AK Emotion Coach

03/24/2022

Love the work, passion and wisdom of these women who are advocating for maternal health. If I had head them on the radio when I was post partum I’d be bawling my eyes out from feeling understood in ways I couldn’t understand myself. A tribe like Moms Matter Now helps women hold onto themselves amidst the life altering transition to
Motherhood. Check out their online membership and their recent interview on alaska public radio- https://www.alaskapublic.org/2022/03/21/line-one-moms-matter-now-supports-mothers-before-and-after-pregnancy/

⭐️Moms Matter Now on Line One TODAY at 10am AKST! Tune in to KSKA 91.1 to hear from us and call in with any questions you may have!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Motherhood is an amazing and incredibly challenging time, but few people talk about the emotional and psychological transition. In fact, many new moms experience negative mental health impacts while going undiagnosed and untreated. Moms Matter Now is an Alaska organization dedicated to empowering, educating and supporting women from pregnancy to early motherhood.

HOST: Dr. Jillian Woodruff

GUESTS:

Holly Brooks, co-founder, Moms Matter Now
Calisa Kastning, co-founder, Moms Matter Now
PARTICIPATE:

Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (10–11 a.m.).

Send an email to lineone@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the live broadcast (e-mails may be read on air).

LIVE BROADCAST: Wednesday, March 23, 2022, at 10 a.m. AKDT
REPEAT BROADCAST: Wednesday, March 23, 2022, at 8 p.m. AKDT

12/16/2021

I got served a Wild Game Slider this weekend. The unexpected loss of a family friend hit close to home and brought deep sadness for loved one left behind. I also got unplanned quality time with my two brothers and nieces. This brought strong feelings of love and gratitude for connection with people I care about.

A Wild Game Slider serves as a reminder of the paradox of life. Real life doesn’t fit neatly into either/or boxes of good or bad, easy or hard. We often live in the tension of both/and experiences. Life is good and hard every single day. Awareness of the hard feelings is an important aspect of mental health. At the same time, intentionally savoring the good, the gratitude, the love and the learning is a way to help our minds and bodies move through hard feelings and not get stuck. As alluring as it can be, emotional suppression does not equal emotion regulation.

Dish up a plate of sliders at your table tonight. Share a tough story from the day. Choose a hard feeling that was felt. Then pick 2 feelings you like having that are also true to surround the hard feeling. These are the ingredients to make a wholesome slider that aides digestion and builds resilience.

Cut out feelings from a Kimochis feeling chart can help make this activity tangible and expand emotional literacy. Link to feeling chart and Emotion Coaching flyer in bio. Emotion Coaching sessions are packed with activities like this that help grow emotional intelligence for the whole family in fun, relational and educational ways.

Flyer- https://drive.google.com/file/d/11hyoq2jqIXRhtMmBidfeEGUQCG9xazm8/view?usp=drivesdk

Feeling chart- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rWFtJxaIRJgwf_Jzgw2GXixZvu4NZxJk/view?usp=drivesdk

12/10/2021

The pioneer of emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman, says, "Family life is our first school of emotional learning."

We know this is true. Our first families did not teach us how to feel. They did teach us, through our interactions, how to feel about how we feel. This learning shapes our relationship with ourselves and others for a lifetime.

AK Emotion Coach takes a proactive approach towards emotional learning for the whole family.

A four week combination of adult, child and family sessions offer education and engagement of evidence-based practices that build skills, promote resilience and develop a common language and mindset around feelings.

Reach out now for January scheduling or to learn more. All ages welcome.

*Pic- 1. early childhood emotion coach Ingrid getting ready for a session with Kimochi friends. 2. Emotion Coaching sessions are positive, playful and relational. We value each child’s unique expressiveness.

10/14/2021

Dr. Ginwright shared today at the Collaborative of Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) exchange about wholistic Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). AK Emotion Coach exists for this purpose- to extend SEL into the home and community. Our 4 session Emotion Coaching package is designed to include both child and caregiver in cultivating an environment that is supportive of growing emotional intelligence and protective for life long mental health. In these hard times accessing supportive services like Emotion Coaching can help buffer us from the effects of stress and trauma and move us towards transformation.

