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Emotional Regulation

Supporting children and teens who experience big emotions: building the skills, awareness, and tools to navigate them.

Children · Teens · In-person & Virtual
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Big Feelings Are Normal: Being Overwhelmed by Them Doesn't Have to Be

All children and teens experience big emotions. But for some, those feelings can feel overwhelming, uncontrollable, or impossible to manage. Meltdowns, outbursts, shutting down, explosive reactions to small things, or intense sadness and frustration: these are signs that a child or teen may need support building emotional regulation skills.

Emotional regulation is the ability to recognize, understand, and respond to emotions in flexible, healthy ways. It is a skill and like all skills, it can be learned and developed with the right support.

Therapy at Little Waves helps children and teens build a deeper understanding of their emotional world, develop practical tools for managing difficult feelings, and build the capacity to tolerate discomfort without being overwhelmed by it.

What We Work On
  • Identifying and naming emotions
  • Understanding what triggers emotional reactions
  • Building a toolkit of calming and grounding strategies
  • Tolerating distress without acting out or shutting down
  • Managing explosive reactions and meltdowns
  • Co-regulation skills for parents
  • Emotional expression in safe and healthy ways
  • Building resilience over time

Emotional regulation is not about suppressing feelings. It is about developing the capacity to feel them without being controlled by them and responding in ways that align with who you want to be.

◈ How We Help

Approaches Used

1

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

DBT skills: including mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness: are particularly effective for building emotional regulation in teens.

2

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

Helps children and teens understand the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviours: building awareness and more effective responses to emotional triggers.

3

Mindfulness-Based Practice

Developing the ability to notice emotions without being swept away by them: creating space between a feeling and a reaction.

4

Emotion-Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)

When the whole family is involved, EFFT helps parents understand what drives their child's emotional responses and develop co-regulation skills that support the child at home.

Support for big emotions starts here

Every journey starts with a first step. Reach out and we'll find the right path forward for your child or teen, together.

66 Centre St, Thornhill, ON · In-person & virtual sessions available