How It Works

The stress/trauma to coping trajectory

Stress and trauma disrupt our minds, feelings and bodies.  For example: when we are stressed or traumatized, we may

• have difficulty concentrating (mind)

• struggle to manage our fear (feelings)

• hyperventilate (rapid breathing) or become immobilized (freeze) – (body)

Each of these stress/trauma symptoms can impact our stability and functioning both during and after a stress/trauma event

• if we are having difficulty concentrating (mind) –

  • we can’t complete a task during a crisis event, e.g., compliance with an emergency directive (functioning)

  • we can’t complete a task at school or work (functioning)

• which can cause frustration, sense of failure, low self-esteem (feeling instability or dysregulation)

•  while we are struggling to breathe (rapid breathing) and/or to move(freeze)(body)

When we are in this “disrupted state”, our minds, feelings and bodies naturally seek the return to normal, our “resting state”. 

This seeking to return to normal, to calm, manage our “disrupted, distressed, dysregulated state”, is our coping response.

This is the stress/trauma to coping trajectory – and it is filled with risk for children.  Children are vulnerable, dependent, have few resources and limited to no understanding of risk and consequences.

• When children know healthy (adaptive) coping skills, they can use the skills to return to a “resting state”, restoring their stability and functioning, preserving themselves and others.

• When children don’t know healthy coping skills, they use anything that’s available:  if that is unhealthy, (maladaptive) coping, their instability and dysfunction increases, damaging themselves and others.

The sooner a child can return to a resting state in a healthy way, the better their present and future use of healthy coping to manage stress and trauma and the lower the risk for turning to unhealthy coping. COPECARD® is designed for early healthy skills training (promotion) and intervention.

How COPECARD® 10 works

COPECARD® cards are designed to enter a child’s life either before a stress/trauma event for coping skills training or during/after a stress trauma event for coping skills intervention.   

The cards present core skills for managing stress and trauma symptoms with proven efficacy.  For example, deep breathing can improve concentration (mind), decrease anxiety (feelings) and lower one’s respiratory rate (body).  It is amazingly simple: easy to learn and easy to use – it’s healthy and it works.  It restores a sense of self-control to a child as they learn to “down-regulate” (calm their anxiety) on their own. It increases social engagement (essential for asking for help) and improves thinking clarity (essential for problem solving).  These two skills, asking for help and problem solving, can save a child’s life amidst a crisis – and it can start with breathing : learning to activate their parasympathetic nervous system (Visit How it Works : 5 Finger Breathing or Trace 8 Breathing)

These skills are the real deal.  The cards present them in a user-friendly format:  colorful, low-text/high visual, easy to understand, easy to implement. Stress and trauma are the leading causes of unhealthy coping. These cards can help to break that risk chain.  Children will use healthy coping when they know it.

How to Implement COPECARD® 10

1.       Identify the skills:  COPECARD® 10 presents eight core coping skills on 10 cards. Visit How It Works for detailed information on the skills.

• breathing (2 cards) : 5 Finger Breathing / Trace 8 Breathing

• grounding (2 cards) : 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding / Look Around

• feeling identification : I am Feeling

• movement : Move Your Hands

• muscle relaxation : Sit + Move

• psychoeducation : Body Signs of Stress

• art : Draw to Cope

• help seeking : Ask for Help

2.       For coping skills training, when using the cards before a stress/trauma event:

• practice the skills with the child, review examples of when to use them

• encourage the child to keep the cards accessible, “ready for use”

• look for opportunities to actively use the skills to cope, reinforcing the child’s capacity to implement and building “coping self-efficacy”

3.       For coping skills intervention, when using the cards during or after a stress/ trauma event:

• Assess with the child the skills best suited to their symptoms and needs.  For example:  a child who is hyperventilating needs to use a breathing skill first before they can talk about their feelings.   Another example:  a child who is non-verbal, might start with a grounding or drawing skill before a breathing or feeling skill.

Children are intuitive - they will find their way to the cards that help them in the moment, with gentle guidance and support. Respect their process, encourage them to keep going, knowing that healthy coping, resilience to stress and trauma, is learned behavior. As child psychiatrist and trauma expert Dr. Bruce Perry says, “Resilient children are made, not born.” Let’s help children build resilience.

Click here to see the COPECARD Data Sheet