1. Hankham Healthy Minds Project
Dr Daniella Alexandra
Educational Psychologist
East Sussex Educational Psychology Service

2. How we can support the well-being of our children

3. Triune Brain Theory

4. Supporting our children in recognising, labelling and talking about their emotions
Using pictures
Developing their vocabulary
Talking about feelings of characters TV, film, books
Talking about your own feelings
Modelling

5. Developing self-awareness ‘Name it to tame it’
Not being able to name, recognise our emotions can be frightening, confusing. Renders us at the mercy of our feelings
Verbalising our emotions makes our feelings less intense, help them feel manageable
SURVIVAL
SAFETY

6. Using Emotion Coaching to emotional development (John Gottman, 1996)
Research has shown that ‘emotion-focused talk’ by the adult can teach children to use appropriate strategies to cope with stress – building the architecture of their brains. (Bowlby, 1998, Schore, 1994)
Helping children to become aware of their emotions

7. Benefits of emotion coaching
Evidence based intervention
Offers young people strategies to deal with their emotions and social contexts
Accepting distress and ‘negative’ emotions as normal
Using moments of negative behaviour as opportunities for teaching
Supporting emotional development

8. Step 1 - Empathise, validate and label
Look for physical and verbal signs of emotion being felt. Use words to reflect back to the young person and help them label the emotion Affirm and empathise, allowing young person to calm down through co-regulation Provide a narrative for emotional experience

9. Step 2 – Setting limits Boundary the behaviour not the emotion
State the boundary limits of acceptable behaviour.

10. Step 3 – Problem solve with the child
Explore the feelings that gave rise to the behaviour.
Scaffold alternative ideas and actions that could lead to more appropriate and productive outcomes.
Empower the young person to believe that they can overcome difficulties and manage their own feelings and behaviour.

11. Regular use of calming strategies

13. Our mind is like a house with different rooms
Our mind is like a house with different rooms. With practice we can choose which room we want to be in.
Past
Angry
Present
Calm
Future

14. Mindfulness Practising focusing your attention Focusing on present
Quietening the mind
Training the mind to focus on what you want to

15. Mindful activities
Mindful walking Focusing on particular senses What can you see/hear/feel right now? What colours can you see?

16. Learning to relax and self-soothe takes practice

17. Summary
Helping our children recognise, label and talk about their emotions
Emotion coaching – 3 steps
Relaxation techniques
Explain that we need to ensure that support is embedded within a plan do review cycle.

18. Thank you for listening