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Smooth Sailing Through Life’s Changes: Mastering Emotional Regulation During Transitions

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SMOOTH SAILING THROUGH LIFE’S CHANGES: MASTERING EMOTIONAL REGULATION DURING TRANSITIONS

As we delve deeper into 2024, emotional regulation is a prominent theme that goes hand in hand with supporting transitions.

Understanding Transitions

Transitions in life are inevitable. Whether it’s starting a new school year, moving to a new home, or experiencing changes within the family dynamic, transitions can be challenging for both parents and children alike. During these times of change, emotions can run high, leading to stress and uncertainty.

What is Emotional Regulation?

Emotional regulation refers to an individual’s ability to recognise, process and act upon the emotions that they feel within different situations on a regular day. It is one’s ability to adjust and control their energy level, emotions, behaviours, and attention to allow for success in connecting with our loved ones and engaging in our daily lives. We provide even more information on our “Tools to Support Emotions” blog.

Emotional regulation is a skill that is developed over time. Emotional regulation is essential for healthy emotional development and well-being throughout life. There are two stages to emotional regulation.

Co-regulation is the foundation for emotional development, allowing children to explore, learn and understand unfamiliar situations while parents support them by providing a safety net. 

Self-regulation involves the ability to notice and change/control one’s own feelings and adapt to surroundings. Emotional regulation is essential for healthy emotional development and well-being throughout life. To find out more information, refer to our “Emotional Regulation” blog.

The Emotional Rollercoaster

Transitions can evoke a range of emotions, from excitement and anticipation to anxiety and fear. Children who thrive on routine and stability may feel their sense of security disrupted, leading to vulnerability and insecurity. Similarly, parents may experience a mix of pride, worry, and doubt as they navigate unfamiliar territory. With the right tools and support, families can navigate transitions more smoothly, fostering emotional regulation and resilience along the way.

Strategies for Emotional Regulation

So, how can we help you support your child emotionally regulate during transitions? As Occupational Therapists, our role is to enable children and parents to recognise, understand and manage their emotions during times of change. Whether they are transitioning from breakfast to getting dressed or from home to school, navigating our emotions is a difficult task and can depend heavily on our sense of safety within ourselves and others and our connection to place, person, or thing. 

Here are some practical strategies and tools:

1. Transition Time: Allow ample time for transitions, providing a buffer for individuals to adjust mentally and emotionally.

2. Observation: Pay attention to the child’s body language, affect, tone of voice, and overall demeanour to gauge their emotional state.

  • Are we slouching our shoulders or dropping our head?
  • Are we smiling, and are our faces lit up? 
  • Is our tone of voice low, high-pitched, or fast-paced? 
  • Do we appear frazzled or disinterested?
  • Do we seem tired or overwhelmed from something that happened earlier?

3. Tools and Techniques we utilise, and you can too.

  • Visual schedules for predictability and routine. This also provides a point of orientation. 
  • Visual timers to set task timeframes and provide visual information of how long the task is.
  • Therapressure brushing is a technique for grounding and calming.
  • Therapeutic use of self for connection, following their lead and co-regulation.
  • Breathing exercises such as belly breathing or blowing bubbles.
  • Incorporating vestibular input through activities like wobble boards.
  • Providing oral input with stretches, cold drinks, or chewy foods.

Setting the Body Up

We call this process ‘Setting the Body Up’ as this prepares the body with sensory input and transition time to ease into daily activities.

Once our body is adequately ‘set up’ and we’ve allowed ‘transition time’. Transitions into daily activities won’t be as overwhelming. 

Emotional Continuum

We use cognitive-emotional strategies to support the emotional continuum. Strategies like sensory processing and cognitive strategies can help refine knowledge and apply skills in social situations. To learn more about how we use the above techniques as well as “Zones of Regulation,” “Size of Problem vs Reaction,” “The Alert Program,” “The Incredible Flexible You Series,” and “The Social Thinking Detectives” refer to our “The Emotional Continuum” blog. 

