Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions: Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills to Help Your Child Regulate Emotional Outbursts and Aggressive Behaviors

by Pat Harvey ACSW, LCSW-C, Jeanine Penzo LICSW

Overview

Temper tantrums in the supermarket. Tears that seem to come out of nowhere. Battles over homework that are more like wars. When your child has problems regulating his or her emotions, there's no hiding it. Children with intense emotions go from 0 to 100 in seconds and are prone to frequent emotional and behavioral outbursts that leave parents feeling bewildered and helpless.

Other parents may have told you that it's just a phase or that your child needs discipline. In reality, your child may have emotion dysregulation, a tendency to react intensely to situations other children take in stride. Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions is an effective guide to de-escalating your child's emotions and helping your child express feelings in productive ways. You'll learn strategies drawn from dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), including mindfulness and validation skills, and practice them when your child's emotions spin out of control. This well-researched method for managing emotions can help your child make dramatic emotional and behavioral changes that both of you will be proud of.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781572246492
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	11/01/2009
Series:	Unassigned Series
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	142,280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pat Harvey, ACSW, LCSW-C, has over thirty years of experience working with families, and now coaches parents and family members of youth and adults with emotion dysregulation using a dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) framework. She facilitates trainings and workshops for mental health professionals on DBT concepts, skills, and parent/family interventions throughout the United States and at national conferences. She is coauthor of Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions, Dialectical Behavior Therapy for At-Risk Adolescents, and Hey, I’m Here Too!
 

Jeanine A. Penzo, LICSW, is a licensed clinical social worker with the VA Boston Healthcare System, where she utilizes dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) skills in her work with spinal-cord-injured patients and their caregivers. She is also a trained teacher who has worked with elementary and middle school students. Jeanine is the mother of three children, one of whom suffers from emotion dysregulation.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

Part 1 You, Your Child, and Emotional Intensity

Chapter 1 Emotional Intensity and Your Child's Feelings 9

Chapter 2 Effective Parenting 31

Part 2 Responding to Your Child's Feelings

Chapter 3 Understanding What Your Child Is Telling You 63

Chapter 4 Responding When Your Child Is Overwhelmed by Emotions 85

Chapter 5 Teaching Your Child to Manage Feelings 99

Part 3 Responding to Your Child's Behaviors

Chapter 6 Behavioral Principles and Intense Behaviors 113

Chapter 7 Maintaining Expectations, Limits, and Routines 135

Chapter 8 Decreasing Tantrums, Aggression, and Other Problem Behaviors 145

Chapter 9 School-Related Difficulties 157

Part 4 Helping Your Whole Family: Minimizing Collateral Damage

Chapter 10 The Impact of Intense Emotions on the Entire Family 173

Chapter 11 Caring for Yourself and Living Your Life 187

Appendix: Resources for Parents 201

References 205