64. House Meeting4 - Emotional Sensitivity

Running a residential unit for children and youth that goes beyond providing quality Care to also delivering an impactful Treatment experience requires staff to constantly focus on team-building.  It's as a high-performing team that the kids develop their own self-regulation and resiliency; through helping their team-mates manage their daily emotional, cognitive, and behavioral challenges.  One of the best structures in which to develop a residential unit into a team is the, at least weekly, House Meeting.  House Meetings have several parts, such as announcements, group problem-solving, feedback, celebrations, and team-building exercises; however, the heart of House Meetings, at least in my mind, is the structured check-in.  This episode focuses on using check-ins to encourage kids' skills at emotional sensitivity which then leads to consideration and cooperation.  Unlike empathy, emotional sensitivity doesn't require feeling what someone else is feeling.  Instead, it refers to consciously perceiving another person's feelings and moods, potentially simply because they have told you how they're doing.  Emotional Sensitivity is then taking that knowledge and modifying your interactions out of consideration for the other person's state of being.  It's being a good housemate, a good friend, and a good team-mate for experiencing residential treatment.