Embracing Change Together

Transitions are unpredictable, and allowing yourself grace in navigating them is essential. Understanding your own triggers and emotions is key to understanding how to emotionally regulate yourself. As parents, showing vulnerability can help model to our children that, YES, change can be scary, but you can do this as a TEAM.  Encourage open communication about challenges and solutions, empowering your child to take ownership and responsibility for the transition process.

Ask your child and yourself what is challenging about the transition to school/work or what makes it hard to go to soccer training or out for a catch-up with a friend in the afternoon, and what could we do to make it easier? This collaboration provides a sense of ownership and responsibility for our child and can result in increased adherence to routine, reducing the risk of emotional dysregulation.

Ready to embark on a smoother journey through life’s transitions? Start implementing these strategies today to foster emotional regulation and resilience in your family. Remember, every small step counts towards a smoother sail!

By implementing these strategies and fostering a supportive environment, families can navigate transitions more smoothly, fostering emotional regulation and resilience along the way. Contact us today if you would like to chat about transitions and how we can help.

If you’d like to chat more, please don’t hesitate to contact us today! Call us on 0477 708 217 or email admin@exploreandsoar.com.au

Until Next Time,
Molly

PUBLISHED MARCH 2024

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Parenting – You’re the expert; we are here to support the transition!

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PARENTING – YOU’RE THE EXPERT, WE ARE HERE TO SUPPORT THE TRANSITION!

As the sun rises on a new week, we hear the hum of school routines resuming, marking the return of familiar patterns.

During the past week or so, many of our families will have returned to school and the routines that it brings with it. For some of our families, February is a transition period where new routines and ways of balancing life are being forged as their child starts daycare or preschool, kindergarten or high school or even a child not being back at school because they have finished or commenced in a type of employment.

How do transitions feel for parents and children?

This transition period can be a daunting time – a rollercoaster of emotions not only for our children as they learn their new environment and the expectations that go along with it. But it is also a rollercoaster as a parent as we navigate a shift in our role; a moment of letting go but also sometimes the fear of the unknown. Our journey into parenthood commences with dreams, hopes, and a multitude of expectations, but from the moment we commence on our journey to become parents, the road ahead is filled with dips and hollows that we can genuinely not prepare ourselves for; however, acknowledging and recognising the transitions within our parenting journey allows us to adapt and grow.


What types of transitions are there?

Some of those significant transitions that we can anticipate during parenting might include:
● Bringing your newborn baby home for the first time
● Starting at daycare or preschool
● Starting kindergarten or high school
● Puberty
● Our child starting their first job and seeking more independence.
● Our child turning 16 and seeking to get a driver’s license.
● Finishing school
● Moving out of home.

But there are also many transitions that we do not anticipate happening during our journey as parents – a child becoming unwell, a diagnosis that wasn’t expected, a death, a separation. All of these heart-wrenching trials require us as parents and individuals to stop, pause, reassess and pivot in our roles and in our way of doing things. Explore & Soar stands as a beacon, acknowledging and respecting the unique narratives of every parenting journey. We recognise that transitions can be tough, change can be challenging, and the journey is as diverse as the individuals embarking on it, so no one’s story or journey is the same, and we respect that here at Explore & Soar.

How, then, can we, as OTs, stand beside you and support you as parents on this rollercoaster?

A Holistic Approach to Transitions

During our university studies, we learn in-depth about the interaction between how, where and why we do things and the positive and negative impact this can have on an individual’s overall health. When we work with a child and their family, we consider the whole person; we consider what strategies, interventions and approaches we are going to use. At Explore and Soar, we want to be able to support you just as much as your child in their journey towards their goals! Sometimes, therapy sessions can provide that space so that you can take a breath, sneak a quiet cuppa in the corner, and recharge while the therapist is working with your child.

It’s also important to ensure that, as parents, we are scheduling our own self-care time – it’s the flight safety briefing message – you need to put your oxygen mask on first before you can help those around you! Checking in with ourselves, noticing our own regulation patterns and adapting our responses also helps to show our children different strategies or ideas they can use when they feel overwhelmed, exhausted or touched out.

