102 Helping Individuals, Families, and Groups with Stressful Life Transitions stressful life transition that a client is experiencing. We find that we usually can rely upon a less organized approach and can simply ask students to identify the stressful situations with which their clients are struggling. It is important, how- ever, that students’ examples reflect the full range of life transitions that clients may encounter and include families and groups. Then you can ask students to identify risk and protective factors that lessen or contribute to clients’ stress. Thinking-Feeling-Doing Connection Begin with a brief lecture to help students understand this conceptualization and its self-reinforcing nature. We find that we often need to first present stu- dents with one of our own cases (or that of a previous student) to solidify stu- dents’ understanding, using the following illustration: How we think ↔ How we feel How we think and feel ↔ What we do (and how others react) What we do (and how others react) ↔ How we think and feel Figure 8.1 illustrates the self-reinforcing nature of this paradigm. 8.1 Thinking-Feeling-Doing paradigm Thinking Feeling Doing Students are likely to understand this conceptualization, but they may have difficulty appreciating its applications to their practice and their clients. Consider using the Prentice case example from the chapter to help students with this. Ask students to identify Prentice’s thoughts and feelings, how these influence his behaviors and how others react to him, and how these actions and reactions reinforce his thoughts and feelings. Social Work Skills We believe that the best way to introduce students to the skills presented in this chapter is by discussing the cases given in the “Practice Illustrations” sections.