Using Sanctuary in the home
Sanctuary is a Trauma-Informed approach that gives us strategies that we can use to bring Sanctuary to our everyday life. Today we will look at:
Community/Family Meetings
Community Meetings or Family Meetings are designed to be held regularly, ideally daily; and can be done almost anywhere, at home, in the car, whilst walking, or during meals. They are quick and easy ‘touching-base’ and can include children from a very young age. The meetings involved 3 simple, but trauma-informed questions.
“How are you feeling?”
“What is your goal?”
“Who will you ask for help?”
Importance of identifying and Explaining Feelings
It’s up to the parent or carer to train children in how to identify, name, interpret, and use their emotions.
Tune into cues – look at their body language, listen to what they’re saying and observe their behaviour.
Behind every behaviour is a feeling – try to understand the meaning and feeling behind your child’s behaviour.
Name the feeling – help the child name their feeling by giving them a label. This will help them to learn identifying them in future.
Identify feelings in others – provide opportunities to identify feelings in other people. Observe other people with your child and brainstorm how that person may be feeling.
Be a role model – demonstrate to your child how you’re feeling about different situations and how to behave in those situations.
Encourage with praise – Encourage, praise, and normalise children expressing their feelings.
Listen to your child’s feelings – stay present and resist the urge to make your child’s bad feelings go away. Support your child to identify and express their feelings so they are heard. When feelings are minimised or dismissed they will often be expressed in unhealthy ways.
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