Mental Health Support

Synthesizing their learning, students create a 'Break the Glass' emergency plan for days when they feel low or anxious. They select their most effective pleasure and mastery activities and write specific implementation intentions (If I feel X, then I will do Y).

Students review the results of their personal experiments or case study data to identify patterns in how specific activities impact mood. They discuss the variability of results (what works for one person may not work for another) and begin curating their personal 'top hits' for mood improvement.

This lesson introduces the concept of 'acting opposite' to an emotion. Students design a short experiment to test the hypothesis that engaging in a positive activity—even when they don't feel like it—can improve their mood rating on a 1-10 scale. They prepare a data collection sheet for a homework experiment.

Students distinguish between activities that feel good in the moment (Pleasure) and those that make us feel accomplished (Mastery). Through a sorting workshop, they brainstorm examples for both categories, understanding that a balanced diet of experiences includes both fun and achievement.

Students participate in a discussion and mapping activity to visualize the cycle between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. They identify how doing nothing often leads to feeling worse (the downward spiral) and how small actions can reverse this.

Students identify their core values and interests to ensure their behavioral activation goals are personally meaningful and sustainable.

Students anticipate obstacles and create 'if-then' plans while practicing self-compassion for when things don't go as planned.

This lesson examines the role of avoidance in maintaining low mood and anxiety, contrasting short-term relief with long-term consequences.

Students strategically populate a weekly calendar with their chosen activities, treating self-care as a priority appointment.

Learners analyze their collected data to identify 'nourishing' and 'depleting' activities, uncovering patterns that influence their emotional well-veing.

Students learn to break down large tasks into 'micro-goals' to overcome inertia using the 5-minute rule.

Students learn the skill of self-monitoring by tracking their daily activities and associated mood levels using an objective logging system.

Students explore the cyclical relationship between behavior and emotion, learning how to interrupt negative loops through intentional action.

Students brainstorm a personalized list of activities categorized by time and energy level to create a 'Mood Menu'.

Students distinguish between pleasure-based and mastery-based activities and audit a sample schedule for balance.

Students develop 'If-Then' contingency plans to overcome barriers and reflect on acting according to a plan versus a feeling.

Students draft a realistic weekend schedule using graded task assignments to break down overwhelming goals.

Students distinguish between 'Pleasure' and 'Mastery' activities and brainstorm a personal inventory for mood-boosting.

In this workshop, students track their current activities to identify baseline patterns using a retroactive 'Mood Map'.

Students investigate the 'lethargy cycle' versus the 'activation cycle' and map how behavior influences emotions through case studies.

Final reflection, celebration of growth, and planning for the journey ahead.

Reviewing various coping skills and creating a personalized 'Survival Kit' for future use.

Focusing on the power of breath and mindfulness as internal tools for regulation.

Identifying cognitive distortions or 'tricky trails' and learning to reframe thoughts using a 'Thought Compass'.

Understanding the physical 'alarm system' of the body and learning grounding techniques to stay present during 'storms'.

Introduction to the group, establishing norms, and identifying individual stress triggers using the 'Stress Landscape' metaphor.

A fast-paced formative assessment game where students identify the four pillars of maturity through real-world scenarios. Includes a visual slide deck, a bank of 60 scenarios for the teacher, and reference cards for students.

A fast-paced formative assessment game where students identify the four pillars of maturity (Emotional, Social, Intellectual, and Physical) through real-world scenarios. Includes a visual slide deck, a bank of 40+ scenarios for the teacher, and reference cards for students.

A comprehensive 40-minute lesson designed to help middle schoolers recognize test anxiety and build a toolkit of cognitive, physical, and mindfulness-based coping strategies.

A social-emotional learning lesson designed for an 8th-grade student who enjoys open-world survival games. The lesson uses gaming metaphors to explore healthy versus unhealthy coping strategies for managing anxiety, anger, and routine changes.

A supportive lesson designed for a 6th-grade student to navigate grief, identify complex emotions using a feeling wheel, and master 'I Feel' statements to improve communication with family.

A 35-minute interactive session exploring the mind-body connection with social media. Students use somatic mapping to identify emotional triggers in their most-used apps and learn strategies for digital safety based on the TCFSH 'DMs to Double Taps' guide.

This lesson prepares students in grades 3-8 for high-stakes testing through physical readiness, morning routines, and mental performance strategies.

A visualization and goal-setting lesson designed to help students navigate the final quarter of the school year with intention, focus, and a clear vision of their future selves.

