Last month, Sandra Chafouleas and Emily Wicks, co-founders of Feel Your Best Self (FYBS), presented their insights on the award-winning toolkit that teaches emotion-coping strategies to a group of school counselors at UConn’s School Counselor Day hosted by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Elizabeth Smith, the publicity and marketing administrator for the Division of Student Life and Enrollment, articulates the rationale behind selecting FYBS for this year’s programming, stating that the project was a fun way to showcase the interdisciplinary research and collaboration that takes place at the University on a daily basis.

“The modern secondary school counselor does it all,” Smith says. “This includes supporting the emotional wellbeing of their students, which made Feel Your Best Self a natural complement to this year’s programming.”

The event attracted over 200 secondary school counselors from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. Chafouleas and Wicks delivered a presentation explaining the toolkit, and how it can be easily adapted and integrated into the secondary setting.

“The key to adapting FYBS into secondary settings is to allow for choice, creativity, and flexibility,” Chafouleas said. “Feel Your Best Self is designed to support these needs, making it accessible for students of all ages.”

Additionally, attendees engaged in puppet-making activities, allowing them to experience the benefits of this fun and creative process. The response to puppet-making was overwhelmingly positive as attendees showed off their unique creations.

“I honestly loved doing the puppet-making activity,” said Crystal Davis, a school counselor from Bristol Eastern High School. “I always feel like it’s great to have adults and even young adults get in touch with their inner child. I think that in the secondary setting you could do this and have students really relate to their younger selves.”

The key is to allow for choice, flexibility, and creativity for children in the secondary setting. Feel Your Best Self is designed to support these needs, making it accessible to children of all ages. &#8212 Sandra Chafouleas

Others shared ideas about how the FYBS toolkit components could be applied in their secondary settings. For example, one high school counselor proposed implementing a walking group as a variation of “Shake Out the Yuck,” which is a FYBS physiological strategy to get rid of negative feelings by moving your body. Another attendee shared excitement about using the FYBS strategies to address test-taking anxiety. Additionally, a high school counselor loved the idea of peer mentorship, suggesting that her students could create a puppet, not for themselves, but for a younger child and help assist in learning the strategies.

To complement the presentation, Chafouleas also shared the newest brief, “Ideas for Adaptation! Integrating FYBS into a Secondary Setting,” published by the FYBS team last month. In this brief, recommendations are provided for modifying toolkit resources specifically for secondary students. For example, students can create their own “toolbox” of strategy cards on index cards for the 2-3 strategies that they liked best. Additionally , the team shares ideas on how to extend the use of FYBS beyond the toolkit by incorporating opportunities like peer mentorships and exploring the science of emotion-coping.

Feel Your Best Self is versatile enough to be adapted for all ages and settings. By utilizing these simple, flexible, and accessible emotion-coping strategies, each person can identify 2-3 strategies that will resonate with them as they navigate through life.

Learn more about Feel Your Best Self at feelyourbestself.org.