Children are not born knowing how to manage their feelings. And boy can their feelings be big sometimes! It is so common for parents to feel overwhelmed by their kids’ big feelings of anger, worry, anxiety, and sadness and not know what to do to help them. This can lead to us feeling overwhelmed, sad, hopeless, and frustrated too.

When I do child play therapy, I like to call myself a Feelings Teacher. Just like kids need to learn math and reading from their school teacher, they need to learn how to manage their feelings too. Just like we don’t expect parents to homeschool (although they can certainly choose to!), it’s not reasonable to expect our parents to know how to teach their kids everything about managing their feelings.

Kids learn through play. When I work with kids I use a variety of play therapy interventions to allow them to get their feelings out in a healthy way while learning new ways to manage their feelings in the future. I use a variety of tools such as sand tray, board games, story books with emotional themes, puppets, and more.

With all minor clients I work with the parents too, either through parent coaching, family therapy, or both. We all need tips on how to better support our kids with their big feelings. Sometimes we learn something about managing our feelings too!

Parenting these days is HARD. The good news is that with some new tools it can get easier.