Modelling and practising skills with the child

The therapist may spend time developing the child’s ability to

• identify, name and own emotions

• reflect on own, and other people’s, internal processes and perspectives

• regulate emotions

Visualisation and breathing tasks may help the child learn to self-regulate more effectively. For example, asking children to visualise having a bowl of their favourite soup and breathing in through their noses, smelling the delicious soup and then blowing out gently through their mouths to cool the soup.

Therapists may ask children to practice these skills outside of the session for a brief time everyday. This will make it easier to calm the children if they begin to dis-regulate in sessions.

If parents and carers are involved, they can cue the child in outside of sessions too, when the child is struggling to self-regulate.

Related goal

This step is related to achieving the goal developing skills.