Toolbox Coping Cards

Feeling overwhelmed with uncomfortable emotions and tired of using coping strategies that just make
your life worse? Toolbox Coping Cards is a great and handy resource for those ready to feel
comfortable with their emotions by teaching how to manage emotions effectively. It is easy to use and
is interactive also allowing the user to engage others in this empowering process.

This app is a robust suite of coping strategies (very basic to complex) utilizing elements of empirically
based psychotherapeutic theories including Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy, Brief Solution Focused
Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy and Positive Psychology. And what’s just as important, the app is designed to make
“Learning to cope interesting and fun!™”

Here is an orientation to the app as well as some suggestions for use:

-When the app is opened for the first time each day a Toolbox Coping Card© of the day will appear. Use your back button to return to the menu.
Use it to challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone especially if it is a strategy you have
never used before. You might find it becomes one of your favorites.

-Open up one of the 6 emotions compartments if you believe you know your emotion
(http://www.merriam-webster.com for a thesaurus to find synonyms for each emotion) and select a
coping strategy to use. After using it rate your progress with this strategy by moving the ratings bar
from 1 (previously I would have used “Unhealthy Coping” to now this is my “Healthiest Coping”) to 10.
If you progressed anywhere from 7-10 this card will also be stored in your Favorites compartment.

-If you aren’t completely aware of your emotion(s) shuffle the cards and do the strategy that appears.
Again rate yourself based on the emotion and the effectiveness of this strategy by moving the ratings
bar at the bottom. If this strategy improved your coping you now have new insight and vocabulary to
express your emotion in the future and you’ve added this tool to your “Toolbox.”

-Use a Keep or Share™ card and share it via email with someone else you believe can benefit from
its message.

-Use Keep or Share™ cards, Encouragement™ cards, I Can C.O.P.E.™ cards, Get it in gear™ cards
and Human Equations™ cards when you want to reframe your thinking, boost your belief that you can
embrace your emotions vs. needing to escape them and that you deserve to use healthier coping.

-If you want to challenge your employees, family members or you are a teacher, school counselor or
mental health professional you can play games as a family unit or in classes or groups. Three “game
playing cards” exist that will randomly appear when you shuffle the cards. You might see an Alien
card, Ticket out of Denial card or a Wildcard. Be creative and invent ways to use these cards. For
example, if an Alien card appears you might want to be honest about a recent time when you didn’t
use healthy coping and what happened. With a Ticket out of Denial card you might want to talk about
a time when you used a healthy coping strategy and how doing so improved your situation. And if a
Wildcard appears you might challenge yourself by doing the challenges for the Alien card in addition
to the Ticket out of Denial card or you might get to select a family member, student or group member
to do either of the challenges for the other cards. But above all be creative and develop your own
uses too!