Name It Tame It Reframe It

When teaching children to cope with unpleasant emotions like sadness or anger, research tells us that labeling the emotion is the first step.  This is often taught in mindfulness training.  For example, "that is sadness I am feeling, it is really big right now I need to think about all the good things in my life, the sadness reminds me how much I loved my grandmother." The Zach Rules series by Mulcahy does a great job of bringing the skill of emotion management to the level of a grade 1-3 student.  In Zach gets frustrated the author uses a triangle to remind the character to "Name it, Tame it, and Reframe it." I think this is a book that should be on every counselor's bookshelf.  I have used it with several groups and loaned it to parents whose children were exploding at home. Teachers, parents, and counselors could all benefit from sharing the book with children who need to learn to cope more appropriately with unpleasant emotions.