The Sailboat Metaphor

Source: Training Development Resources/Emotional Intelligence — "The Sailboat" (Hugo Alberts, Positive Psychology Practitioner's Toolkit)

A comprehensive, 8-part metaphor for understanding a person's whole situation at once — useful as a big-picture assessment/conversation frame rather than a single worksheet. The boat's elements: water (the person's direct environment/reality — job, home, circumstances), steering wheel (personal values — a direction, not a destination; values are never "finished," unlike goals), destination (concrete goals, which give values something practical to aim at), leak (weaknesses — unhelpful thought/behavior patterns that drain wellbeing if ignored), sails (strengths — the actual source of forward momentum; fixing the leak alone just keeps the boat afloat, it doesn't move it anywhere), compass (internal feedback — feelings and intuition, which are never "the problem" themselves, only signals; the problem is using the compass ineffectively, e.g., trying to suppress fear instead of hearing what it's telling you), weather (uncontrollable circumstances — loss, luck, other people's choices), and other boats (the person's social network, who can pull them off course or reinforce their direction).

Practical coaching value: the metaphor gives a young person indirect, lower-vulnerability language for describing their internal state ("I don't feel like my boat is moving," "I feel like I'm sailing where other people want me to go" signals low autonomy, "all I can see is the leak" signals an overwhelming problem-focus). The source explicitly frames the coach's role as a lighthouse: helps with navigation, doesn't dictate direction or destination, is a temporary aid toward the client's independence, and is most valuable specifically when the weather is bad.

Emotion Exploration Scale

Source: Training Development Resources/Emotional Intelligence — Emotion Exploration Scale (Therapist Aid)

A simple 1–10 scale for a single named emotion, mapping how thoughts, behaviors, and physical symptoms change as that specific emotion escalates from its lowest to highest point. Useful as a fast, repeatable worksheet for building a young person's vocabulary around their own emotional escalation pattern — pairs well with the Anger Management "anger meter" concept.

The Scale of Overwhelm

Source: Training Development Resources/Emotional Intelligence — "The Scale of Overwhelm" graphic (SelfLoveRainbow)

A plain-language 1–5 overwhelm scale: (1) calm and in control, tasks feel manageable; (2) slight overwhelm — a bit pressured or rushed but still functional; (3) moderate overwhelm — noticeably hard to focus or keep up; (4) high overwhelm — physically affected (anxious, tense, tired), hard to make decisions; (5) severe overwhelm — crisis-level, feels impossible to manage tasks or emotions, frantic or shutting down. Useful as a quick check-in question ("where are you on the 1-to-5 right now?") that gives a young person accessible language before things reach crisis level.