Coping Strategies Inventory

MINDSET & GROWTH TOOLS

Distinguish the coping strategies that serve you long-term
from those that only work in the moment.

Where This Tool Helps

Coping strategies are not neutral. The ones that feel most effective in the moment - that immediately reduce discomfort or create distance from a problem - are often the ones that produce the most cost over time. This worksheet makes the distinction explicit by asking you to name both categories at once.

The Healthy Strategies column is usually easier to fill. Clients know what they should be doing. The Unhealthy Strategies column is where the honest work happens. Most people use at least two or three strategies they recognize as counterproductive - avoidance, over-working, social withdrawal, reactive communication - but have not catalogued them alongside healthier alternatives.

Seeing both columns filled creates a choice point. The goal is not to eliminate every unhealthy strategy immediately, but to know which ones you are choosing and why.

The steps below are designed to support honest inventory rather than a performance of good habits.

How to Use This Worksheet

  1. In the Healthy Strategies column, list the approaches you use that support your long-term wellbeing - even when they do not provide immediate relief.
  2. In the Unhealthy Strategies column, list the approaches you use that reduce short-term discomfort but create longer-term costs. Write without judgment.
  3. Look at the two columns side by side. Notice which column has more entries, and whether the entries are equally specific.
  4. Identify one unhealthy strategy you use most often. Ask what it is giving you in the moment - what need it is meeting - that a healthier strategy does not currently provide as efficiently.
  5. Bring this completed worksheet to a session when you want to work on a specific pattern. The unhealthy column is usually where the most useful coaching conversations begin.
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Coping Strategies Inventory

Healthy Strategies
Unhealthy Strategies

One More Thing to Sit With

Which unhealthy strategy in your list has the highest immediate payoff? What would it take to find a healthy strategy that meets the same underlying need?

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to unlock sustainable growth.

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