By: Mary Ellen Copeland
October 7, 2025
Good morning. It is with great delight that I meet with you this morning at the beginning of your work together. Your willingness to share WRAP is so wonderful. People everywhere, from all walks of life, benefit from your commitment and your good work. You change lives for the better. You save lives. I am so grateful. The world is grateful.
Little did the small group of people who developed WRAP more than 25 years ago have even an inkling of the power of the work they were doing. They were just struggling to get by day by day. Little did they know what their impact would be. My most heartfelt thanks to you for carrying this work forward. In whatever way you can, however you can.
In our time together, I want to clarify some things with you that will help ensure the work you are doing, and will do, is the best it can possibly be. And I will share some stories from my work that have been of interest to me and sometimes baffled me over time.
First, let me say, in the past, others have tried to change this work—both WRAP itself and the facilitator manuals. Printing rogue changed copies or not following the facilitating guides, even violating the WRAP Values and Ethics. They claimed that the changes were for the good—would make WRAP somehow better. There have been some blatant attempts to “steal the copyright,” a copyright that I put on WRAP to protect it and keep it in its original form. They did this so they could claim ownership and authorship. You may have gotten a copy that was altered or been trained in a way that does not adhere to the fidelity of the evidence-based model.
I am working with the WRAP Team to resolve these issues so you can be sure you are sharing WRAP as the founders intended it to be used—as it was studied and found to be effective in the research that proved the evidence base. I worked closely with the WRAP Team to ensure the WRAP Facilitator Manual, Updated Edition (2024) is true to the original intent of WRAP. If you have the latest edition of the Facilitator Manual, the one that includes a download of the slides, you have the right one.
I have just begun working with the WRAP Team on the same review and revision process with the Advanced Level Facilitator Manual, Updated Edition—the manual that teaches people how to teach others to become WRAP Facilitators.
WRAP was developed by a group of people with lived experience with mental health issues 25 years ago in northern Vermont. It has been studied and found to be powerful and effective. No one has the right to change it, although others have tried, or to violate it. For the original WRAP, facilitate your WRAP group, and your sharing of WRAP with others, using the WRAP Facilitator Manual, Updated Edition that was published in 2024 by Advocates for Human Potential’s Human Potential Press. It is an update and revision of the manual that I wrote originally. It includes things such as new technological advances, but it is true to the intent of that founding group. I reviewed the updated work over and over again, doing my very best to accurately represent what I learned from the people in that group so long ago now, and from the studies that followed.
Again, only use the most recent version of the Facilitator Manual. Other renditions may well have been illegally changed, so they do not reflect WRAP, the version that has been carefully studied. If it does not reflect the original intent of WRAP, it is not fair to the people you are working with.
My work, which ultimately resulted in development of WRAP, is based on my learnings from my early research working with people who experienced mental health issues to find out how they cope on a daily basis. First, I must admit that I was looking for this information for myself. I was desperate to get a handle on the depression, wild mood swings, and other strange things that were stealing away my life. When I asked my doctor for that information, I was told there was no such information, only medications and in-patient or out-patient programs led by people who had never had these experiences but were purported to be the experts. Now we know who the experts are—“us.” Those of us who have had these experiences and those who have learned from those of us who have had these experiences.
At that time, when I did my early studies, the use of the word “recovery” was not to be used when referring to what were then known as “psychiatric symptoms.” The notion then was that these symptoms were caused by malfunctions in our damaged brains, and that we would have them forever. They said we had “broken brains.” Now we know so much better—that these signs are caused by many things, mostly the bad things that have happened to us, the trauma in our lives.
I knew my mother got better, and I knew that I could, too. So, with input from lots and lots of others with similar experiences, I worked my way out of the deep hole that I was in. And as you know, I have shared what I learned widely, all over the world, and the system has finally, mostly, accepted that people with mental health issues can get well, stay well, and have the lives they want. I have, and others can, too.
The things I learned were simple, safe, and non-invasive. We each figure out what works for us. We can share this process with people who are very young, continuing through life, and even when they are getting very old, like me.
I am so delighted to hear that WRAP is being used in schools. And in the jails and prisons, the long-term care facilities, for veterans and people in the military, for people who have been traumatized, and those with all kinds of health issues. I look forward to hearing more and more about this.
I began sharing what I had learned in workshops—first locally, and later, all over the U.S. and then around the world. It was at one of those workshop series on mental health recovery that WRAP was developed.
