Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions

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.

Book: 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

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.

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Also, to teach children about their emotions and how to handle intense feelings, consider the following affiliate resources:

• Teaching Emotions Toolkit
• Emotions Learning Packet
• Emotions Postcards
• Feelings and Emotions Cards and Poster
• “The Feelings You Feel” Song

About the Author

Pat Harvey has been a clinical social worker for over 30 years, specializing in work with families and in work with individuals with emotional difficulties and mental illness. She began to learn Dialectical Behavior Therapy while directing programs at the Bridge of Central Massachusetts and has been a huge fan of its treatment and philosophy ever since. Pat uses DBT Skills Training in working with parents whose children (of any age) have intense emotions/emotion dysregulation or mental illness. The nonjudgmental and accepting framework of DBT have been well received by parents who are often blamed for the problems of their children. Feeling accepted enables parents and others to learn new, more effective skills. Pat now trains mental health professionals in the use of DBT philosophy and skills and has a private practice dedicated to working with the parents, siblings and other family members of individuals with emotion dysregulation/mental illness.

Pat has written Parenting a Child Who Has Intense Emotions (New Harbinger, 2009), DBT for At-Risk Adolescents (New Harbinger, 2013), I’m Here Too!: A Book for Tween/Teen Siblings of a Young Person With Emotional Issues (self-published, 2014) and Parenting a Teen Who Has Intense Emotions (New Harbinger, 2015)