An example in this situation is of a young person who has been victimised repeatedly in
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his past and now has become violent himself. He sees a solution to this as getting bigger
and scarier to stop people coming near him. How realistic is this? You could ask “How
is that going to work out for you? I wonder if you are putting less blood in the water, are
the sharks going to snap less?”
Managing Emotions
Help the young person identify their triggers and how they experience these reactions.
Remember that triggers may be really obvious or they may be things that a young person
might not even realise such as a smell, noise or subtle sign of rejection for
instance. Exploring these after they have happened is a good way to unpack it a bit
further.
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“In the last few weeks, when have you had a really strong reaction to something or felt
really distressed?”
“What is going on when this happened” Consider their thoughts, physical feelings and
emotions as well as what was actually happening in their environment.
Explore current coping strategies
When people are aroused they often look to engage in activities that are congruent with
their level of arousal. A lot of the time this means risk-taking behaviours. Always try to
remember that the way young people are managing difficult and stressful situations is the
best possible way they can. A good way to start to explore these strategies is to ask how
they are working for them at the moment.
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“How do you manage difficult situations, or manage the way you feel?”
“How well is that working for you?”
“Do you want to keep using these strategies or ways of coping?”
“Do you want to think about some other ways to manage these reactions?”
Alternative ways of coping
There are many different strategies that can help with managing difficult and distressing
emotions. Attending to the physiological impacts i.e lower physiological arousal, is
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