The Emotion Coaching Project

Transcription

1 The Emotion Coaching Project

2 What is Emotion Coaching? It is about helping children and young people to understand the different emotions, why they occur and how to handle them (John Gottman) It is a practical strategy to help children and young people to become more aware of their emotions and to manage these feelings more effectively. It aid s children s ability to self-regulate their emotions and behaviour. It enables adults to create an ethos of positive learning behaviour and to have the confidence to de-escalate situations when behaviour is challenging. It creates opportunities for longer-term solutions to children s mental health and well-being.

3 Much of today s popular advice ignores emotion. Instead, it relies on theories that address children s behavior, rather than the underling emotion that drives the behavior. Emotion Coaching is different, it a set of processes that include: Talking about the emotion Labelling the emotion being felt Respecting and accepting the emotion Discussing the situation that caused the emotion Having goals and strategies for coping with these emotions ( Gottman, 1997 )

4 What is the Project about? The project forms part of the Somerset Children and Young People Health and Wellbeing in Learning Programme. Somerset County Council Public Health team have commissioned Bath Spa University and EHCAP (a social enterprise company) to deliver a programme of Emotion Coaching training to the children and young people s workforce across the five districts of Somerset. The training is based on Bath Spa s Attachment Aware Schools Programme and both organisations work on Emotion Coaching, inspired by Professor John Gottman s research in the USA. Training 20 champions in each district to take on leadership roles within their own organisations and across services, working with professionals and young people. I am training to be one of the champions in this programme.

5 The key aims of the project are: To increase understanding of emotional health and wellbeing Enhance skills in supporting children and young people s emotional health and wellbeing To facilitate the referral process for children and young people and improve access to services

6 The key objectives are to: Cascade Emotion Coaching to children and young people through peer mentoring Cascade Emotion Coaching to peers Develop communication network to create an Emotion Coaching community in Somerset

7 Research from Bath Spa University, the Tuning into Kids programme in Australia which have demonstrated the positive impact of Emotion Coaching on children s social development and emotional health. John Gottman s research has shown that emotion coached children: Achieve more academically in school Are more popular Have fewer behavioural problems Have fewer infectious illnesses Are more emotionally stable Are more resilient

8 So why do we experience emotions? Because everyone brains are programmed to respond to. Distress Fear Anger Joy Emotions help us respond appropriately and quickly so we can survive and thrive.

9 Emotion Coaching Tools and Strategies include Mindfulness - this practiced can allow us to become more aware of the stream of thoughts and feelings that we experience. We can see how we can become entangled in this stream in ways that are not helpful. Through self care and meditation we can experience being present in the moment, stopping, pausing and creating a space in our minds. Enhancing our knowledge of brain development and functioning - Neuro science Understanding our brains better enables us (with practice) to self regulate. Dan siegel s hand model of the brain demonstrates how connections within our brains control our reactions and responses.

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11 Preston School our Journey so far A letter from Amy highlighted the barriers to students getting support and need to develop appropriate alternative avenues of support

12 The Schools response..

13 s.a.f.e day 11 th June 2015

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