There are many ways in which we support our clients at Hanrahan Health. Some of which you would expect such as language skills and literacy, speech sounds and articulation, alternative communication and support with feeding and swallowing. With our wonderful Occupational Therapy team members on board now, another area we support our clients with regularly is with developing the skill of “emotional self regulation”.

What Is Emotional Self Regulation?

What is emotional self regulation you may ask! It can be very complex to explain but the short answer is: The ability to identify the emotion you are experiencing, knowing what it feels like in your body and then being able to independently problem solve and manage your reaction to your feeling and the situation that triggered this. IE: To calm yourself down when you get upset, to adjust to a change in expectations and to handle frustration without an outburst.

What Does Emotional Dysregulation Look Like?

Sometimes it is instantaneous- a huge, strong reaction and lack of ability to inhibit that immediate behaviour response. For others they may internalise their emotions. Distress may build up and they can only take it for so long leading to some sort of outburst. The key for people experiencing emotional dysregulation is to learn how to handle those strong reactions and find ways to express their emotions that are more effective and that will help them cope better in social situations and everyday life.

How Can We Help?

At Hanrahan Health our whole team: Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Allied Health Assistants, are able to support clients experiencing emotional dysregulation by working with them to provide a supportive framework or ‘scaffolding’, coaching them and giving them techniques (tools) they can use to independently recognise and readjust their reaction. The flow on effect being better outcomes at school, work or social situations, feeling less anxiety and stress leading to a happier, better quality of life.  

Resources We Utilise To Support Our Clients and Families

The many resources available for clinicians at Hanrahan Health to support in developing the skills of emotional self regulation include:

  • Everyday Speech: An amazing on-line platform providing a social- emotional learning curriculum.
  • Secret Agent Society: A fun social skills program providing one on one support or group therapy.
  • Talkabout: A program assisting in recognising emotions in ourselves and others across many fun learning activities.
  • Occupational Therapy support for our whole team and for our clients. Supporting parents to help their children with building an emotional connection and bonding often through play techniques and as a consequence better emotional regulation.
  • Recently one of our occupational therapists, Shayla Letran, has introduced a 6 week program for parents called “ Tuning In To Kids” which teaches the skill of emotion coaching. Shayla will be running this program again in early 2022 to help support families.  

All of these materials providing direct and indirect support practitioners and clients and their families.

If you have any questions about emotional self regulation or any other topic speech and communication related, or would like more information on how Hanrahan Health could support you and your family please contact us on 02 4862 5063.