A comprehensive lesson designed to help teens understand their emotional triggers, recognize physical warning signs, and build a personalized toolkit of regulation strategies through guided reflection and daily planning.

The final session reviews key takeaways, celebrates progress, and includes the 'Mission Accomplished' post-assessment to measure growth in attitudes toward attendance.

Students connect their daily presence in school to their long-term 'Galaxy Goals' and future career aspirations, understanding that every day in school is a step toward their dreams.

Focuses on building 'System Checks' through morning and evening routines. Students design their own 'Routine Radar' to ensure a smooth launch every school day.

Students identify personal 'asteroids' (barriers) that prevent them from getting to school consistently and develop creative strategies to navigate around them.

In this introductory session, students explore the direct link between attendance and school success. They complete their initial 'Launch Log' pre-assessment and map out their current feelings about school.

A supportive lesson designed for a 6th-grade student to navigate grief, identify complex emotions using a feeling wheel, and master 'I Feel' statements to improve communication with family.

A supportive resource set designed for middle schoolers navigating the loss of a pet. Includes a counselor's guide for small group sessions, a set of reflective journal prompts, and an individual worksheet focused on coping strategies.

A restorative SEL lesson designed to help a student understand the serious impact of verbal threats and develop healthy coping mechanisms for intense anger. This lesson focuses on the 'ripple effect' of words and provides a concrete toolkit for de-escalation.

An art therapy session focused on exploring self-identity, navigating emotional transitions, and building distress tolerance through creative expression and mindfulness.

A practical and engaging lesson designed to help students navigate and adapt to unexpected school staff changes using the PIVOT coping strategy.

This lesson explores the psychological impact of transitions and teaches students healthy strategies for processing endings and saying goodbye. It covers the emotions of parting, the importance of closure, and practical 'ritual' techniques for moving on.

A social-emotional learning lesson focused on navigating major life transitions like graduation or moving, helping students process goodbyes and embrace new beginnings.

A creative counseling session designed for students who are hesitant to share feelings verbally. This lesson uses a "Hidden Gallery" art activity to explore the difference between public personas and private emotions in a low-pressure, symbolic way.

A small group lesson designed to help students navigate grief by identifying emotions, expressing feelings through art, and finding healthy ways to remember loved ones.

A supportive small-group session for students to express and process grief through a creative art activity and guided discussion.

Creating meaningful ways to honor the person who died and maintaining their legacy.

Identifying personal growth, strengths, and finding meaning in the journey toward healing.

Developing self-advocacy and communication skills to share needs with friends, family, and teachers.

Exploring secondary losses and the 'ripples' of grief that affect daily life, routines, and relationships.

Focuses on building communication tools for navigating difficult conversations with family members. It introduces 'I-statements' and strategies for staying regulated during conflict.

This lesson focuses on identifying internal emotional states through creative expression and developing self-regulation tools for moments of intense grief or anger.

A focused session for a small group of students to process changes in school staffing, exploring their feelings and developing coping strategies for transitions.

A gentle and supportive activity focused on sharing cherished memories of loved ones through creative story starters and guided discussion.

A social-emotional learning lesson designed to help students navigate the departure of a community member, team mate, or teacher, focusing on change as a natural life cycle and developing healthy coping mechanisms.

An adaptable counseling session focused on understanding the complex emotions of grief and change, featuring feelings mapping and coping strategy development for K-12 students.

A foundational lesson designed to help students define grief, identify its various causes, and recognize the diverse emotional, physical, and cognitive reactions it can trigger. This lesson builds empathy and emotional literacy through reading and guided discussion.

Students write artist statements and participate in a silent gallery walk to share and witness each other's emotional journeys.

Students synthesize their skills to create a mixed-media piece that represents their personal journey through a difficult transition or loss.

Students brainstorm and sketch personal symbols that represent memories and feelings, bridging the gap between abstract emotion and concrete imagery.

This lesson focuses on the physical act of drawing and how different line qualities can release tension and map emotional energy.

Students explore how different colors evoke specific emotional responses through art analysis and create a personal emotional color wheel to establish a non-verbal vocabulary.

Students synthesize their journey into concise six-word memoirs and engage in future-oriented journaling to visualize integration and hope.

Students practice writing personal experiences from a third-person perspective to create psychological distance and foster self-compassion during the grieving process.

Students utilize the epistolary format to address unsaid thoughts and feelings to people or things that are gone, providing a structured outlet for closure.

