Blog 18: Third Answer

Content:

• Essential Question: What is the best way a therapist can help an adolescent cope with stress?
• Answer #3: The best way a therapist can help an adolescent cope with stress, is by teaching the adolescent how to identify feelings and express their emotions.
• 3 Details Supporting the Answer:

1. Many people who are stress prone tend to have difficulty with feelings. They may have a problem knowing what their feeling. Or at times people are able to identify their feelings but do not know how to express them. When feelings begin to come up during stressful times, there is often a tendency to maintain that stress which ultimately only increases your stress. 
2. Feelings are effected by stress. When under stress, your body is in a state of psychological distress which is directly linked with emotions. Since your already set to have emotional issues, it will not take much to set you off. 
3. An important first step is identifying your feelings. Secondly, you must learn how to express your feelings. This can be achieved through sharing your feelings with another person, or writing them out in a journal, or by "physically discharging" them by crying or venting anger perhaps with a pillow. Once you've given some expression to your feelings you can reach the final step and communicate your feelings to whomever brings out these emotions from you. To sum it up, the ability to gain awareness of and express your feelings is an essential part of the process of recovering from stress. 
4. (Additional Supporting Detail) Feelings can be compared to charges of energy that need physical release or discharge from the body. When not expressed enough, they tend to be stored in your body in the forms of tension, stress, and anxiety. Your physical health as well as your sense of well-being relies on your participation of acknowledging and expressing your feelings during both good and difficult times.   

My Research Sources:
This book that my mentor gave me:
Bourne, Edmund J. The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook. N.p.: New Harbinger Publications, 2011. Print. 
My Mentor:
Karla Vallejo Rodriguez, Marriage and Family Therapist, employed at Pacific Clinics

• Concluding Sentence: Our emotions and feelings are very important to our health and well-being. Our emotions can be compared to charges of energy that need release or will be stores up in your body as forms of stress, tension, and anxiety. One of the best ways for a therapist to help an adolescent cope with stress is by teaching the adolescent how identify and express their emotions. Once they are able to be aware of their feelings and know how to properly express them, then they will begin to live a less stressful way of life.