increased stress is medically linked to illness, so take it easy. It’s no simple task to do so, since life changes come in clusters. Think about it. When you’re moving, you’re not just changing your house; you’re changing your physical climate, job, friends, church, schools, grocery store, and social activities. Some changes are easier to handle than others, but trying to prevent change altogether is asking for trouble. We all need change in our lives.

If things are too static, try saying yes to something you haven’t done before.  If things are changing too fast, say no, and don’t let yourself feel guilty! We all need time off, and you can’t please everyone.

Sometimes, life will spin out of control. At crisis moments, you need a survival plan.  Remember coping skills that have worked in the past, and apply them to your current disaster. Hold on to what works.  Let go of what doesn’t.

Life Changes Checklist

Mark all of the life changes that you have experienced over the past year.
PERSONAL CHANGES

  • Personal injury, illness or handicap
  • Pregnancy (yours or a partners’)
  • Change in religious views or beliefs
  • Change in financial status
  • Change in self-concept
  • Ending a relationship
  • Change in emotional outlook
  • Change in roles
  • Buying or selling a car
  • Aging
  • Change in habits

-Alcohol

– Drugs

– Tobacco

– Exercise

– Nutrition

FAMILY CHANGES

  • Marriage
  • Family members leaving home
  • New family member(s)
  • Separation/divorce
  • Trouble with in-laws
  • Partner stopping/ starting a job
  • Illness/healing of a family member
  • Death of a close friend or family member
  • Parent/child tensions
  • Change in recreational patterns

WORK CHANGES

  • Changes work load
  • Change in play
  • Starting a new job
  • Promotion/ demotion
  • Retirement
  • Change in hours
  • Change in relationships at work
  • Change in job security
  • Strike
  • Change in financial status

ENVIRONMENT CHANGES

  • Natural disaster
  • Holidays
  • Vacation
  • Remodeling
  • War
  • Major house cleaning
  • Crime against property
  • Moving to a new
  • House or Apartment
  • Neighborhood
  • Climate
  • Culture
  • City
  • State
  • Country

  • How did these changes affect you?
  • What was one change that had a surprising effect on you?

· What was one change that had a surprising effect on you?