EFST-P is a tool for parents that can be used to guide children of all ages through emotions. It is often utilized when there are specific challenges present, such as mental or physical health challenges, that can complicate or bring up significant emotions.
What is it?
EFST, Emotion-Focused Skills Training, has a wide range of applications, from personal and parental use to therapy and classroom settings.
In EFST-P, these same skills are being taught in a way that gravitates towards parents, ultimately with the goal of empowering and resourcing parents to effectively respond to their children’s emotions, as well as the behavioural results of these emotions.
EFST-P is skills-based, meaning it centers on teaching parents skills they can use with their children, including navigating emotions, differentiating between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, and utilizing emotions as times to build deeper positive relationships with their child.
There are three primary emotion-focused skills that EFST-P emphasizes:
- The ability to navigate and work with emotions. This includes what it looks like to help children identify what they are feeling, work through these feelings in appropriate ways, and develop the ability to problem-solve when needed.
- The development of motivation within your child to want to change and develop skill sets that center on new ways of approaching emotions. The goal is that they also understand that this is a beneficial change and want to work towards developing emotion processing skills.
- The growth of deeper, positive relationships between parent and child. Working through big emotions is a time to bond and develop deeper relationships with your child through emotion-focused tasks and skills.
How do I learn more about EFST-P?
To learn more about EFST-P, parents will often take short courses or programs to help them develop the necessary skill sets. Organizations such as the Emotion Training Institute offer webinars to help equip parents. At Emmerling Psychology, we utilize EFST-P as we strive to support both parents and children in healing and offer workshops on EFST. To learn more about this, click here.
More Resources
For information on EFST (not parent-specific): “Emotion Focused Skills Training”
For information about training and programs available: “Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents: Core Program”