I am first going to speak to the power of WRAP. Back in 1997, in the series where the group developed WRAP, there was an older man; I will call him David. David came to the workshops accompanied by a care provider. He was wearing dark, nondescript clothes. He could not sit still for long, often getting up, and going outside with the care provider for a smoke and to get his courage back up. He could only mutter. His words were unintelligible, and he would avoid speaking and even looking at anyone. His deep pain was easy to see. After that workshop, I would get a call from one of David’s care providers from time to time saying David wants to attend another WRAP class. I helped them find one for him. Years later, I was invited to attend a graduation for a WRAP group. I was greeted warmly by a smiling, well-groomed man dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and shorts. He said, “Mary Ellen. Don’t you know who I am?” I did a double take. He said, “I am David.”
So, my message here is that even people who have been horribly afflicted with mental health issues, who have had terrible things happen to them, can, like David, and with WRAP, recover and have wonderful lives. We must not give up on anyone or ourselves, say they are too “ill” for WRAP. Remember David. We can hold the fidelity of WRAP and still accommodate those people with even the worst mental health difficulties, who have had horrific life experiences, who may have already been told there is no hope for them.
For most people, when they first attend a WRAP group, it is very hard. They don’t know what to expect. It is hard to get ready, to get out the door and to be in a new place with new people. Your job, as a Facilitator, at the onset, is to make sure the attendees feel comfortable and safe. Be waiting for them at the door. Greet them warmly. Shake their hand. Tell them how glad you are that they have come. Offer them a drink or snack. If too many people might be arriving at once, ask your peers to help you with this important task. It can make all the difference.
Another task will be to work with the group to develop a Safety Agreement—it can have other names, like Safety Contract, Participant Guidelines, or Comfort Agreement. For some reason, the word got around that this agreement about how people are with each other in a WRAP group or class is not necessary. WRONG. It is absolutely necessary. It is essential. Your participants deserve to know that they will be treated well in this group, that they will be safe. The Safety Agreement helps assure that from the onset. The Safety Agreement includes things like no bullying or teasing, no interrupting when others are speaking, anyone can leave the room when they need to, people are free to move about and pace during the class, no overly traumatic storytelling, and no name calling.
Let me tell you the story of Pat. She was a participant in an 8-week mental health recovery and WRAP series. Pat sat through the whole series with her head down on the table, not looking at anyone and not participating. At the breaks, I went over and checked in with her, but I had to bend over and look up at her to see her. I asked her if she was OK and she assured me that she was. For the full 8 weeks, all day, Pat sat with her head looking down and only interacting with me during the breaks. Several months later I went back for a follow-up session. Pat was there. But not with her head on the table. She shared with us all the work she had done based on what she learned in the sessions. She had a completely written WRAP and was using it to get her life back. She shared with us that the reason she couldn’t lift her head was because there was a woman who worked in the center that had recently “walked off” with Pat’s husband and she was not sure what she would do if she saw her. We cannot make assumptions about what is going on with anyone. We just need to accept where they are and that, by sharing WRAP, we may play an instrumental role in getting back their lives.
I can tell you of a case that turned out differently. Michael had been a longtime user of mental health services—a kind and very quiet middle-aged man. After he had attended several sessions, a mental health worker came in to observe. After a while, to my horror, she grabbed Michael and pulled him out of the room. I called for a break and went to find the mental health worker and Michael. I found the case worker and asked why she had done that. She said, “Oh, he wasn’t participating. But he got away from me and now is running wild through the streets and the police are after him.” I was furious. It causes me great grief to this day. What could I have done differently? And where is Michael now?”
A similar experience happened when, early on, a case worker sat in on one of our sessions. In the session a participant shared that she had been having suicidal thoughts. The case worker reported this person and she was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility. Another story that haunts me to this day.
I share this with you because, in doing this important work, you may have to make some hard choices. When you can, talk with your peers and co-Facilitators to decide how best to address difficult situations. This is risky business. I applaud you for taking that risk and being willing to share this critical work with those people in dire need.
Another vignette that bears telling happened in a southern state. The state mental health system had arranged a big conference; probably 250 people attended—or what they called “mental health consumers”—and I was the keynote speaker. Ed went with me and we were both appalled as we saw people being brought in in rickety school buses. The occupants of the school buses, each belonging to a particular mental health club house or program—you could tell because they were wearing the same t-shirt and hat—were led into the room and told where to sit. If they put their heads down on the table, someone came by and told them to sit up. They had to ask permission to go out to smoke or use the restroom. Everyone seemed drugged and groggy. I was appalled. And baffled. What do I do now that can possibly make a difference? So, from the podium, I started reading the Bill of Rights. I have the right to ask for what I want. I saw a few stirrings. I have the right to say no to requests or demands I can’t meet. A man in the front row put up his hands and started shouting yes, yes. I have the right to change my mind. More hands in the air. People standing and shouting, yes, yes. I continued reading the Bill of Rights and the room became pandemonium. . . I was thrilled. The mental health workers were clearly appalled, but way outnumbered. I can only hope from that experience, and the rest of my talk, that some of those people were able to break the chain and go on to live rich lives.
