Everyone Feels
As part of our whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing, the Healthy Minds Team deliver “Everyone Feels” workshops. This is a three-week intervention, with one session being delivered per week. Within these sessions, children will be introduced to strategies to support different emotions such as: Worry, Anger, Happiness and Sadness as well as understanding how these emotions may present.
Children will be taught the fight/flight response to worry and the physical sensations our bodies can feel as a result. They will also be supported to understand and recognise situations which may trigger anger within themselves using the anger iceberg.
Following this, children will be taught breathing strategies and grounding techniques to support regulation.
With sadness, children will be taught the benefits of activity planning and the impact this can have on mood, similarly with happiness, children will identify small tasks or aspects of life which make them feel joy.
These sessions will then end with the introduction of the Zones of Regulation and how these can be used for those who may struggle to verbalise and discuss emotions with others.
Ways you can support at home: Parents/carers can model noticing and naming emotions at home to support emotional literacy. The Zones of Regulation is a useful strategy to introduce at home if naming or discussing emotions is challenging for your child. Additionally, a self-soothe box or basket can be made to support emotional regulation at home, possible suggestions may include fidget toys, sensory toys, cuddly toy etc.
The below video from Anxiety Canada can be helpful to explain the physical body feelings of the 'Fight, Flight, Freeze' response:
