Transform Your Child's Attitude And Behavior
How emotional regulation can help your child, and how you can teach them to self-regulate
Hello! I hope you and your family are doing well.
We all want our kids have a positive attitude and healthy behavior. And we can help them do that by helping them learn emotional regulation skills.
I’m sure your immediate thought is “Yes! I want my child to regulate their emotions! Sign me up!”
Yay! I’m glad you’re here, and the good news is that you can help! Everyone does better when we improve emotional regulation skills. And nobody is better equipped to help your child learn emotional regulation than you.
Helping your child with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, or other mental health challenge develop emotional regulation skills is essential to recovery. But it’s also more challenging because their mental health issues are a signal that they’re struggling with this skill right now.
Most people with mental health challenges are highly sensitive people (HSPs). These people are genetically primed to register and processes more information at faster speeds. This makes emotional regulation much harder for them than it is for others.
HSPs are not being dramatic or difficult; they need more support building emotional regulation skills because it’s more biologically difficult for them to regulate their emotions.
As parents we’re uniquely suited to teaching our kids emotional regulation. In fact, we’re teaching them about emotional regulation all the time, whether we realize it or not.
The secret to building our kids’ emotional regulation skills isn’t in telling our child to regulate themselves, but in showing our child through repeated experiences with us what it feels like to be regulated.
You’ll teach your child better self-regulation when you intentionally and consistently practice emotional co-regulation with them. You do this by recognizing that your child is dysregulated, regulating your own emotions, and responding appropriately in the heat of the moment.
With time and practice, you’ll see dramatic changes in your child’s attitude and behavior.
Increasing your child’s emotional regulation skills is a game-changer. Let me know if you’d like some coaching on how to do it!
Ginny Jones Parent Coach / More-Love.org
Coaching Notes
Here are some stories from the last few weeks of my coaching sessions with parents who have kids with anxiety, eating, and body image issues:
A few months ago, my client and her teen weren’t speaking. Today, thanks to learning new skills in emotional regulation and non-defensive communication, they are talking and making progress towards shared goals.
I helped my clients learn to recognize their daughter’s symptoms of emotional dysregulation and respond rather than react to her behavior. The result is that mealtimes are no longer dramatic yelling matches.
I responded in writing to a client who asked me about handling a neurodivergent child who is binge eating. If you’d like to read it, you can do so here.
Understanding Emotional Regulation And Eating
You can help your child develop stronger skills for self-regulation. I’ve taken the last three decades of research in neurobiology and applied it to eating behaviors. We have so much influence and can help our kids develop healthy emotional regulation skills, and this guide will help you get started.
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