Creating Healthy Habits
Opening Up the Discussion of Mental Health with Your Foster Child
Contents:
Implementing daily practices of self-love
Discussing and practicing regulating emotions and identifying them with your foster child
Creating an honest and raw communicative environment
Providing resources and doing research to find what is offered near your location
As we enter a new year, and progress in our education, the topic of mental health has broadened in homes and in just basic day-to-day conversations. As a foster parent, it can feel difficult to open these discussions and talk to your foster child about their mental health. By creating those healthy habits and regulation of conversation, the connection and support between a foster child and their caregiver can create an amazing environment and a safe place for all those involved. In this blog post, we will cover setting up practices for regulating emotions, self-care and love, and overall practicing healthy and raw conversations.
Implementing Daily Practices of Self-Love:
When discussing mental health, it may be hard for some individuals to sit down and directly talk about it so it is important to bring in more ways to just practice self-care and bring light to simple tasks and practices that can make someone feel better day-today.
Self-affirmations are a great way to regulate and practice saying positive words towards yourself. By reminding yourself of your strength and worth out loud each day can help your brain regulate just how important you are.
Journaling is a great way to practice expressing your emotions when someone may feel it is too difficult to say out loud or even sharing emotions out loud is out of their comfort zones. By taking one’s thoughts out of their minds and onto paper can be a sense of relief and release to something someone may be holding in.
Meditation/Breathing Exercises are a great way to get the body to regulate healthy habits and fuel good energy. By taking your mind out of your body and regulating your breathing or reflecting in silence and relaxation can help someone get out of any negative thoughts they may be experiencing.
Discussing and practicing regulating emotions and identifying them with your foster child:
If you have a younger child or truly any age in foster care, it is crucial to ensure emotions are being discussed and identified so expressing emotions for life can be regulated and validated. An example of this is if you notice a behavior or upset emotion being experienced by your foster child, it is a vital piece to sit them down and ask about how they are feeling and the way it is affecting them deeply. By doing this, it shows a child it is okay to discuss their emotions and opening up about how it affects them. Whether they are feelings of extreme joy or even a dark sadness, the practice of stating each emotion and understanding each one can help a child feel more understand and safe, and even more connected with themselves.
These practices are important to implement in each aspect of a child’s life. A crucial factor is by playing an active role in your child’s education, interests, likes and dislikes, passions, fears and simply getting to know your foster child on every level. By doing this there will be a level of conformality and a safe understanding that will not only benefit the foster parent and foster child relationship, but also give your child a safe space they may have never experienced.
Creating an honest and raw communicative environment:
Many children that are in foster care have experienced trauma and have never been shown or encouraged to talk about it or express the way the trauma makes them feel. As humans, we will all experience happy moments and of course sad moments and feelings, so as foster parents it is a great opportunity for you to regulate these emotions with your child. As a foster parent, it is extremely important for you to express and be raw about how you feel when experiencing an array of emotions. By showing the children in your home your raw emotions and being honest with how things make you feel, it teaches them that it is okay to do the same.
One way to show your children this regularity of emotions is by allowing your foster child to feel free to ask any questions and being curious about your life. By opening up to them, you not only create that level of respect for one another, but also you can provide a safe environment that your child may have never experienced or never felt they deserved.
Providing resources and doing research to find what is offered near your location:
With the discussion of mental health becoming more common and regulated, the number of resources and advocacy organizations have skyrocketed. With the help of your case worker and foster care specialist, many resources that offer therapy and mental health services can be shared with you. It is a great experience and opportunity to find resources and utilize what is offered in your area. Many companies host walks, fundraisers, and many events to raise money towards suicide prevention, trauma informed centers, etc. Another great thing regarding the resources and research to be done is that it is never ending and there will always be room for growth and development within a community and within the relationship of parents and children. Keeping the conversation of these resources will continue the conversation of mental health and bring more awareness to how normal it is to seek out help and support when you need.