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The Skills System Instructor's Guide

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Preface........................................................................................ixAcknowledgments................................................................................xvChapter 1: Introducing The Skills System.......................................................1Chapter 2: Learning The Skills System..........................................................11Chapter 3: Skills Coaching.....................................................................35Chapter 4: Understanding Learning Challenges And Intellectual Disabilities.....................41Chapter 5: Structuring Skills System Instruction...............................................55Chapter 6: Foundational Teaching Strategies....................................................62Chapter 7: E-Spiral Teaching Strategies........................................................69Chapter 8: Skills System Twelve-Week Cycle Curriculum..........................................81References.....................................................................................151Appendix A.....................................................................................157Appendix B.....................................................................................289Appendix C.....................................................................................293Appendix D.....................................................................................297Glossary.......................................................................................305

Chapter One

Bernice Johnson Reagon, an African-American scholar and songwriter, wrote "Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you—they're supposed to help you discover who you are" (Lewis, 2009). Fully experiencing life's challenges and remaining present within the current moment can be excruciatingly difficult. Painful emotions and overwhelming thoughts may bombard the individual, blurring self-reflection and the course ahead. The person may not choose to be paralyzed; it is what happens when certain events occur and he or she lacks effective coping skills.

While emotions may blind the individual and pose difficulties, they may also be the very vehicle of self-discovery and fulfillment. Emotions are key components of many important and joyful aspects of the human experience. Having the capacity to benefit from emotions, rather than being paralyzed by them, offers the individual the opportunity to mobilize individuality while actively learning valuable life lessons and evolving to reach personal potential. As the individual learns how to regulate emotions, thoughts, and actions, he is not only not paralyzed, but he is able to face life, relationships, and himself with courage, grace, and strength.

Developing effective emotion-regulation skills is an important step toward managing life's complexities, versus becoming paralyzed by them. Knowing how to increase positive effect and reduce negative feelings can help the person improve his or her quality of life. This regulatory capacity allows the person to balance both rational and emotional aspects of situations to reach his or her personal goals. Regulating emotions does not mean erasing them; it means proactively and reactively making adjustments in behavior that help the individual maintain balance. This ability to balance helps the individual remain actively engaged in the process of self-discovery even when experiencing significant life challenges.

The Skills System

The Skills System is a set of nine skills and three system rules that helps the individual cope with life's challenges. The emotion-regulation skills curriculum was developed to help the person organize her internal and external experiences in ways that decrease discomfort and problematic behaviors, while increasing positive affect and goals directed actions. This simple framework guides the person through the process of becoming aware of the current moment, directing attention, and activating behaviors that are in service of personal goals. The person learns to follow steps that mobilize inner wisdom in each unique situation. As the skills and the guidelines are integrated into the context of the person's life, the demonstration of effective coping behaviors within challenging situations increases. Each situation provides the person with an opportunity for self-discovery and for active participation in events. The individual is no longer paralyzed; he or she is a Skills Master.

User-friendly for individuals with learning challenges.

Learning new, more adaptive patterns of behavior is a challenging task for anyone. This is especially difficult when the individual must manage complicating factors such as mental health issues, intellectual impairment, physical problems, or other difficult life circumstances. These life challenges may increase stress and impact the individual's ability to learn new information.

The Skills System and the curriculum contained in this guide are designed to help individuals who experience learning challenges. For example, an individual who is diagnosed with an intellectual disability or mental illness may have difficulty focusing attention, remembering information, and utilizing concepts within complex situations. The Skills System itself and the teaching strategies contained in the Instructor's Guide are constructed to maximize learning, integration, and ultimately generalization of the skills into life's contexts. Even an individual who cannot read or write can learn and use the Skills System.

Compatible with dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

The Skills System was developed as an accessible alternative for individuals with cognitive impairment who were participating in DBT therapy (Linehan, 1993). DBT therapy has two main components: individual therapy and skills-training group. The skills curriculum (Linehan, 1993b) is broken down into four modules. The individual learns skills in the areas of mindfulness, emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness. The clients learn adaptive coping skills in group and discuss implementation of the strategies within life contexts during individual therapy.

The standard DBT skills (Linehan, 1993b) were not specifically designed for individuals with intellectual disabilities in that the terms are complicated and there is no framework for utilizing the skills. Although the format of the standard skills is challenging, the general concepts are vastly helpful for this population. Merely modifying the teaching of the standard curriculum is not sufficient to capture the essence of DBT in a way that promotes generalization of the principles and skills by this population. The Skills System utilizes DBT principles, while the language and format are adapted to address the needs of individuals who experience significant learning challenges. The Skills System may be conceptualized as pre-DBT skills; the remedial structure of the Skills System model offers the individual basic self-regulation capacities, upon which the standard skills can be added.

Applications of the Skills System

Who can benefit from learning the Skills System? Many people have experiences or physiology that complicates the...