09/17/2021

I love this feeling sort of a teenage boy who came in for Emotion Coaching. Do you see the shape of an arrow he made with his feelings? Positive  feelings at the tip, neutral in between and the hard ones at the tail. Emotional awareness is the building block for emotional intelligence. Helping kids understand the link between needs>>feelings>>behavior is protective for mental health and necessary for creating connections within and without.

Scheduling is now open for October Emotion Coaching sessions- 4 sessions rich in content designed to support children and parents in growing emotional intelligence and supporting well-being for the whole family.  Social emotional learning is a life-long developmental process  for all people of all ages and it starts in the home. Reach out if you’re interested in learning more.

 

09/16/2021

I felt nervited (nervous + excited) as I opened my door to a new part of my private practice today. Starting an Anchorage based case consultation group working within the RFPT framework is bringing home a model of therapy and supervision that I whole heartedly believe meets the deepest needs of clients and the therapist. Years ago I heard Dr. Roy Barsness say “if your work is draining you, you’re not in your work.” This resonated with me bc I had no idea what he meant and at the same time it felt deeply true. Two years into taking a hard left turn into studying and practicing relationally focused psychodynamic therapy I am finding I am more in my work then I’ve ever been and it feels so alive!

05/21/2021

Feeling excited to open my office back up to offer Emotion Coaching sessions for families- a joyful and meaningful adjunct to my therapy practice. This pandemic year has highlighted our collective risk and energized my commitment to foster collective resilience through social and emotional learning for all. A 4-session package of caregiver, child and family sessions are designed to engage growing emotional intelligence in a playful and educational way across the lifespan. Learning about feelings and how feelings live in the body are the building blocks for creating connection within ourselves and with others and foundational for mental HEALTH.

05/08/2021

So much goodness here from world leaders in the studies of emotions and well-being. All sessions free through the weekend. Gift yourself with listening!

Insights and powerful practices to transform difficult emotions and cultivate our natural wisdom, compassion, and joy.

05/05/2021

A worthy listen and goldmine of information for educators, parents and caregivers who value the important role we play in giving guidance to kids in the world of emotions and relationships.

Initially, we set out to talk about Social Emotional Learning (SEL) at a time when millions of kids have been home, attending school online and missing out on valuable time with their peers.

04/28/2021

As my family faces some transitions this week a dose of “Pass the grateful please..” was just what we needed at the breakfast table. The greater the stress, the greater the need to take a deep breath and find the good. Sharing gratitude as a family helps us bond, learn about one another and boosts our immunity against the wear and tear of daily life.

Our bodies hold all our feelings. Staying open to what’s hard to feel helps us work through hard times. Taking intentional moments to hold feelings we want to feel helps support our mental health. It’s important to leave the shame talk out of it- “I should feel thankful” or “ just be thankful.” Humans have an incredible capacity to hold the truth of what is hard and what is good- all at once.

04/13/2021

Mayor Mike Elliot talking about Daunte Wright’s death- “In this country, if you’re black and you get pulled over by the police, you have a very much higher chance of being dead just because you’re black, and just because you’re encountering police," he said. "That is a fact we have to all wrestle with."
Reading this book in a community this year helped me to wrestle with this hard truth. It’s hard to face and possible to understand. Racism and trauma go hand and hand. You can’t understand one without the other. I drove with expired tabs on a rental car for all of March (thanks enterprise) and was not pulled over. White dissociation is to not see where race makes a difference between how the color of your skin can mean the difference between life and death at a traffic stop. We have so far to go and it starts in the home. 
Talking to kids about race (especially white parents) is where it begins. If we don’t have eyes to see the problem then history will continue to repeat itself. have helped me and my family go back to school so we can learn to be a part of a different way forward. 

02/22/2021

Feeling came to the table during last nights goodbye dinner with my mom. As we spooned taco soup into dinner bowls we also created a shared Boppie Bowl (my kids made up name for grandma)- placing feelings along with memories of her stay with us into a special wooden bowl.
Holding, naming and sharing feelings helps us savor the good, learn from the hard and transition our hearts and minds amidst change.
Emotional and relational health starts in the home. Making room on the table to share feelings builds emotional intelligence and creates connection.