Tuning in to Teens™

Program Overview

Tuning in to Teens™ is a parenting program that focuses on emotions and is designed to assist parents to establish stronger relationships with their teens.

The program provides parents with a greater understanding of their teen’s emotional experiences while teaching specific skills that can assist in being supportive, empathic and staying connected with the young person and whats happening in their world.

It further aims to improve parent’s emotional awareness, regulation and communication style and provide them with an opportunity to reflect on their own emotion socialisation experience. Tuning in to Teens™ aims to prevent problems developing and enhance emotional and behavioural functioning.

Emotion Coaching & Emotional Awareness

Tuning in to Teens™ is a 6-session group parenting program that provides a new way of working with families that focuses on the emotional connection between parents and children.
It is a parenting program developed in Australia with research trials conducted at The University of Melbourne.
Tuning in to Teens™  teaches the skills of emotion coaching, which is to recognize, understand and manage their own and their teen’s emotions.
It targets specific skills of emotion awareness, acceptance and coaching and incorporates self-care and mindfulness. It presents parents with additional material on adolescent development and the changes and challenges that this age and stage bring to family life.

Expected Outcomes

The program works directly with parents to teach skills in emotion coaching. These are expected to improve teens’ emotional, social, and behavioural functioning.

Specific changes expected in program participants include:

* Increased parent emotion coaching (i.e., viewing emotions as an opportunity for closeness and teaching children about their emotions)

* Decreased parent emotion dismissing (i.e., where parents avoid, minimize, or criticize children’s emotional expression)

* Increased parent emotion awareness and regulation

* Improved parent-child connection

* Increased emotional competence in children (skills in understanding and regulating emotions)

* Decreased emotional and behavioural difficulties in children.

​

All parents are encouraged to try out the skills taught in the group at home and to bring back examples for discussion and further role play.