Emotional Tool box
‘Incredible Me’ is a pilot programme delivered over
10 sessions which has been specifically developed
by the Young Healthy Minds service.
The programme is in collaboration with the NHS
and the Incredible Years parenting team for children
aged 4 - 11 with a pre and post-diagnosis of ASD
and/or ADHD, as well as those children who are
unable to manage their behaviour generally in a
safe way. These children can have particular
difficulty in understanding and controlling their
emotions, especially when those emotions are
negative. This practical programme provides some
simple strategies to:
• Help them to decrease negative feelings and
increase positive feelings in their daily life
• Help them to identify situations that make them
anxious and learn how to perceive the situation
differently, thus reducing their level of anger
• Support them to recognise connections between
thinking and feeling so that they are able to
identify the physiological effects of different
emotions in their body.
• Focus on their positive attributes and the things
that make them happy
As the children’s ability to regulate their emotions
increases so will their self-esteem be raised, which
will contribute to their overall feeling of emotional
well-being.
Some of the resources used to facilitate these
sessions are;
Body Outlines
Using an image of the body
allows the child to focus on the
different areas, and how that body
part experiences and feels different
emotions. Once the child can
recognise how their body feels when
they are happy, sad, or angry for
example, they can then start to learn
ways to manage their emotions.
The Emotional Toolbox is
designed to increase the
number of strategies
available to prevent
and manage negative
emotions such as anxiety,
anger and sadness. The Emotional
Toolbox aims to do two things: reduce
the intensity of the emotions being
experienced and help the person
understand the role thoughts play when one
is faced with anxiety-producing situations.
The idea of the Toolbox is to identify different
types of ‘tools’ to repair feelings of anxiety, anger or
sadness. Categories of tools are identified that
repair emotions by quickly releasing or slowly
reducing the energy generated by the emotion,
changing thinking, or bl