One of the WRAP Values and Ethics that I feel is most important to focus on in these times is, “Everyone in a WRAP class, program, or seminar is treated as equal with dignity, compassion, and high regard.” No exceptions. We talk about doctors, case workers, friends, and supporters becoming valued members of WRAP groups, including people who have difficulty learning in certain ways. But I want to add a little to that. No one is any better than anyone else in a WRAP group. And that includes the Facilitators. Some people have an intense desire to be better than everyone else—to clearly let others know about that—to keep saying in some way, “I am the greatest.”
In WRAP groups everyone is great, special, fantastic. No one has the bottom line. No one knows what is right for others.
We treat everybody equally. No one is better, no one is worse. No one is the greatest. We are all perfect, just as we are, and we treat each other with dignity, compassion, respect, and unconditional high regard.
This is not always easy. I recall a time when a participant in a group I was facilitating reminded me of a person who had abused me in the past. It was not the same person, of course, but the memories came up fast and furiously as I began facilitating. I had a hard time quieting them down. But I remembered this Value and kept focused on that. Even when he chose to sit right in front of me, asked lots of questions, and was very enthusiastic while pushing all my buttons, I treated him with dignity, compassion, respect, and the highest regard. You have to do it. We need so much more of this in the world right now—treating people with dignity, compassion, and unconditional high regard.
We have found that WRAP works for anyone and everyone. Now it is being successfully used in prisons, hospitals, schools, the workplace, by veterans and farmers, by everyone. The WRAP Team is developing WRAP adaptations that make it accessible and meaningful to more and more people.
You all know the parts of WRAP. You know how important an extensive list of Wellness Tools is to develop your WRAP. I want to tell you about my friend Carol. Carol is a WRAP Facilitator. She has facilitated WRAP for many years and was involved in the WRAP studies that proved the evidence base. Carol lives WRAP every day. She has developed a website, Celebrate Possibilities, where she collects Wellness Tools. She is almost up to 1,000 now. Every day, when I check Facebook, there she is, sharing something or many things she did that day to make her life beautiful, something that enhances her wellness—book groups, time with friends, looking at flowers, planting flowers, doing Zentangles, her list goes on and on. As a WRAP Facilitator, you can, like Carol, encourage people to be creative with their Wellness Toolbox.
I heard of a very special Wellness Tool from my son, who was attending a special training for people who work with people who are, or might be, in trouble with the law. They wanted to figure out ways to keep from inadvertently hurting or mistreating people who had disabilities. They described a Blue Card—a card that a person would carry with them that they would hand to an officer that states their name, says they are autistic or whatever their challenge or disability is, instructs the officer on how they need to be safely treated, and shares information on who to contact. A unique Wellness Tool, especially for Stressors and Triggers.
As Facilitators, it is up to us to support people who may have strange or unusual Wellness Tools. Let me tell you the story of Bonnie. Bonnie had been dealing with repeated severe mental health issues for a long time. This time, when things got bad, she decided to check herself into a peer respite center. When my friend who was the center’s director stopped to check on things, the peers providing Bonnie with support were very upset. They said, “Bonnie is in the shower with her clothes on.” My friend went in the bathroom and asked Bonnie what was going on. Bonnie said that she gets these hot burning feelings that are incredibly painful. So, she quickly jumps in the shower and it stops them. Perfect. What better way to deal with these horrific feelings?! Hurray for Bonnie. We all need to understand this, and instead of being appalled, ask why.
I was talking with a long-term friend, Laura, the other day and thought again about her history. When she was much younger, like her mother, she began having severe mental health episodes. She was hospitalized several times and not helped. The last time, many years ago now, she had arranged in advance to have teams of peer counselors ready in case she needed them. This was in the very early days of understanding the value of peers in mental health recovery. When she began having mental health difficulties, she notified one person who arranged peer counseling sessions for her around the clock until her symptoms subsided. It worked. She never had a severe episode or was hospitalized again. Another unusual but amazing Wellness Tool.
Laura believes, and I agree, that when these issues and feelings come up, we need to express all our feelings and emotions. And with our peers, we can safely do that. Crying, yelling, shaking, talking, singing, yawning—until we feel better. Another incredible Wellness Tool.
