Teaching the Life Skill of Processing Emotion to System Involved Youth and their Caregivers

Wendy Kessler, MSW, FT

Training Description

This training reframes processing emotions as a life skill that can enable system-involved youth and their caregivers to adapt and grow following significant loss. Presentation includes instruction on using The Emotions Wheel as a supportive tool; learning activities to help youth improve their emotion processing skills; as well as how to identify and release emotions. Participants will be informed through presenter instruction, a slide presentation, guided discussion, small group sharing, and activities to add to your supportive tool kit.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

● Identify 3 key principles for understanding processing emotions as a necessary life skill.

● Identify 3 applications of the emotions wheel to aid system involved youth and/or their caregivers in identifying emotions.

● Identify 5 activities that facilitate processing and releasing emotions.

Agenda

12:30 – 12:45pm  Welcome & Introductions

12:45 – 1:45pm  Processing Emotion as a Life Skill

● All Loss (death, nondeath, ambiguous, and traumatic loss) is Emotionally Processed as Grief

● Emotional Processing is The Way to Post-Loss Adaptation and Growth

● Changing our Mindset about Emotions

   ○ Emotions Are Not Good or Bad

   ○ Emotions Are More Than Just Feelings

   ○ Emotions Are Energy

● Emotional Processing is a Skill That Can AND Should Be Taught to System-Involved Youth and Caregivers

1:45 – 2:00pm  Breakout Rooms

● Small Group Discussion in groups of two: “How does understanding emotional processing as a life skill apply to your role supporting System Involved Youth and Caregivers?”

2:00 - 2:15pm  Return to Main Room

● Open sharing of applications with entire group

2:15 – 2:30pm  Break (CE Hours will not be offered for this time)

2:30 – 3:00pm  Utilizing the Feelings Wheel to Identify Emotions

● Core Emotions

● Secondary Emotions

● Tertiary Emotions

3:00 – 4:00pm  Teaching Tools for Processing Emotions as a Life Skill

● Activity for Kids

● Activity for Teens

● Activity for Young Adults

● Activity for Caregivers

● Activity for the Helping Professional

4:00 - 4:15pm  Discussion Questions

4:15 – 4:30pm  Wrap-Up

Meet Our Trainer

Wendy Kessler, MSW, FT is a Grief Specialist. She is credentialed as a Fellow in Thanatology (the study of death, dying, and bereavement) by the Association of Death Education and Counseling, and a Certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor. Wendy worked as hospice Bereavement Specialist from 2017-2022 – offering grief care to patients’ loved ones, hospice staff, and community partners. Through hospice work she recognized a gap in grief education for helping professionals, and a need for better understanding and support for grievers. As a result, she left corporate hospice care and launched Grief Guide Consulting, LLC in 2022. Her private practice grief services include individual counseling, support group facilitation, group education, and consulting. She believes that grief is not a problem to be fixed. It is a journey that we can learn to navigate, and when the path is unfamiliar or uncertain it can help to have a guide. You can learn more about Wendy or contact her at her website: www.griefguideconsulting.com.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.75) BBS CE hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.