On the 28 January 2022, Emotion Coaching UK was thrilled to be able to facilitate the first annual Emotion Coaching Organisation Link Meeting.
We know that many Emotion Coaching (EC) organisations are battling staff shortages and COVID, so were pleased to hear from a number of organisations about their personal and professional Emotion Coaching journeys.
As ECUK co-founder Louise Gilbert pointed out on the day, Emotion Coaching seems to be coming 'full circle' with organisations wanting to provide EC opportunities for parents and carers. With Emotion Coaching first observed as a parenting style that gave developmental 'advantage' to children (Gottman et al.,1989), it makes sense that organisations are now recognising the benefits of extending Emotion Coaching support to parents and carers.
Here are some highlights from the link meeting:
As part of her doctoral research, Tina Masterman, assistant head teacher from Mowbray School, is creating a toolkit for parents and carers to support children's emotional regulation.
Jo Davies from Bird Bush Primary School reported that an increase in demand to support children's mental health and wellbeing is driving their review of EC training and updating.
Jane Bidwell, a year 5 teacher at Frenchwood Community Primary School, created an EC staff group within her setting to support her role as school EC Lead . This enthusiastic group of practitioners are leading on EC in the school and supporting each other. Also, noticing that emotional dysregulation is more frequently seen during lunchtime and immediately post-break, Jane hopes to ensure that she personally spends more time in the playground, working with the lunchtime supervisors to role model EC practice and act as a mentor.
Louise Gilbert has been working with 8 primary schools in Gloucestershire to promote inclusion with parents, carers, and families. This project (GSPEC) has developed a 4 session EC program (one for each of the 4 EC steps) for school EC leads to share with their parents. This is available at no charge to all ECUK Emotion Coaching Organisations.
As this was the inaugural meeting for ECUK Organisations, we're keen to know what organisations would like from these annual events, so do contact us and let us know!