Emotion recognition can be thought of as the ability to identify and understand emotions in other people.  This skill has been referred to by some researchers as ‘cognitive empathy’ (as contrasted with ‘affective’ empathy – with the latter being the ability ‘feel’ or relate to emotions experienced by others).  We might also contrast ‘cognitive empathy’ or ‘emotion recognition’ with the concept of ‘emotional awareness’ (and there is variation in how all these terms are used) – which has often been used to refer to person’s ability to notice and understand their own emot ..read more

I’ve worked as a psychologist with our team to support children and young people for over 25 years and over the last decade I’ve seen a significant increase in the number of parents who seek  mental health treatment for their children and young people.  While therapy is not a magic fix, I do believe it can be an important step towards improving young people’s emotional well-being.   Unfortunately what many parents I’ve talked with do not always realize is that their involvement in their children's therapy may be just as important as the child or young people’s own attendance a ..read more

As a psychologist working with children and young people, I meet *parents* (for brevity I’ll use ‘parents’ throughout this article, but I’m referring of course to all primary caregivers, biological parents or not) every week who are struggling with parenting related negative emotions and experiences such as parental stress, guilt, fatigue, frustration, anxiety and overwhelm. There is also a plethora of academic and research literature documenting the existence of these experiences. For instance, many studies suggest that most parents experience worry and anxiety about their chi ..read more

Around 10% to 15% of young people experience difficulties with aggression, impulsivity, following instructions and other challenging or disruptive behaviors – well beyond what the average child or young person of their same age experiences.  What this looks like in their daily life varies considerably from child to child – but usually these kids and teens seem to get frustrated more easily than others, find it really tough to manage this frustration and often yell/scream/throw things.  Some might also have low motivation to follow instructions from adults, and some might consistentl ..read more

Many children and teens with mental, emotional, or social health challenges are engaged in some kind of therapeutic program – this might be a course of one-to-one therapy, a group program, online learning programs, or even self-help books or workbooks. There are thousands of different therapeutic programs for young people, and these have many varied types of content.  These programs might cover topics such as understanding and managing their body and physiological tension, maintaining and repairing relationships, increasing their positive and confident self-talk, identifying their value ..read more

Children and teens (like adults) often report thoughts and beliefs which they find distressing (for example: “I’m horrible”; “people think I’m boring”; picturing themselves doing badly on a test). There are different ways parents/caregivers might help their child/teen cope with these.   For example, we might help young people to think about whether their thoughts and feelings are really true – and whether there are alternative thoughts and beliefs which might be more accurate and helpful. Another way of parents/caregivers helping young people to understand and manage distressing t ..read more

A psychologist named Peter Lewinsohn back in the 70’s wrote an article which suggested that (at least part) of the reason people feel depressed is because a) they don’t have as many potentially rewarding activities in their lives compared to others, and b) that they don’t find the activities as naturally rewarding as other people. Although today psychologists are more likely to believe there are a range of (more complicated) causes for depression rather than just this one factor - there is some research to support the idea that ’underactivity‘ might be important in at least contributing to l ..read more

One of the most important ways therapists help children with anxiety symptoms is a technique called “exposure”. This article provides a brief introduction to exposure and how therapists might use it with kids who experience anxiety. Definitions Exposure is defined as a “controlled therapeutic technique which involves a child being in the presence of an anxiety-provoking stimulus or situation” (Marks 1973). In other words, a child who is anxious about insects might spend some time, with the support of a therapist or a parent, looking at or touching a moth or other insect. Sometimes this is d ..read more

It might seem obvious to most of us as parents/caregivers today that acting in a warm, loving, caring and interested ways towards our children is important – however it has actually only been in the last 50 or 60 years that this idea has been discussed and studied by researchers interested in child development. However during this last period of time, the concept of parental warmth and responsivity has been researched and discussed extensively – so in this article I am going to answer some frequently asked questions about this concept and think about how we might use these ideas in parenting ..read more

How long are you able to read something or think carefully about a topic without being distracted by something else?  Are you happy with the length of time you can do this?  Does it depend on the time of day or what you are doing?  Has it changed over the years for you?    The questions above are about something called “attentional control” – in other words, our ability to keep our attention and thoughts focused on a chosen task, object or idea for a set period of time.   Attentional control may involve two separate brain systems – with one responsible for&n ..read more