Trauma Informed Coping Skills Workbook for Kids, ages 8 to 12: 40 workbook pages, 12 posters, 3 take-home cards, a school track and a clinical track. No child is ever asked to tell what happened.

A printable coping skills workbook for kids who have been through hard things, built for school counselors, child therapists and school psychologists to run one-to-one or with a small group of 4 to 6. One page per session, no prep.

Some kids carry hard things into your room.

One gets loud and can't sit still. One goes quiet and stares at the wall.

Both are the body's alarm going off, and neither kid has the words for it.

This workbook gives kids three simple words for what their body is doing:

• ⚡ Fast. The alarm is loud.
• 🌫️ Foggy. The alarm went quiet and far away.
• 🌿 Steady. Just right.

Then it teaches them 20 tools to get back to steady, one calm signal they can use anywhere, who their helpers are, and a plan for a hard day.

Every page is one idea, broken into small illustrated cards, with a Do box at the bottom where the kid circles, writes, or draws. Read a little, do a little, done in 20 to 30 minutes.

This is not a stack of worksheets. It is one sequence, one vocabulary and one script, so session six builds on session one, and a kid who says "I'm foggy" in week eight means the same thing they meant in week two.

Safe by design

It covers the stabilization skills: body awareness, regulation, feelings, thoughts, helpers, safety, and a plan. It does not do narrative or exposure work, and it is an add-on to your practice, not a treatment.

No page asks a child to tell or write about what happened. The word "trauma" is not printed anywhere in the kid pages; they say "hard things." Adult notes sit at the bottom of every page, so you always know what to do if a child discloses, goes foggy mid-session, or asks a question you did not expect.

Reviewed page by page by a licensed psychologist.

🧭 Who It Is For

• ✅ School counselors running small groups and check-ins. School track: 8 sessions of 20 to 30 minutes, built around school stressors.
• ✅ Child therapists in private practice or agencies: LPC, LCSW, MFT, play therapists. Clinical track: 10 sessions of 45 to 50 minutes, with two caregiver sessions.
• ✅ School psychologists and school social workers.
• ✅ SPED teachers and SEL or mental wellness teachers working alongside the counselor: the posters, calm signal, body clues and tool pages work in a resource room or calm corner.
• ✅ Interns and first-year clinicians who want a script, a structure and the safety steps on the page.
• ✅ Shelter, camp, residential and after-school program staff, with clinical support.

Not built for whole-class lessons, and not for parents to run on their own. Caregivers get involved through the three take-home pages.

🖍️ How To Use It

1. Print the pages you need. Fit to page. Everything prints clean in grayscale.
2. Session 1: read How This Book Works together, pick a calm signal, do the first check-in.
3. Teach the three states: fast, foggy, steady. None of them are bad. Kids learn to tell them apart before they learn any tool.
4. Run one page per session. Read the banner, talk through the cards, do the Do box, close with the calm signal. Open and close every session with the script on page 38. Never skip the closer.
5. Build the plan. Kids add to their Coping Menu week by week and fill their Plan For A Hard Day card near the end.
6. Send it home. The pocket cards and the Teach My Person page keep the tools alive between sessions.
7. Last session: repeat the check-in, compare it with day one, hand over the certificate.

📦 What's Included

58 pages, one PDF.

• ✅ 40-page kid workbook in 9 parts, every page with adult notes at the bottom.
• ✅ 6 swap pages for kids who need less writing or a higher-demand version (Body Clues, Feelings Check, Naming My Feelings, Brain Tricks, My Coping Menu, My Check-In).
• ✅ 12 posters for your office, group room, calm corner or hallway.
• ✅ 3 take-home pieces: My Plan For A Hard Day pocket card, Between-Times Card, Teach My Person page.
• ✅ Session Opener and Closer script: 3-minute opener, 4-minute closer, the same every time.
• ✅ My Check-In for the first session and the last.
• ✅ Two session tracks: school (8 sessions) and clinical (10 sessions).
• ✅ Certificate.

🌱 What It Helps Kids Do

• ✅ Say what their body is doing in one word: fast, foggy or steady.
• ✅ Catch their own early warning signs before the alarm gets loud.
• ✅ Use a calm signal nobody else has to notice.
• ✅ Pick a tool that fits their state instead of being told to "calm down."
• ✅ Put down blame that was never theirs.
• ✅ Name two grown-ups to go to, and the exact words to say.
• ✅ Build a coping menu they carry out the door.

💛 Great For

Individual counseling, small groups of 4 to 6, SPED and resource rooms, calm corners, intern caseloads, psychoeducation groups, shelters and camps, and the weeks after a hard event in a school or community.

🖨️ Format

• ✅ Printable PDF, US Letter size
• ✅ Prints clean in grayscale
• ✅ Plus an editable Canva file
• ✅ Instant digital download. No physical item ships.

A stabilization and coping skills add-on to the work you already do. Not a treatment, and not a substitute for professional care.