Students use reductive methods to find meaning in existing texts, creating blackout poetry as a way to express complex emotions when original words feel out of reach.

Students learn the technique of timed freewriting to bypass the 'internal editor' and access subconscious thoughts about loss in a safe, private way.

Students synthesize their work into a narrative of resilience, focusing on their growth and future. The lesson ends with a 'future casting' postcard exercise to acknowledge their capacity for healing.

Learners study the epistolary format and write unsent letters to people or places they have lost. This exercise provides a safe container for saying the 'unsaid' and finding emotional closure.

Students design personal rituals for opening and closing their boxes, establishing boundaries and self-care practices for processing grief.

Students practice the art of curation by selecting, creating, and reflecting on the items that will inhabit their memory boxes.

Students investigate the use of figurative language to describe the intangible nature of grief. They move from matching visual imagery to emotions to constructing their own extended metaphors for personal loss.

Students use artistic techniques like collage and decoupage to physically build and decorate their memory boxes, engaging in the meditative process of making.

By redacting existing text to reveal hidden poems, students find words for complex emotions without the pressure of starting from scratch. This lesson focuses on creative reduction and identifying resonance in external narratives.

Students move from observation to creation by designing a container meant to house their memories, focusing on symbolic representation and structural planning.

Students explore stream-of-consciousness journaling as a method for 'emotional dumping' and raw self-expression. Through timed 'brain dump' exercises, they learn to bypass their inner critics and access their authentic feelings.

A session dedicated to identifying who in a student's life is safe to talk to and how to prepare for more difficult conversations with family.

A session focused on the 'other half' of communication—how to listen with empathy when someone else is being vulnerable, and how to feel heard.

An introductory small-group session for two students focused on identifying the gap between internal feelings and external expressions, and building the initial courage to share.

A collection of intake and referral forms for school counseling programs, focused on building a holistic understanding of a student's social-emotional needs through student, teacher, and parent perspectives.

Students identify and reframe 8 common cognitive distortions using an Uno-inspired framework. This lesson combines social-emotional learning with academic growth mindset strategies through interactive slides, a custom card game, and reflective practice.

The introductory materials for the Brain Glitch Defense curriculum, including the facilitator guide, roadmap, and core objectives.

The core lesson of the Brain Glitch series, introducing cognitive distortions as 'system glitches' and using a cooperative board game to teach students how to identify and debug them.

The final curriculum review and introduction to Core Beliefs. Students synthesize their learning to create a 'Master Patch'—a set of balanced core beliefs for long-term mental resilience.

Addresses 'Emotional Reasoning' and 'Labeling'. Students learn to identify when their emotions are overwriting logic and how to strip away harmful labels from their self-identity.

Targets 'Catastrophizing' and 'Fortune Telling'. Students learn to stop the 'what if' spiral by assessing actual probabilities and creating contingency plans.

Explores 'Mind Reading' and 'Personalization'. Students act as signal decoders to separate actual social cues from glitched assumptions about what others are thinking.

Focuses on 'All-or-Nothing' thinking and 'Mental Filtering'. Students learn to identify binary thinking patterns and practice finding the 'gray area' between extremes.

Effective communication techniques for resolving disagreements with friends and family. Students practice "I" statements and active listening to build stronger relationships.

Strategies for sharpening mental clarity and managing distractions. Students experiment with different focus hacks and brain breaks to find what helps them stay on task.

Tools for identifying and navigating intense emotions like overwhelm and sadness. Students learn grounding techniques and emotional literacy to find their calm in the middle of a storm.

Consolidates learning into a long-term wellness plan and sets small, achievable goals for personal growth and independence.

Focuses on challenging negative self-talk and building a supportive inner voice to combat feelings of unworthiness.

Teaches the importance of personal space, emotional boundaries, and how to communicate needs respectfully but firmly.

Explores the mother-daughter relationship through a lens of 'needs and gaps', helping the teen understand what she needs and how to seek it elsewhere if necessary.

Introduces practical grounding techniques, sensory coping strategies, and 'low-energy' activities for days when depression feels heavy.

Students synthesize their learning by creating a personal coping plan and reflecting on their growth throughout the group.

Introduces physical and environmental coping strategies, including deep breathing, grounding techniques, and healthy lifestyle habits.

Focuses on the connection between thoughts and feelings, teaching students how to challenge negative self-talk and reframe stressful situations.

Students will define stress, identify their personal 'stress triggers', and learn how their bodies react to pressure.

A lesson designed for middle school students to identify emotional states and deploy self-initiated regulation strategies using a modern 'system dashboard' metaphor.