Empowering Parents with Self-Care

Next time your therapist recommends some home program exercises, consider them as not just a task for your child but as opportunities for you to connect – Try to do them with your child! See how they make you feel before and after completing them. Talk to your child about them and compare feelings.

At times, we do have those uncomfortable conversations around things we have noticed or ideas on what could make a difference in helping your child with their goal. Our therapists are noticing things from the outside and through our trained eyes. It is not from a place of
judgement but rather a place of working alongside you to build you up. As a parent, you are your child’s biggest advocate and teacher. You have the expertise in your child; it is our role as OTs to help refine this, adjusting and adapting to different transitions across your parenting journey.

Embracing Change Together

As we navigate the ebb and flow of February’s transitions, let’s remember that parenting is a continuous journey of learning and growth. Embrace your experiences, connect with others sharing similar paths, and let’s soar through these transitions together. Share your stories, seek support, and revel in the collective strength that arises when we navigate as a community.

May your journey through 2024 be filled with resilience, adaptability, and the unwavering support that Explore & Soar offers. Here’s to embracing the rollercoaster of parenting with open hearts and a community that understands that every twist and turn is a part of our unique and beautiful story.

If you’d like to chat more, please don’t hesitate to contact us today! Call us on 0477 708 217 or email admin@exploreandsoar.com.au

Until Next Time,
Lori

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 2024

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Life Transitions and The New Year

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LIFE TRANSITIONS AND THE NEW YEAR

Happy New Year! We hope you have enjoyed the end-of-year celebrations with some yummy food, rest and spending time doing things that bring you joy. 

Annual Theme – Life Transitions

Progressing from a year of developing Safety for Vulnerability for ourselves, our team, clients, and their families and communities has shaped us into this next phase of ‘Life Transitions’. For myself, our team, and many of our families, they are all going through new life transitions. Life transitions are powerful and have the potential to shape who you were, who you are and who you are becoming.

What are life transitions?

Life Transitions can also be described as ‘Transitional stages of life’.

It is defined by significant changes in roles, responsibilities, and routines requiring you to adapt to new circumstances. It can also involve a constant flow from one temporary state to another, resulting in each of these changes being a transition or a “passage from one state, stage, subject, or place to another” (Transition, 2018).

Transitions in everyday life can be meaningful or a part of everyday life. Different types of transitions, for example;

Smaller everyday life transitions:

  • Engaging in an everyday conversation – transitioning in and out of a conversation with someone.
  • Commuting to school or work – leaving home, travelling, then entering the office or school grounds.
  • Transitioning from different classrooms or from the classroom to recess and back again.

Significant Life Stage Transition:

  • Transition to preschool, Kindergarten, Year 7 and transitioning out of school.
  • Experiencing puberty. 
  • Beginning a relationship. 
  • Moving home: moving from one home to another.
  • Moving Communities: moving from one town to another.
  • Changing sporting clubs or sports.
  • Changing careers, jobs or being promoted with different responsibilities.
  • Entering the workforce.
  • Commencement of University and a significant life transition for us adults is
  • Parenthood. 

Do you have any new life transitions happening this year? Or What life transition are you experiencing or in at the moment?

This year, we have a few of our clients coming to the end of their schooling years, some making the big transition into Year 7 and others who are transitioning into Kindergarten. 

Personally, this year, I am making the new life transition into parenthood alongside my husband. A new life transition for us that you all are already on, and I am thrilled to be joining you. 

For the team, many of us are going through our own life transitions as well and have shaped many of our conversations together by sharing our experiences and different strategies that have helped us along the way.

Explore and Soar’s Life Transition

As Explore and Soar approach our sixth year with you all, we are thrilled to be growing alongside our clients and families! We are excited to be sharing with you an extension of our services and an ability to continue to support you as you continue to grow. 

For Explore and Soar, we, too, are in a new life transition; we have decided to share with you an extension of our service to continue to support our clients as they make the new step and life transition into adulthood. That transition from school to work. That transition to independence, living alone, being self-sufficient and living a meaningful and best life! We are so excited to continue to work with our clients now to the age of 24! This is an exciting opportunity for us to continue to build our occupational therapy team with therapists who are experienced in supporting our teenagers and young adults in these big life transitions!

