Mental Health Skill-Building Curriculum

Objective: To deepen students’ understanding of and ability to identify their emotions.

• Normalize and have students practice talking about feelings
• Help students identify and rate intensity of emotions
• Help students interpret physical sensations related to emotions

Objective: To teach students relaxation techniques and help students think about when to use them.

• Teach students relaxation exercises to use when experiencing intense, uncomfortable emotions
• Provide real-time practice of relaxation skills
• Help students “cope ahead” and think through times when skills will be most useful

Objective: To teach students to be aware of thinking patterns and challenge negative thoughts.

• Introduce the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
• Help students practice thinking about their thoughts
• Introduce and help identify common automatic negative thoughts that lead to intense emotions
• Help students practice changing their negative thinking to more effective thoughts

Objective: To help students choose helpful and effective solutions to problems involving other people.

• Emphasize the connection between thoughts and actions
• Outline specific problem-solving steps student can utilize when having problems with another person
• Reduce reactivity and increase interpersonal effectiveness

Objective: To help students recognize and manage big and uncomfortable emotions without giving into the urge to act impulsively, which can make problems bigger.

• To normalize feeling intense emotions and the urge to react to those emotions
• To teach distress tolerance skills to help students manage the experience of intense emotions and decrease reactivity.

Objective: To teach students about the concept of mindfulness and the benefits of incorporating it into daily practice.

• Introduce the concept of mindfulness to students as paying attention, on purpose, to the present moment without judgment
• Teach students to increase self-awareness and harness attention to the moment to improve decision-making and facing uncomfortable emotions.