Therapist Aid-worksheets and tools for mental health professionals

https://www.therapistaid.com

Therapist Aid is a very useful website that has many tools available for mental health professionals.  The website allows you to choose which demographic you are working with, children, adolescents, or adults and provides worksheets and tools designed specifically for each population.  Therapy aid also allows you to search different topics, such as, anger, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, grief, and trauma.  There are also art therapy worksheets and projects available for each age demographic.  Therapy aid provides videos and articles that cover various topics including, depression, the anxiety cycle, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing exercises.  I have found the anxiety coping skills, healthy stress coping, and self-esteem worksheets to be very helpful for working with high school students. I also think that the Trauma information and worksheets provided are very sensitive and helpful in explaining what trauma is and its impact on a person. The trauma worksheets can be used to help a student process their own trauma and develop healthy coping strategies.  There are also informational videos  and worksheets on CBT and DBT.  There are worksheets that help with interpersonal skills, distress tolerance skills, emotion regulation skills, communication skills, challenging negative thoughts, goal development and much more.  I have used different worksheets from therapy aid in groups and one on one sessions and found them to be effective in both settings.  There are different membership types, but I have been using the free one and have been able to get a lot of worksheets, videos, and articles.

Art Therapy Exercises

The item of interest I have chosen is a website that presents about 100 different art therapy exercises. The website was put together by an emotion-focused counselor which provides external links to sources where ideas for activities are given. Some are better suited for work with younger students, others are more appropriate for work with older students, and others would be great for groups. I have been able to apply several of these lessons to my students who have a hard time expressing themselves verbally. These activities have been a great way of introducing topics of family, self-esteem, relationships, etc. The website breaks down the activities in different categories, so it is easy to find an activity that targets the population one is working with.

100 Art Therapy Exercises

Social Skills and Trauma Related Resources

I wanted to find some helpful ways to engage with students (especially on the teen level) when they do come down for check ins but there are no immediate concerns. As well as for my students who do have IEP’s, I was looking for other resources that I can implement with the students that are geared towards their goals. So I stumbled upon childtherapytoys.com. They have everything from sand trays and the miniatures, to books and games that can be categorized by age group. You can ‘shop by topic’ where they have a list of different mental health needs. For every mental health category there are different books such as workbooks and interactive activity books. Some of the books (not all) may look a little more outdated but there is a nice variety. One of the games that stood out to me was The Empathy Card Game.  The purpose of the game is to assist teens and children with how to understand someone else's feelings and to read nonverbal cues. This game is perfect for kids who have difficulty with social communication and a great way to build rapport and engage. The cards are separated into 3 categories: emotion cards, value cards and talking without words cards. The value cards will give the student a scenario and they would choose what the best choice would be based on the 4 options listed. The Emotion cards are more of questions pertaining to their emotional response to scenarios; again there are 4 options listed. The talking without words cards deals with more non verbal responses. An example is, “I’m going to make a face like one of the choices below. Guess which one I’m thinking about,” and then there are 4 options listed below such as, “my pet turtle died, I just flunked a spelling test, I just took a sip of spoiled milk, I ate too much for dinner.”

They have some really great books for the younger kids that really stood out to me. The Becoming A Superhero: A Book for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma book, which provides young kids with specific coping skills for dealing with trauma, includes strategies to reduces PTSD symptoms, helpful for prevention and intervention, and is the information is on research based techniques. I would also recommend checking Amazon for potentially cheaper prices.

The Mask You Live In

Being exposed to this documentary during Undergrad, was really eye opening and honestly felt a relief to see other men reflecting on the expectation to be a “man” today is toxic. The Mask You Live In discusses what it means to be a man in today’s society and the expectations and pressure that goes along with it. The idea of how exactly do we get these male gender norms that tell young boys that to be a man. Norms such as “You cannot cry, you have to play sports, get a girlfriend by treating them this way, and be this tough guy persona”. We live in a society that tell young boys to have this mindset at such a young age to just man up and move on. The Mask You Live In is a great tool to use in a school setting especially during their Freshman year and throughout as a way of exposure to themes such as defining what masculinity is to them, learned behaviors (nature vs nurture), resulting emotions feed into violence, and lastly the responsibility that men have today to towards the younger generation. By using this film and using the follow up questions from the film. Questions such as "How has your present-day definition of masculinity been informed? Have you actively challenged societal concepts of masculinity, or do you feel you have taken a more passive approach and absorbed gender norms?” I feel this is a great way to get young men to understand and reflect on where they stand and how they want to be. 

http://influencefilmclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/The-Mask-You-Live-In-Discussion-Guide.pdf

The Emotions Tree

This worksheet was shared with me last year during my foundation year field placement at Youth Services of Glenview/Northbrook. It was originally presented as a tool to use with children who have been impacted by trauma. It was recommended to me that I use it with a client and have him identify various members of his family and then explore the reasons behind his choices. I have since used this tool in a number of other ways. I have utilized this as a form of a family tree for adolescent clients of various backgrounds. I appreciate that the people around the tree do not conform to specific genders or sexuality so there is room for the client to pick and choose as they please. Additionally, there are a number of emotions portrayed by the people that can be interpreted by the client in various ways. I have also used this worksheet to explore emotions and broaden a client's emotional vocabulary. This can be especially useful with clients on the spectrum who may benefit from social skills therapy. This worksheet is so open ended! I welcome your thoughts and feedback on how this may fit you and your client's needs. 

Calm Classroom

The second item of interest I chose was Calm Classroom, by Jai and Joy Luster.  This is an evidence based program that uses mindfulness techniques to help students and teachers be more aware of themselves.  The program focuses on developing self-awareness, mental focus and inner calm.  Calm Classroom provides users with ways to manage stress, regulate their emotions, and live more balanced lives.  The program includes breathing, stretching, relaxation, and focusing methods to create a more mindful school climate.  Many of these techniques are written down by the authors and read to the class by the teacher.  Each technique takes roughly three minutes to implement by a teacher.  The teacher is supposed to do the activities three times a day at scheduled times.  These methods are not limited to just a school, they can also be implemented during individual sessions with students. 

Calm Classroom is ultimately dependent on the teacher or social workers consistency to utilize the methods provided in the curriculum; regular use will produce the most effective results.  Ultimately, the program encourages the development of empowered and self-aware students and emphasizes peace in ourselves and our communities.