To mark these life transitions for all of us, you will see our new Explore and Soar logos, socials and website updates, and a uniform change this coming month. We are loving these changes and are excited to share them with you. So keep an eye out, as they are coming soon!!

How Explore and Soar can help you?

Please know you are not alone; each person at different ages and stages in their lives go through different transitions based on their personal life experiences. Each of our clinicians is trained in providing strategies, interventions and support through any life transition, meaningful activity or everyday task. We love to problem solve and help no matter the question or concern. 

Each month this year, you will also have access to a different blog that will go through different life transitions, big or small and have a range of different strategies or ways to support you through those moments. 

We are always here to help in a range of different ways. If you’d like to chat more, please don’t hesitate to contact us today! 

0477 708 217 or admin@exploreandsoar.com.au

Articles:

Adler, A. B & Castro, C. A. (2019). Transitions: a Theoretical Model for Occupational Health & Wellbeing. Occupational Health Science. 3:105-123.

Until next time, 
Jess

PUBLISHED JANUARY 2024

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Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours

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MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS

It’s December! Bring on all the end-of-year celebrations after another great year. How are you celebrating and acknowledging the last 12 months? 

End of Year Celebrations

For us, our team have been all together again in November and have had our Christmas Party. We celebrated the last year by being creative with making Christmas wreaths, eating delicious foods and spending some quality time together. Check out some of our Christmas celebratory pictures. Lots of laughs were had! 

We have continued our time together to participate in a team day, where we have spent time together reflecting on just how much we have achieved together for ourselves, clients, their families and our communities. We have been beyond grateful to continue sharing our knowledge and providing ongoing support, therapy and guidance in achieving your goals this year.  So, thank you for being vulnerable and safe in allowing us to come into your home and work so closely to gain these achievements! Without your ongoing commitment, we wouldn’t be able to work so effortlessly alongside you!! 

This opportunity has also allowed us to identify where we will focus on for 2024. As you know, we love a good theme, and this coming year, we have another coming your way. Keep an eye out for our New Year January blog, where we will share the 2024 Annual Theme and all the new exciting things coming!

School Holiday Groups & Intensives!

The last 12 months, we have been focused on developing new group programs for our clients based on feedback we have received. We have been working behind the scenes to be able to offer these options for January 2024. It gave us such joy to announce and share them with you all. If you have missed out on seeing these groups, make sure you check out our website for all the information or contact us today! 

These new group programs, “Game Changers” and “Transition to High School”, will commence in the January 2024 school holidays alongside our popular group programs “Big School STARS (transition to Kindergarten)”, “Shake n Bake” and “Teenage Dirtbags”.

Based on our group numbers, we will also offer limited spots for our School Holiday Intensives Programs. If you would like the opportunity to commence the year strong, discuss it with your treating clinician or call our office today. 

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! 

With great love and well wishes, the Explore and Soar team wishes you a great end of year with lots of celebrations, rest and family time. We look forward to going on a well-deserved break with you all from Friday, 15th December 2023 and returning on Monday, 8th January 2024. 

We can’t wait to see you all in 2024.

Until next time, 
Jess

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How to Build Resilience for your Child and Family

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HOW TO BUILD RESILIENCE FOR YOUR CHILD AND FAMILY

By the time you have read this blog, we will be back into the daily routines of school for Term 2. I don’t know about you, but Term 1 seemed to fly past, yet at the same time went so slow! Time seems to go faster as we get older, gain more responsibilities and life/society, in general, becomes busier. Some days there just does not seem to be enough hours to get everything done! And with that, I know that my own ability to cope and my own regulation capacity varies as I try to juggle all that is on the to-do list – both at work and at home. 

Over the last few months, I have been engaging in different professional development courses as I am forever learning and striving to do better at my job. While looking at various courses, a theme that seems to be more so present now than ever before is that of positive mental health, mental wellbeing and resilience. A theme that is across all aspects of society, with more awareness and education occurring on multiple levels. Resilience, in particular after the pandemic, seems to be coming more to the forefront. We often read NDIS goals or have parents tell us that they want to develop their child’s resilience. 

