Emotion Regulation: Managing Emotions and Making Amends
ParentTalk is thrilled to welcome back Dr. Andrew Garner to talk about emotion regulation, and how parents can better manage emotions (theirs and their children’s), and recover from those moments when those emotions get the better of us. In our first episode with Dr. Garner, we spoke of the biology of relationships, and how those relationships contribute to the social, cognitive, and even physiological development of young children. We’re now back to examine specific situations where our emotions are heightened, and strategies parents can take to manage those situations successfully, and strengthen the relational bonds between themselves and their children.
For more of Dr. Garner’s work, we encourage you to read his groundbreaking book, Thinking Developmentally: Nurturing Wellness in Childhood to Promote Lifelong Health.
“Emotional intelligence can be learned. Emotion regulation can be learned. It’s a skill like any other skill. The difference is, if you’re really bad at math, we give you a tutor, and if you’re bad at emotions, we give you a prison cell. It’s sad, but it’s really true. Emotion regulation can be learned, but as a society, how often do we see that put on a pedestal? How often do we celebrate someone handling their emotions and nurturing their child?”
– Dr. Andrew Garner
Episode Highlights:
– Emotion regulation and synchrony: the biological effects of being in sync with your child.
– Emotion regulation and discipline: how to use engagement and disengagement to resolve unwanted behaviors.
– Creating positive synchrony. How to know when you’ve fallen out of sync with your child, and how to reestablish shared, positive experiences.
– What emotion regulation is, and how it applies to parents and children.
– How parents can model the managing of their emotions.
– What the loss of emotional regulation looks and feels like.
– How to build distress tolerance.
– Making amends: discussing missteps and modeling a growth mindset for your children.