The Mindfulness Workbook for Teen Self-Harm: Skills to Help You Overcome Cutting and Self-Harming Behaviors, Thoughts, and Feelings

by Gina Biegel, Stacie Cooper

Powerful mindfulness tools to help you move beyond self-harming thoughts and behaviors, so you can get back to living your life.

Being a teen in today’s world isn’t easy. Maybe you’ve been bullied. Maybe you feel like your family or friends just don’t get you. Or maybe you feel like you don’t have control of your life, or you’re just tired of trying to be perfect all the time. You aren’t alone. Many teens struggle with difficult feelings and thoughts—and sometimes, when these thoughts feel overwhelming, you just want to feel something else. This is where self-harming behaviors, such as cutting, come in. But there are better ways to manage your pain. This book will help guide you.

In this workbook, you’ll learn about the power of mindfulness, and how it can help you create your own special space for simply being with your thoughts. When you’re dealing with difficult emotions, you’ll have this safe space to go to again and again—no matter where you are or what you’re doing. You’ll learn how to be mindful of your senses, techniques for managing difficult feelings before they escalate, and move past self-judgment to embrace self-compassion and self-awareness.

Pain is a normal part of life—it’s how you react to this pain that really matters. Let this workbook guide you toward better strategies for dealing with stress and emotional pain, so you can be safe, happy, and in control of your life.

176 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2019

About the author

Gina M. Biegel, LMFT, is a psychotherapist, researcher, speaker, and author in the San Francisco Bay Area who specializes in mindfulness-based work with adolescents. She is founder of Stressed Teens, which has been offering mindfulness-based stress reduction for teens (MBSR-T) to adolescents, families, schools, professionals, and the community since 2004. She created MBSR-T to help teens in a large HMO’s outpatient department of child and adolescent psychiatry whose physical and psychological symptoms were not responding satisfactorily to a multitude of other evidence-based practices.
She is an expert and pioneer of bringing mindfulness-based approaches to youth. She is the author of the The self-harm workbook for teens: Mindfulness skills to help teens overcome cutting and self-harming behaviors, thoughts, and feelings; Be Mindful & Stress Less: 50 Ways to Deal with Your (Crazy) Life; Mindfulness for Student Athletes: A Workbook to Help Teens Reduce Stress and Enhance Performance; The Stress Reduction Workbook for Teens: Mindfulness Skills to Help You Deal with Stress (first and second edition); and Be Mindful: A Card Deck for Teens.She also has a mindfulness practice audio CD, Mindfulness for Teens: Mindfulness Practices to Reduce Stress and Promote Well-Being to complement the MBSR-T program. She provides worldwide multiday trainings and intensive ten-week online trainings and works with teens and families individually and in groups. Her work has been featured on the Today Show, CNN, Psychology Today, Reuters, the New York Times, and Tricycle to name a few. For more information, visit her website, www.stressedteens.com. 

Reviews

[Cristie Underwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is perfect for any teen struggling emotionally. I work in a middle school and know that many in this age group are too proud to ask for help. I think that this book can be a tremendous asset, as it teaches the teen how to practice mindfulness anywhere and explains the benefits without being preachy.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors do a really good job of including pop culture content and icons making the material relatable to youth. It is also very easy to read and follow along, especially with the addition of in-text activities and writing prompts. There is a good flow to the material and the incorporation of grounding is especially important. The self-harm inventory is an excellent concept, though a checklist may prompt the use of otherwise unknown behaviors. Some of the items are very vague (i.e., "interfering with a wound that is healing") while others may be unrecognized by the youth as self-harming behaviors (i.e., "neglecting yourself"). The one thing I thought could be added was the potential for combining emotion regulation identification and activities with the mindfulness component of the book.

[Valen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was exactly as advertised and really helped me grasp an understanding as to WHY I self harmed (mindfulness) even if it didn't get me to stop. This is a huge step for recovery, and for me, so 5/5 Stars - well done!

[Roks Begum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical!