Live in possibility

The foundation of WRAP’s six parts is the wellness toolbox. Using the tools in our wellness toolbox, we build our WRAP.

• Wellness Toolbox. A list of skills and strategies for keeping ourselves well and for feeling better if we don’t feel well. Wellness tools are simple, safe, accessible, and often free things we can do to recover or maintain our wellness. They give us hope and help us feel connected to others and to ourselves.
• Part 1: Daily Plan. The daily plan is a simple structure for putting wellness tools into action for daily living. This includes a description of how we look and feel when we’re well, things we need to do every day to stay well, and things we may want to do on a particular day to maintain wellness and make our life how we want it to be.
• Part 2: Stressors. These are events, circumstances, or situations that may lead to uncomfortable feelings or behaviors. Some people prefer the words “triggers” or “red flags.” Whatever you call these occurrences, when they happen they cause a normal reaction to the events in our lives—but if we don’t respond to them and deal with them, they can make us feel worse and disrupt our wellness. In this part of WRAP, we identify our stressors and the wellness tools we will use to respond if they occur.
• Part 3: Early Warning Signs. These are subtle signs of change that indicate we may need to take some action to keep our situation from worsening. Whereas stressors are things that happen around us, early warning signs are things we notice about ourselves or our environment that tell us we need to be proactive to protect or restore wellness. In this section, we identify our early warning signs and the wellness tools we will use to respond if we notice them.
• Part 4: Signs That Things Are Breaking Down or Getting Much Worse. When things are breaking down, we’re feeling worse and worse despite our best efforts. This is the time to take immediate action to prevent a crisis. In this section, we make a list of our signs that things are breaking down and the specific, concrete plan we will follow to use our wellness tools to help prevent a crisis.
• Part 5: Crisis Plan. If a crisis happens, it’s not your fault. The crisis plan helps you stay in control even when things feel out of control by making advance plans for yourself and for your supporters for what you need during this time. In this section, we define what a crisis looks like for our personal situation, who supports us, what supports we want and do not want, and how we want to be supported by others, including medical professionals if appropriate.
• Part 6: Post-Crisis Plan. The post-crisis plan helps us navigate the period after a crisis so we can return to our daily plan on the timetable and in the way that makes sense for us. It also helps us evaluate our WRAP to identify new tools or strategies we want to use based on what we learned about ourselves through the crisis we experienced.

Each part of WRAP listed above links to blog articles on this site that touch on that element of WRAP in some way.

Our Sample WRAPs & Tools can help you see WRAP in action and give you ideas for tools and strategies you want to include in your own WRAP.

Want to learn more? Check out the WRAP materials in our bookstore and learn how to find a certified WRAP Facilitator near you.

Want to share your WRAP story or a sample WRAP? Read our Writers’ Guidelines to learn how to submit an article or plan for our blog.