One of the difficulties I ran into from time to time was when I was facilitating and people shared Wellness Tools that might be deemed unsafe, such as drinking a six-pack of beer or cutting. This is a difficult issue. You can ask the people in your group how they would like to deal with that. One problem with just writing it on the sheet is that people from the agency you are working with might see it and get confused or angry. I don’t have a good answer here. You can figure out with the attendees how you would like to deal with this issue if it comes up. For instance, “Do we all agree that they have the right to any Wellness Tool they choose, but we don’t have to write it on the easel pad?”
You know about the Daily Maintenance Plan, the Stressors and Triggers and Action Plan, Early Warning Signs, and an Action Plan. I don’t need to go over those with you.
I do want to focus on When Things Are Breaking Down, because I have found in my own life, and have heard from others, how important this part of the plan is to prevent crises, which can have such devastating, sometimes irreversible, impacts on our lives. Encourage and support participants in giving this part of their plan the time and attention it needs and deserves, whether we are working on their own WRAP, working with another person on their WRAP, or co-facilitating a WRAP group seminar.
I want to focus on this section because I have heard from many, many people, and from my own lived experience, how important this part of the plan is. Crises are awful. They can be life-changing in ways we do not want our life to become. We can end up in a locked-down facility, we may hurt people we do not want to hurt, we can damage our lives and the lives of others, or we can inflict trauma on ourselves that is so difficult to resolve.
Having a strong When Things Are Breaking Down section is critical. And yet, by the time we get to working on it, we may be ready for a break. While facilitating, stress the importance of this section, and keep moving forward. You could take a break or do a social activity together before you start it, but don’t avoid it.
Years ago, when I was writing and working on my own WRAP, I developed a list of my own signs that things are breaking down:
- I am being very rude to others, including people I care about.
- I lash out at others, yell at them.
- I am argumentative and difficult.
- I am claiming to be right about things even when I know I am wrong.
- I cry easily.
- I have difficulty sleeping or can’t sleep at all—missing nights of sleep.
- I want to eat everything, especially sweets and snack foods.
- I ignore pain in my body and may actually be doing things to make it worse.
- I make bad choices and judgements.
Then I developed the following When Things Are Breaking Down section:
- Take 5 days off from anything work-related—no answering phone calls, responding to emails, leading workshops, working on writing projects.
- Ask my husband to take over my household responsibilities—especially cooking.
- Spend at least 3 hours a day doing things I love to do, like exploring nature, drawing, and quilting.
- Go for a walk or exercise for at least half an hour.
- Avoid sugar.
- Eat three healthy meals a day.
It was pretty specific. I showed it to my husband and my daughter. They said no way I could ever do it.
So, I decided to give it a dry run. And they were right. I failed miserably. I couldn’t stay away from my work. But I realized how important this was. So, I tried it again, and this time I was successful.
Before I finish up, let me give you a brief review of the points I have tried to make:
- I am so, so grateful to you for doing this work.
- Over time, people have tried to change WRAP, even stealing the copyright. The correct, original WRAP is represented in the new WRAP Facilitator Manual, Updated Edition, put out by AHP in 2024. An update of the Advanced Level WRAP Facilitator Manual is currently underway, and you will be notified when that is ready. In the interim, if you have questions or concerns, contact the WRAP Team.
- My own work is based on my need to find answers to my own mental health issues.
- Using WRAP, many people, even those who have severe mental health issues, benefit from WRAP and get their lives back. Sometimes it surprises us who benefits most, such as David and Pat.
- The first time people attend WRAP classes, it may be very hard for them. We need to be available to greet them, reassure them, and make them feel comfortable.
- Every WRAP group, program, or seminar begins with working together as a group to develop a Safety Agreement.
- Almost always, issues in WRAP groups turn out very well, but sometimes not so well. We do the best we can but sometimes we are disappointed and even baffled. We learn to live with that.
- A critical Value to focus on, especially in these times, is “Everyone in a WRAP class, program, or seminar is treated as equal with dignity, compassion, and unconditional high regard.” No exceptions. No one, no matter their role, is better than anyone else. No one is the greatest. We are all the greatest.
- WRAP can work for anyone and everyone.
- Sometimes people have Wellness Tools that are unusual and amazing that work very, very well for them.
- It is hard to know how to handle situations where Wellness Tools are suggested that others feel are unsafe or dangerous.
- It is critical to focus on the When Things Are Breaking Down section of WRAP to prevent a destructive and potentially disastrous crisis.
Again, my thanks to you for taking on the challenge of sharing WRAP with those people who most need it.
WRAP Co-Originator