A comprehensive 40-minute lesson designed to help middle schoolers recognize test anxiety and build a toolkit of cognitive, physical, and mindfulness-based coping strategies.

A social-emotional learning lesson designed for an 8th-grade student who enjoys open-world survival games. The lesson uses gaming metaphors to explore healthy versus unhealthy coping strategies for managing anxiety, anger, and routine changes.

A lesson on physical and breathing techniques for stress management, designed for individual counseling sessions. It includes an anchor chart for the student and a facilitation guide for the counselor.

A comprehensive toolkit for 14-year-old boys to manage anxiety, intrusive thoughts, and guilt using CBT and mindfulness techniques with a tech-inspired 'System Override' theme.

A comprehensive set of tools for teachers to support students experiencing work avoidance or shutting down, focusing on emotional regulation and proactive intervention.

An independent mission for middle schoolers to develop situational awareness, learn campus safety protocols, and identify trusted adults for emergency communication.

Visual cues and routines to help toddlers understand and follow the steps of using the potty.

A bird's-eye view of the Social Emotional Superpowers sequence, providing teachers with the pedagogical framework and unit-wide implementation strategies.

Middle schoolers practice perspective-taking and de-escalation techniques to handle interpersonal conflicts effectively.

A reflective journey where students shift from fixed to growth mindsets through guided journaling and goal-setting.

An interactive exploration of non-verbal communication, body language, and situational awareness through card-based analysis and scenarios.

Students learn to identify anxiety triggers and build a personalized toolkit of coping strategies including breathing exercises and grounding techniques.

Using CBT techniques to build a step-by-step exposure plan for returning to school and reframing anxious thoughts.

Introduction to distress tolerance skills like TIPP and ACCEPTS to manage overwhelming emotions in the moment.

Students learn to identify physical sensations of distress and name their emotions to increase self-awareness.

Students create a personalized toolkit of sensory strategies and reminders to support radical acceptance in their daily lives.

Students practice observing thoughts as external objects (like clouds) to create distance and reduce impulsive reactions to internal distress.

Using the wave metaphor, students learn that emotions are temporary and practice 'surfing' through distress rather than fighting it.

Students learn and practice specific DBT-based somatic skills—Willing Hands and Half-Smile—to communicate safety to the brain and facilitate acceptance.

Students identify physical signs of resistance in their bodies when facing difficult emotions and practice a guided body scan to build interoception.

Students synthesize their learning to create a peer-facing resource guide for mental health support.

Students learn to recognize warning signs in digital environments and develop a checklist for online safety.

Students explore protective factors that build resilience and assess their own personal support systems.

Students categorize coping strategies into adaptive and maladaptive behaviors, understanding the 'why' behind harmful actions.

Students identify external events that can trigger a crisis and create cause-and-effect maps to understand how stressors accumulate.

A lesson for middle schoolers to learn the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique as a practical tool for managing the emotional overwhelm often associated with grief.

A foundational lesson designed to help students define grief, identify its various causes, and recognize the diverse emotional, physical, and cognitive reactions it can trigger. This lesson builds empathy and emotional literacy through reading and guided discussion.

Exploring and practicing practical coping strategies and self-care techniques to manage stress and difficult emotions.

Identifying and expressing complex emotions related to parental incarceration through guided discussion and somatic mapping.

Establishing a safe, supportive environment by building rapport, setting clear expectations, and co-creating group norms.

Culminates in students creating a personal troubleshooting guide or 'User Manual' that synthesizes their data into actionable self-advocacy and coping strategies.

Explores the difference between a student's baseline mood and reactive spikes, investigating how external factors like sleep and diet impact emotional elasticity.

Focuses on the temporal nature of emotions by graphing emotional waves over time, emphasizing that feelings rise, peak, and naturally fall.

Students analyze logs to identify specific triggers (negative shifts) and glimmers (positive shifts), categorizing the inputs that influence their emotional landscape.

Students synthesize their learning by creating a personal coping plan and reflecting on their growth throughout the group.

Introduces physical and environmental coping strategies, including deep breathing, grounding techniques, and healthy lifestyle habits.

Focuses on the connection between thoughts and feelings, teaching students how to challenge negative self-talk and reframe stressful situations.

Students will define stress, identify their personal 'stress triggers', and learn how their bodies react to pressure.

Final reflection, celebration of growth, and planning for the journey ahead.

Reviewing various coping skills and creating a personalized 'Survival Kit' for future use.