5 Free Coping Skills Worksheets
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Healthy coping mechanisms are something that everyone needs, regardless of age or what brought them to therapy in the first place.
Not all coping skills are created equal, though. Some are healthier and more productive than others, and as therapists, it’s partly up to you to help your clients learn which coping skills work best for them.
What are healthy coping skills?
Coping skills are the tools and techniques we use to endure when something isn’t going the way we would like it to. We use them to stay calm and connected in difficult or stressful situations. They’re especially useful in situations that we don’t have the power to immediately change.
Coping skills are personal to each individual, and what works for some people might not work for others. But in general, here are some healthy coping skills that might be a good place to start:
- Meditation or other relaxation techniques
- Physical activity like taking a walk or playing a sport
- Doing something creative, like writing, drawing, or playing an instrument
- Practicing spirituality
- Spending time with family, pets, or other loved ones
- Good sleep hygiene and nutritious meals
Many of these coping skills are accessible and affordable to most clients, making them a good starting point to see if any of them help. Examples of unhealthy coping skills would be things like:
- Drinking or using drugs
- Avoiding the problem
- Bottling up emotions
- Working too much or using other distractions
- Denial
As you work with your clients to understand their concerns and stressors, you can start to discover which healthy coping skills might work best to help alleviate their stress.
Coping skills worksheets for adults
If you work with mainly adult clients, they may have an idea already of what coping skills work best for them. If they don’t, these coping skills worksheets can serve as clarifying tools to help them figure out what mechanisms work best in what scenarios.
Stressors & resources worksheet
This stressors & resources worksheet is a tool to help your clients identify what their sources of stress and anxiety are and target those stressors more effectively. This coping skills worksheet is quite simple and has just two columns: one for stressors, and one for resources or methods that can help cope with those stressors.
If you want to add another layer to this worksheet, you can encourage your client to create sections for present, past, and future stressors.
Coping with stress worksheet
The coping with stress worksheet is a tool to help your clients identify the areas of their life causing them stress, and recognize the impact those areas have on them.
This coping skills worksheet can also help your clients find new, more adaptive coping mechanisms. The worksheet is in two parts, with the first part being more focused on self-reflection. Have your clients list out scenarios where they feel stressed, and then their physical and emotional symptoms when those scenarios occur.
In part two, invite your client to reflect on what kinds of coping skills they currently use in these scenarios, and if appropriate, instruct them to imagine what more adaptive strategies they could use if their current ones aren’t working.
Healthy vs. unhealthy strategies worksheet
The healthy vs. unhealthy strategies can be used as a reference for your clients to use in their daily life, while also encouraging them to think about whether any of their current strategies could be more successful.
Work together with your client to list out both unhealthy and healthy coping mechanisms. You can create a list for them, or you can work together to include strategies they already currently use. It also may be worth noting to your client that not all coping mechanisms fall neatly into a “healthy/unhealthy” dichotomy. Some can be useful in small doses but problematic in large doses (avoidance, for example, may actually help some people in the short term if they’re feeling flooded). Others may have different outcomes depending on how and when they’re used.
From there, the worksheet instructs your client to describe a problem and then list any unhealthy strategies and what the consequences of those strategies might be. Then, brainstorm healthier strategies they could use instead, as well as the expected outcome of using them and what potential obstacles might prevent them from using a healthy strategy.
Coping skills worksheets for kids
If you work mainly with children or adolescents, these coping skills worksheets for kids can be a good way to break down the ideas of coping skills to an age-appropriate level.
Bubbling over coping skills worksheet
The bubbling over coping skills worksheet is a way for your young clients to indicate the level of intensity of the emotions they’re feeling. The worksheet is broken out into three sections: a safe simmer, a rolling boil, or bubbling over. Depending on the age of your clients, you may need to adapt these or discuss together what each of those states looks like in real life.
For each level of boiling, have your client describe what they feel like or think in each of those stages. Then, have them brainstorm what coping skills might help them at each stage return to a safe simmer. You can do this worksheet together with your clients, or if they’re old enough, you can have them do it as homework and then discuss it together in your next session.
Picking good coping skills worksheet
The picking good coping skills worksheet helps your younger clients identify the difference between healthy and unhealthy coping skills. The worksheet lists out a variety of both good and bad coping skills. Have your client circle, color in, or otherwise indicate which coping skills are healthy or good, and which ones aren’t. You can then use this worksheet to imagine situations, either real or hypothetical, that your clients may need to put one of these skills to use.
You can put the worksheets in this free bundle into use in your practice right away, or you can use them as a starting point to brainstorm ideas and figure out what works best for your practice and your clients. Sign up for emails from SimplePractice for more free resources and worksheet ideas.
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