Recap: Emotional Regulation Skills for Parents

For those who couldn’t make it, the session, Emotional Regulation Skills for Parents, offered timely and tender reminders about the power of presence in parenting — especially in emotionally charged moments. Anne-Sophie opened with the reassuring truth that there are no “bad” parents — only parents doing their best, often without the support they need. When we learn how to regulate our own emotions, we give our children the gift of calm, security, and connection.

We explored two foundational concepts:

• Emotional Regulation: Calming ourselves in the heat of the moment
• Emotional Processing: Allowing emotions to move through us, whether through a cry, a laugh, or a deep breath

Together, we considered what happens when emotions overwhelm us — and what we can do instead.

Some of the practical strategies Anne-Sophie shared include:

• Learning to notice our own emotions without judgement
• Taking a moment for deep breathing or simply stepping away
• Finding safe physical outlets for tension (movement, grounding, etc.)
• Speaking to ourselves with self-compassion, using phrases like:

           – “I’m doing my best”
– “I’m exactly the parent my child needs”