Journey to Recovery Series
Defense Mechanisms and Coping Skills
Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes PhD, LPC-MHSP, LMHC
Executive Director, AllCEUs Counselor Education
Podcast Host: Counselor Toolbox
Objectives
~ Differentiate between coping skills and defense mechanisms and identify the purpose for each
~ Explore common defense mechanisms and how they can assist as well as hinder treatment.
~ Identify cognitive, physical, environmental and interpersonal coping skills
~ Explore how to teach these concepts via individual and group activities.
Defense and Coping Mechanisms
~ Defense mechanisms are behaviors designed to protect you from a threat until it can be dealt with
~ Coping skills are behaviors that help you
~ Change the situation
~ Change the way you feel about or react to the situation
~ Activity: Draw a card
~ On index cards write a type of behavior.
~ Clients draw a card and have to identify if it is a coping strategy or defense strategy and explain their choice
~ Alternate, draw a card and have the group vote and each side explains their rationale
D-E-F-E-N-S-E Defense, Defense, Totally…
~ Denial/Repression
~ Avoidance*
~ Sublimation: Redirection of unacceptable impulses
~ Withdrawal from social supports
~ Regression
~ Acting Out
~ Reaction Formation: Acting the opposite
~ Dissociation: Fly on the wall
~ Projection: Placing unacceptable feelings of one's own on other people
~ Displacement: Directing unacceptable feelings at a safer target.
~ Splitting: Viewing events as all-good or all-bad maintains an “us-them”
Defense Mechanism Activities
~ Questions
~ How do they reduce stress and unhappiness?
~ How do defenses increase stress and unhappiness
~ Activities
~ Act it out
~ Give an example of a time…
Coping Skills
~ One thing at a time
~ Mindfulness
~ Encouragement
Coping Skills
~ ABC-Dispute-Evaluate
~ (Activating event) What happened?
~ What are my beliefs about the situation?
~ What are the consequences of my beliefs?
~ (Dispute) Are my beliefs based in fact, considering the whole situation, extreme, high or low probability?
~ (Evaluate) In order to be authentic and use my energy to move toward my goals, what is the best course of action?
Coping Skills
~ Radical acceptance and backward chaining
~ I am having the feeling that I am _____ because ____
~ I am angry because my car broke down
~ What contributed to me getting upset over this
~ What are my thoughts about it?
~ What else happened that made me more reactive?
~ Psychological Flexibility
Coping Skills- Change My Reaction
~ Embrace the dialectics
~ Comparisons
~ Shifting (Have opposite thoughts)
~ Imagery (visualize the opposite)
~ Choose to not invest energy in it
~ Explore alternate explanations for why it might be occurring
~ Prayer
~ Seek social support
~ Journal for understanding
Coping Skills—Change the Situation
~ Remove yourself
~ Make a plan
~ Learn about the problem and alternatives
~ Identify what you can and cannot change
~ Seek consultation
Coping and Defense Activity
~ Board Game
~ Roll the dice to advance.
~ Pick a card. There are 3 types of cards
~ Healthy use of a defense (move forward)
~ Sally was angry she got passed over for a promotion so she started looking for a new job. (Name it and identify why it is a healthy response)
~ Unhealthy use of a defense (move backward)
~ Jim was worried about a mole on his back, but forced himself to not think about it.
~ June had an awful week at work, so she decided to go get drunk at