So what is Resilience?

Resilience is defined as:

  1. the power or ability of a material to return to its original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed or stretched; 
  2. the ability of a person to adjust to or recover readily from illness, adversity, major life changes etc; 
  3. the ability of a system or organisation to respond to or recover readily from a crisis, disruptive process etc

(From https://www.dictionary.com/browse/resilience (14th April 2023)

We can definitely see from those definitions why it is such an essential concept at the moment. From an OT perspective, we look at occupational resilience – a person’s ability to successfully participate in their everyday activities while navigating the challenges, changes, stressors and difficulties they face. We develop this resilience when working with your child so that they may overcome whatever hurdle they face at that point in time. 

Resilience development occurs through external factors (our environment), internal factors (our values, motivations and beliefs) and learnt factors (social, emotional and interpersonal skills). As OTs, we look at the whole person to consider all of these factors. We look at developing and enhancing your child’s knowledge and skills of emotions and emotional regulation, as their social skills and higher cognitive skills such as problem solving and negotiation. This is only one factor in the overall bigger picture. 

Family resilience and how to develop it

Developing Family Resilience is also vital. A key protective factor in mental wellbeing is relationships. We can foster family resilience through occupations (activities) that focus on each person’s strength, allow open and honest emotions and regulation capacities, being present and engaging with each other while contemplating the bigger picture, such as how we can all give back to our wider communities. 

In my family unit, one way that we worked on our family resilience was over Easter, we spent time at home enjoying our own space while also resting our minds and bodies. Initially, the kids were not so keen on staying home, but it allowed us as a family to bake, have Mario Kart races, and do a puzzle where everyone contributed to the finished product. Not all of us are good at each of those activities, nor is it our favourite thing to do. There was plenty of frustration, annoyance, and disappointment voiced not only by the children but us as parents too. It allowed us all time to decompress and process the term that was so that we could reconnect, reset and refresh for what is to come. Each family is different, so there is no right fit or right way to do this. It is about finding what works for you and yours.

Resilience Activities & Ideas for you, for your child and for your family

  • Gratitude Walks – go on a walk around your neighbourhood, through a park and comment on what you can see and are grateful for.
  • Art therapy – spend some time drawing and colouring in with your child to foster connection and communication.
  • Community Service – give back to your community in whatever way you can. 
  • Ask yourself or your child what the hard part is – identify what the challenge is to them so that you can work together to overcome it.
  • Look at the Resilience Donut – I have, I can, I am – to identify your strengths. 
  • Compliments circle – take turns in giving compliments within your family; give a random compliment to a stranger and see their reaction.
  • Sharing stories of Resilient People in history whom your family can relate to, eg: JK Rowling, Nelson Mandela.
  • Create a dream board – using visualisation of what you believe your family values and goals are. You could do this individually and then come together to work on it. 
  • The Hard Thing Rules by Angela Duckworth – This combines passion & perseverance, building confidence and grit. There are 3 parts.
    • 1. Everyone must do something hard, something that requires practice, something where you are going to get feedback so you can get better at something; 
    • 2. Must finish what you start eg: season of sport, number of lessons signed up for; 
    • 3. No one gets to pick the hard thing for anyone else – you must choose your own challenge. 

Additional Resources to read 

Check out some of the resources below around resilience for various age groups. Please also chat with your therapist about how else we can support you and your child here at Explore and Soar.

Articles 

Brown. T (2021). The response to COVID-19: Occupational resilience and the resilience of daily occupations in action. Aust Occup Therapy Journal, 68, pg. 103-105

Masten AS, Barnes AJ (2018). Resilience in Children: Developmental Perspectives. Children 5(98) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6069421/


Zafran, H (2020). Occupational gifts in the time of a pandemic. Occupational Therapy Now, 22(4),
pg. 5-6. https://caot.ca/uploaded/web/otnow/OT%20Now_JULY_20.pdf#page=7

Until Next time,
Lori

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED MAY 3, 2023

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