Family Change & Crisis ― Reproducible Activities to Address the Challenges Families Face Today

changes, and then go into crisis-mode. However, not all families have a crisis as a result of the stress from change. Resilient families are able to rebound from adversity, to flex in response to the pressures and strains of everyday family life, to become stronger after the change, and to adapt with more resources at their disposal. Resiliency refers to the coping strengths of the individual members, and the combined coping strengths of the family as a whole. Families who exhibit resiliency are flexible when dealing with stress, have coping strengths that can be called upon when experiencing a stressor, and have the ability to reorganize in the face of stress to become stronger and better.In order to maintain an effective and useful family unit, family members must develop skills for managing change, coping with stress, and building resiliency from external and internal stressors. The Family Change & Crisis Workbook provides assessments and self-guided activities to help family members explore old patterns of interaction and behavior that are no longer effective, and to identify ways to develop more effective interactions and behaviors. Many choices of self-exploration assessments and activities are provided for family members to use collaboratively with other family members to develop a healthy family unit. The Family Change & Crisis Workbook is designed to be used either independently or as part of an integrated curriculum. You may administer any of the assessments and the guided self-exploration activities to an individual or multiple family members with whom you are working, or you may administer any of the activities over multiple sessions. Feel free to pick and choose those assessments and activities that best lead to the outcomes you desire. The assessments and activities are divided into four chapters to help you identify and select assessments easily and quickly. Chapter I: Family Changes This chapter helps family members explore the types and intensity of the stressful changes the family is currently going through.Chapter II: Family Stress This chapter helps family members explore how well they are managing their current family stress and explore ways to cope more effectively with change and stress.Chapter III: Family Crisis This chapter helps family members explore how difficult a change can be on some or all family members and ways to manage and cope with issues and crises. Chapter IV: Family Resilience This chapter helps family members explore ways that the family can come together and build resilience as a family after stressful changes and crises.

Ester A. Leutenberg has worked in the mental health field for many years as a publisher, author and advocate for those suffering from loss. She personally experienced a devastating loss when her son Mitchell, after struggling with a mental illness for eight years, died by suicide in 1986. Soon after, as a way of both healing and helping others, Ester co-founded Wellness Reproductions & Publishing with her daughter Kathy Khalsa and they developed these therapeutic products: The SEALS series for teen-agers, Life Management Skills series for adults and Meaningful Life Skills for older adults, as well as a variety of other therapeutic card games, board games and posters. With Whole Person Associates, Ester has co-written the following series of reproducible activity workbooks and card decks created for facilitators: GriefWork, Mental Health & Life Skills, Teen Mental Health & Life Skills, Mind-Body Wellness, Coping, Transitional Life Skills for Teens and Erasing the Stigma of Mental Health through Awareness. Ester has also co-written the following individual books: Creating a Healthy Balanced Life, Motivation, The Complete Caregiver Guide, Veterans Surviving and Thriving, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, and Life Skills to Help Teens Balance WAY TOO MUCH! John J. Liptak, Ed.D, frequently conducts workshops on assessment-related topics. He has written three books on career-related topics and these books have been featured in numerous newspapers including The Washington Post, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Associated Press. His work has also been featured on MSNBC, CNN Radio and on the PAX / ION television series, “Success without a College Degree.” John has many years of experience in providing counseling services to individuals and groups in a variety of settings including job training programs, correctional institutions, and colleges and universities. In addition, John has about ten years of teaching experience as an assistant professor. With Kathy Khalsa and Ester Leutenberg, he has written three other comprehensive books for teachers and counselors to use with their students and clients: The Self-Esteem Program, The Social Skills Program and The Stress Management Program: Inventories, Activities & Educational Handouts. Ester and John have co-written the Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series, the Teen Mental Health & Life Skills Workbook Series, Coping Workbook Series, and the new Mind-Body Wellness Series.