Mental Health Therapy and Emotional Regulation: for Elementary-Aged Children

Disclosure: Mental Health Therapy is helpful for all ages but for the purpose of this blog, Elementary-aged children are going to be the primary focus.

Why Mental Health Therapy? 

As a parent (or legal guardian) it is okay to ask for help and need additional support in navigating raising children. Mental health therapy helps children gain age-appropriate listening, social, problem solving, coping, and emotional regulation skills. 

Mental health therapy can be beneficial when children have challenges with:

• Anger – physical, emotional and verbal aggression 
• Anxiety – nervousness, worries, panic and somatic (body) reactions 
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – focus, attention, and hyperactive
• Trauma and grief – domestic abuse, neglect, natural disasters, and a loss of a loved one
• Eating and toileting disorders 
• Problem behaviors at school and being bullied 

This list is not all inclusive, if your child’s challenge is not listed, you can always ask the mental health team how they can help.

What is Emotional Regulation? 

Emotional regulation is when a person, specifically a child is able to have:

1.  Emotional Awareness or understanding one’s emotions –  knowing the difference between different emotions they are feeling inside. 
2. Healthy Emotional Expression – be able to communicate, manage and cope with their feelings.

Children often struggle with identifying their emotions. So, when strong emotions such as anger, frustration, anxiousness, nervousness and sadness increase; negative reactions such as yelling, hitting, lack of listening, and/or a lot of crying increase. 

When children have emotional awareness and healthy emotional expression, they are able to gain more empathy and understanding towards others as well! 

Mental Health Therapists teach children and parents emotional regulation steps such as:

1. Identifying emotions.
2. Helping children understand what triggers their strong emotions.
3. Helping children manage their emotions.

There are many approaches that promote Emotional Regulation and other skills, two that are commonly utilized are Play Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Children. 

• Play Therapy. 

Play Therapy is typically used with children ages 3 – 12 years old. Play therapy helps children learn and understand their world through play. Play helps children comfortably and creatively express their inner emotions. As expressed by the professional organization Play Therapy International, up to 71% of children referred to play therapy experience positive change.

• Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Children (MBCT-C). [See our blog on Mindfulness here.]

MBCT-C is typically used with children ages 8 – 12 years old. MBCT-C helps children learn mind and body awareness in a non-judgemental, positive manner. Activities are often designed to make learning fun and engaging for children. As expressed by MBCT-C peer-reviewed research, MBCT-C is known for decreasing anxiety and behavioral type challenges. 

~”In the waves of change, we find our direction.”~

Additional Resources:

• Crisis Text line: text to 741741
• Teaching Your Child to Manage Anger and Anxiety: https://raising-independent-kids.com/1163-2/

Lindsay Lusinski, M.S., tLMHC
Life Connections Therapist

Because Life is All About Connections

Life Connections provides in-home Behavioral Health Intervention services, Therapy services, autism (ABA) services and Children’s Mental Health waiver services in our 13 office locations and approved schools across Iowa. Life Connections was founded in March of 2009 with the intent to serve the children and families of Cedar Rapids and surrounding cities.

Life Connections is a highly professional and caring counseling and behavioral health provider. We offer a wide array of services to treat mental health issues including Applied Behavior Analysis Services,  Behavioral Health Intervention Services, mental health therapy, school-based therapy programs, and substance use treatment.

For more information, please call 319-409-6922. 

Resources:

• National Suicide Prevention Hotline 800-273-8255

• Crisis Text line text to 741741
• The Trevor Project – for LGBTQ+ young adult community 866-488-7386

• Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network 800-656-4673