Family Forum: Emotional Regulation – Tips for Parents

Emotional Regulation: Tips for Parents

Emotional Regulation. What is it? Why is it important? Why do we have to master it first before we can expect it from our kids? A general term used to describe a person’s ability to effectively manage and respond to an emotional experience, emotional regulation is a critical skill for foster and adoptive parents. We know that when our kids are dysregulated and when their brains are full of stress, they cannot learn or model the behavior we know they’re capable of. But…that’s just as true for parents! When we’re stress-full, we also get dysregulated — and then we have a harder time drawing on all of the trauma-informed parenting principles that we’ve worked so hard to learn.

Drawing on the trauma-informed work of Juli Alvarado, we’ll spend some time talking about the importance of emotional regulation (sometimes referred to as self-regulation), as well as some of the key ways that Alvarado recommends we as parents can engage in the hard work of remaining regulated.