Avoidance Focused Coping: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Avoidance Focused Coping, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Practices that may help

1. Match coping mode to what is actually controllable
   Use problem-focused coping when you can change the situation; emotion-focused coping when you cannot.
   Stress Inoculation Training
2. Apply problem-focused coping to changeable stressors
   When the stressor is changeable, direct your energy at the situation rather than managing feelings about it.
   Lazarus Appraisal Theory, Made Practical
3. Apply emotion-focused coping to uncontrollable stressors
   When the stressor cannot be changed, invest your energy in how you relate to the experience rather than fighting the situation.
   Lazarus Appraisal Theory, Made Practical
4. Distinguish preventive avoidance from growth-limiting avoidance
   Not all avoidance is the same: some situation selection is wise management; some is shrinking your life.
   Situation Selection, Made Practical
5. Name the fear driving an avoidance goal
   Surface the specific failure scenario an avoidance goal is bracing against.
   Approach vs Avoidance Goals
6. Identifying and challenging dysfunctional coping modes
   Spot when you’re in surrender, avoidance, or overcompensation mode — and the schema need underneath it.
   Schema Therapy: Healing Early Maladaptive Beliefs
7. Identify and interrupt avoidance and withdrawal patterns
   Notice when you are avoiding or withdrawing and treat it as the maintenance mechanism, not self-care.
   Behavioral Activation: Acting Your Way Out of Low Mood
8. Select the specific coping skills you will use — in advance
   Choose which DBT or other coping skills you will deploy at each difficult moment, before you are in it.
   Cope Ahead: DBT’s Method for Preparing for Difficult Situations
9. Practice willingness to carry discomfort
   Treat the presence of discomfort as neutral data, not a stop sign.
   Committed Action, Made Practical
10. Avoiding (unassertive, uncooperative)
    Sidestep or postpone the conflict when timing is bad or the issue isn’t worth engaging.
    The Five Conflict-Resolution Styles

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I burn enormous energy trying to fix things that aren’t mine to fix, and then go quiet and just stew over the things I actually could do something about→
• There’s a real part of this I could actually do something about, but instead of acting I just sit and stew in how I feel about it→
• I keep making plans and trying to fix something that genuinely can’t be fixed→
• I keep dodging things that make me anxious and telling myself it’s just self-care, but my world keeps getting smaller→
• There’s some specific disaster I’m bracing against with this goal→

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.