Excellent for developing an essential wellness skill!

We live in a very competitive society with chronic stress, an increase in anxiety disorders and depression is observed. In addition, adolescents are maturing their social skills, defining their place in society, which can put strong emotional pressure on them. Resilience and self-awareness are very valuable and important skills for life, since they are a determining factor in personal growth, empowerment and to advance in life's challenges.

Having a resource like this at home is invaluable, especially when you don't have an adequate mental health service. It is carefully written, like a well-structured practical manual, in a strategic sequence to develop each aspect involved in the execution of this skill. Cheryl M Bradshaw, in her deep understanding of the process adolescents experience, addresses them in direct, empathetic, and optimistic language. This workbook is designed for adolescents to work on their own, but it is recommended to be accompanied by the tutors and / or by a therapeutic process if their condition requires it.

The relationship with oneself is the most important, on this depends the quality of our social and personal life. Knowing yourself defines a lot the success and achievements that we achieve in our lives. In this sense, this book provides knowledge of self-care and self-awareness, to apply in emotionally intense situations. In addition to goal setting tools and the ability to transform behavior towards a more adaptive one.

My sincere appreciation to the Publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to review the book

I'm pretty sure many teens could benefit from this workbook. It takes small steps in aiding teens cope with growing up and dealing with life issues. Chapters and tasks can be done in any order needed. School counselors, ad others who work with teens would do well to take a peek at this book, it might prove useful to their charges. I would recommend the book in a heartbeat to any teen I thought was in need. Thoughtful and informative, this book is written in language teens will understand. Not too technical or overwhelming.

The Resilience Workbook for Teens by Cheryl M Bradshaw is a wonderful tool for youth workers such as therapists, case mangers, teachers, and social workers in children's mental health settings. The interactive worksheets, thought provoking questions, and step by step chapters help a teen or young adult identify the thought patterns that are no longer serving them and transform their mindset into one of strength and resilience. That being said, I believe most teens would need a mentor to help them move through the chapters and complete the various tools and worksheets. I've worked as a children's mental health case manager for many years and using tools like this workbook with the youth I work with engages them and empowers them to take part in their recovery. I would be very mindful about who I would give the entire workbook too as that level of engagement and investment is not always intrinsic.

All in all, Cheryl Bradshaw does an excellent job at engaging the young reader and giving real world and relevant examples about social media and current marketing that teens see every day. It helps the teen to analyze and reconstruct their thoughts and initial responses to the social media landscape while also delving into deeper topics about their family, relationships, and past experiences.

Honest and in-depth advice for reaching your full potential. This advice is presented in easy to follow language that can be broken up and applied in pieces at a time.

Amazing workbook! I cannot wait to have my oldest use it because I know it will be very beneficial for her at this point. I love workbooks and this one is great!

I can not tell you how much I loved this book. Immediately I started reading it resonated with me and I know it will be ideal for the Middle School kids I teach. I found out a lot about myself in doing the activities in this book - it really stretched me and made me look at myself as a person in more detail. I will be buying this and using it in my classroom - if I could give it more than 5 stars I would

I was excited to get to review this book when Netgalley offered it because I have a similar Resilience workbook from about six years ago. Overall, I was pleased with the content. It offered exercises in increasing difficulty and gave the reader/user a lot to think about.

Bradshaw states fairly early that she is using a particular scale for checking resilience, and basing resiliency on the level of 10 correlated and predictive items: self-efficacy, sense of humor, secure attachment to others, the ability to adapt to change, commitment, control, thinking of change as a challenge, patience, ability to tolerate stress and pain, and optimism and faith. Teen or not, these are good items to do a mental checklist of how well you handle them.

Sometimes in a workbook, the reading feels relaxed. However, as a scientist and educator, I greatly appreciated the use of citations throughout the workbook.

Unfortunately, while this workbook is an excellent resource, I found a few things not quite cogent. First, the "house of cards" analogy doesn't really work. I don't know any person under the age of 40 who has built a literal house of cards without some sort of group or institutional setting. In fact, a widely viewed Netflix series called "House of Cards" is more likely to be thought of than the literal building of a house with cards. Second, while Bradshaw encourages drawing at the beginning of the workbook, and has one or two exercises that require drawing, drawing as a way to process instead of using words is not reinforced, somewhat contrary to the early suggestion of drawing if one wants. She could use reminders every other exercise or so that drawing could also be effective.

Third, throughout the workbook, Bradshaw gives reasons and examples of why a teen might be feeling the way they do. These likely come from her familiarity with teens from her teaching and counseling. The problem is that it leaves no room for bad brain chemistry nor do people - teens and adults - always realize they feel bad about themselves because someone is abusing them emotionally. Leaving room for feeling bad because you just do and learning how to cope is especially necessary in these situations. Someone in that position may feel like this workbook isn't meant for them because they don't have the reasons or examples given to do so.

Fourth, some exercises, e.g. the ice cube test, are ableist. As someone with arthritis for my entire life, asking me to plunge my hands into ice when they constantly ache regardless of anything, and I have only so many spoons for using my hands, is unkind and unhelpful. The triggered response in my brain is not the same as the triggered response in someone who lives without constant pain. Because of the way the book is set up, the reader should do all the exercises. Skipping one, even justified, feels shitty to someone trying to get better. Sadly, the workbook is now causing a problem rather than solving it. I understand the author is trying to equate emotional and physical pain, but it's a dire correlation to those constant physical pain trying to at least help their own emotional pain.

Finally, my last concern is I am not sure our brains really work the way the author sometimes suggests. I'm not a biologist but it seems incorrectly described. However, in this book for teens, it probably doesn't matter. The simplifications make it easier to understand, and will hopefully be helpful.

Despite these five specific concerns, I believe the workbook will help many teens. Other than a few examples that relate to teens, anybody could go through most of these exercises to help grow their resiliency.