How do I handle my children’s emotions?!

My average client received less than ideal parenting.  Typical responses to emotion in their homes were a wide variety of ways to shut it down.  It might have been straight up ignoring the emotion, saying they shouldn’t have that emotion, or, at best, logic, “You can always find another friend, why cry about losing this one?”  Some of their parents had such big emotions themselves that the children intuitively knew that there just wasn’t any space for their own emotions.

All of my clients want to do better for their own children.  But how?  For most of us, parenting is not as intuitive as we’d like it to be, especially when it comes to emotions.

Enter Matt Armstrong, MA, RCC.

I know Matt as a kind and thoughtful person.  He is a soft-spoken counsellor with a passion for helping people understand emotions and gain tools for working with them.  Matt has created a short video series to explain emotions and how to help your children and other loved ones manage their emotions.  Those explosive emotional outbursts that send parents heading for the exits become manageable with Matt’s clear, step by step process.

Here’s how Matt describes his course:

Emotion Coaching: The Healing Power of Connection

In this 9-part video course, you will learn the art of Emotion Coaching, a strategy for supporting the behavioral and emotional well-being of children, adolescents, and adults.

More specifically, you will learn two main skills: (1.) How to coach your loved one to become aware of their emotions and associated needs; and (2.) How to coach your loved love to regulate their emotions more easily.

Research has shown that children of “Emotion Coaching” parents function better in many areas of life, including academic performance, social skills, and physical and mental health. These children also experience fewer challenging emotions overall and develop the ability to become more independent. Furthermore, supporting your loved one in their ability to regulate emotions can help reduce the need for substance use, eating disorders, and cutting when faced with stress, pain, anger, or loss.

Emotion Coaching comes from Emotion-Focused Family Therapy, which is a no-blame approach that supports parents and caregivers in becoming agents of healing in their loved one’s lives.

You can find Matt’s Emotion Coaching course here.

I want to encourage you to check out Matt’s course.  He has now made his course free, so you’ll have access to short videos you can repeat as often as you like. If you want to take a bit of time to learn how to do emotions differently, this is a great place to start.