Emotion Coaching: Developing Emotional Intelligence

When little people become overwhelmed by big emotions it is our job to share our CALM not to join their chaos- L.R. Knost.

This quote epitomises our approach to upset children. On any given day children are experiencing a variety of different emotions that can potentially be all-consuming for any child. This afternoon we were lucky to have the two Robyn’s from CASEA explain to us the importance of acknowledging children’s emotions and coaching them through their responses to this.

Dr John Gottman is a thought leader in the field of emotion coaching and his website has loads of practical ideas and resources that can be used both at school and at home.  Robyn and Robyn shared Gottman’s “Five steps to Emotion Coaching” and their presentation had many examples of common responses that adults have to common problems experienced by children. They contrasted these responses with an ’emotion coaching’ response. Please see below for their presentation and remember that we need to acknowledge children’s emotions for what they are and coach children through the process of accepting and labelling their emotions, this very process can help bring a sense of calm to some of the most emotional situations.

Have a go at coaching your child/student through an emotional time. Please comment below how you went with it?