Emotional Regulation Techniques to Reduce Challenging Behaviors
Understand what is happening beneath difficult behavior and learn practical, brain-informed strategies that help children and teens recognize, tolerate, and regulate big emotions more effectively.
For educators, school leaders, mental health professionals, nonprofits, residential programs, juvenile justice, SROs, caregivers, and other adults supporting young people.
What looks like defiance may be dysregulation.
When a young person is overwhelmed, the behavior we see is often only the most visible part of what is happening. Understanding the nervous system, emotional safety, distress tolerance, and regulation changes the questions we ask and the responses we choose.
Six strategies grounded in how regulation actually works.
This workshop moves beyond behavior management alone and helps participants understand the brain and body processes that shape emotional regulation, distress, escalation, and recovery.
Understand dysregulation
Learn what happens in the brain and nervous system when a young person becomes overwhelmed and why reasoning, compliance, and self-control can become harder in that moment.
Recognize what is underneath behavior
Shift from reacting only to what is visible toward noticing stress, emotion, context, unmet needs, triggers, and patterns that may be influencing the behavior.
Strengthen emotional safety
Explore how adult responses, relationships, environment, predictability, and connection can influence whether a young person escalates or begins to regulate.
Build distress tolerance
Help young people expand their ability to experience difficult emotions without immediately needing to escape, shut down, or act them out.
Respond during escalation
Use practical approaches that reduce unnecessary power struggles and support stabilization when a young person is already becoming overwhelmed.
Teach regulation skills that transfer
Move beyond one-time calming techniques toward skills that help young people recognize emotions, understand their responses, and build greater regulation over time.
For adults supporting young people when emotions and behavior get complicated.
The concepts apply across settings because regulation, stress, relationships, and adult response matter wherever young people learn, live, receive care, or interact with systems.
Get immediate access to the free workshop.
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MyMensana 2026