Coaching Strategies for Parents to Support Girls' Emotional Well-being

Girls' and boys' life experiences and obstacles are different. Girls face various challenges, such as negative perceptions of themselves due to social media, increasing academic workloads or conflicts in peer relationships. 

To overcome these barriers, emotional stability and self-confidence are musts. They allow us to stay grounded in a rapidly changing world. Parents' job is to provide their daughters with strategies for developing such characteristics and achieving emotional wellness.

This article offers coaching techniques for moms and dads to assist teen girls on their journey to emotional well-being.

The core of emotional wellness 

Emotional well-being encompasses the ability to recognize and manage emotions, deal with stress, and build healthy relationships. This also serves as the premise for personal and mental health improvement. Emotional well-being includes 5 components: 

• self-awareness (ability to understand your own emotions and their impact on your thoughts and behaviors);
• emotional regulation (the process of managing and responding to your 'emotional storms' in healthy and constructive ways);
• resilience (ability to solve problems, overcome setbacks, and cope with mistakes);
• positive relationships (ability to construct and keep lengthy-term, supportive connections among individuals that foster an experience of belonging, trust, and mutual respect);
• self-esteem (a healthy and balanced sense of self-assurance that comes from recognizing your strengths and acknowledging your ability to address challenges).

Emotional well-being strategies

1. Create a safe and supportive environment

Today children find it difficult to build relationships or open communication in the real world, even with family members. They may isolate themselves and hide the fact of having any issues for fear of rejection or judgment. So it is important to help girls open up and create a safe space for dialogue. 

You can start by having small daily conversations with your daughter, like “How are you doing?” This will lead to deep conversations about her feelings and struggles. Ask open-ended questions that encourage her to share more and show genuine curiosity about her story. Use verbal and non-verbal gestures of active listening.

Help your daughter validate her emotions. Show her that experiencing positive or negative emotions is normal; she can share them and be understood and accepted. Demonstrate that her feelings are valid, no matter how small the issue may seem.

2. Promote self-awareness through reflection

Self-awareness is critical to emotional health and helps girls better understand their feelings, reactions, and patterns. To develop it, encourage them to reflect on their thoughts and feelings regularly. Keeping a diary, checking of emotional swings and mindfulness practices can help.

Act as a guide in such practices. If it's journaling, inspire her to write down her emotions and thoughts with questions like, “What makes you happy?” or “What hardships did you face, and how did you address them?”. This will allow her to control feelings and get to know her personality and values.

Teach your child to track her emotional triggers and swings throughout the day by asking her what she feels, why, and what the intensity of these feelings is on a ten-point scale. 

3. Teach emotional regulation methods

You can explain or demonstrate techniques to take mind off stress and anxiety, such as physical activity, breathing exercises, expressing feelings through creativity, meditation, or sharing worries with loved ones. Explain that if she feels overwhelmed, it is okay to seek support and ask for help. And it is crucial at such moments to give herself time to recover.

Teach, when necessary, constructive and independent problem-solving skills. Encourage girls to brainstorm possible solutions and analyze the pros and cons of each option. Start with small things, like asking them to buy something or plan on how to spend a family weekend.

4. Foster resilience through goal setting

To reach heights in academic, social, and professional fields, girls need to build resilience by setting and achieving long- and short-term goals. One of the best tools is the SMART model. It's about setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. The model enables breaking down a big-scale aim into small and workable steps. 

For example, if your daughter wants to learn a foreign language, instead of setting a goal of becoming a native speaker, it's better to set a goal to study the language for 30 minutes or learn 5 new words every day. Support your daughter along the way: motivate her to overcome difficulties and celebrate small victories.

5. Encourage positive relationships

Guide in building healthy and positive connections with others. An example of the first positive relationship is always found in the family. Spend time together and share common interests and values with your daughter. This will help form a deep connection between family members and teach her how to build and maintain trusting relationships with others. 

Setting boundaries is essential for all people but for girls and women in particular. It includes not only respecting the other's boundaries but also understanding and defending one's own 'protective walls', as well as being able to say no to people and opportunities. For example, role-playing dialogues or analysis of relationship scenes from films and TV series can help with it.

Developing empathy is another important part of building healthy relationships. Help your daughter consider other people's points of view and emotions. This doesn't mean sacrificing her own needs but understanding others' needs to develop more meaningful connections.

6. Praise self-care practices

Everyone should learn to listen to the body's signals and take time to rest. Regular self-care practices can help with this; they allow us to shift the focus of attention to our condition and needs. Whether it's bathing, drawing, or walking, encourage girls to take care of themselves.

Explain the importance of physical health and how taking care of the body affects the emotional state and wellness. Ensure that girls' daily routines consist of physical activity, proper nutrition, and healthy sleep.

7. Promote her self-advocacy

Teach girls how to stand up for themselves and keep self-confidence in different situations. Practices of raising her voice and standing up for what she believes in role-playing or family disputes can be the first step in the growth of self-advocacy. 

Respect her values ​​and support her in defending her position; this will help her be more confident in conflict situations with other people. Explain to girls that it's not selfish to protect yourself and make yourself a priority.

Girls can also learn confident communication and behavior through role models — celebrities, characters, and powerful women in their immediate environment. 

Conclusion

Parents cannot protect girls from all hardships, but they can provide them with strategies and practices to overcome these obstacles and set them on the path to well-being. 

By encouraging girls to take care of their emotional well-being and helping them with it, we can expect to see a new generation of strong, healthy, emotionally intelligent women who will make a positive change in communities and the world. 

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