The talk on ‘Emotional Management’ was delivered by Ms. Janhavi Kelaskar, Psychotherapist and Trainer with Institute Of Clinical Hypnosis And Related Sciences, Mumbai. The reason behind arranging a talk specifically about “Managing Emotions” knowing the fact that it is a need of the hour.

Objective:

The following were the objectives which the trainer kept in her mind while delivering the talk.  

• Awareness of Emotions
• Understand what are emotions
• Understand how to manage emotions
• Learn ways to express emotions

Target Audience:

• Participants who attended were adults above the age of 20 years.

Outcomes:

The participants who attended the talk benefited a lot from it, their reviews were positive and depicted a sense of understanding of the topic. Many mentioned in their feedback that they would apply at least one out of the few techniques they learnt during the talk. Apart from these positive outcomes the following outcomes were observed as well:

• Knew what emotions are
• Learnt about the 3 components of Emotions (Physical, Cognitive and Behavioural)
• Understood 6 universal emotions (Happy, Sad, Angry, Disgust, Fear and Surprise)
• Learnt why they’re universal
• Suppressing emotions can result in psychosomatic issues
• How to regulate emotions and express them

Description:

The talk started with the participants introducing each other. Next the participants were asked their expectations from this talk.

The talk started by understanding that emotions are a kind of energy which need to be channelised and not be suppressed and what are the three components of emotions are namely physical, cognitive and behavioural.

Next we discussed the characteristics of emotions namely, they’re involuntary, vary in intensity, either positive or negative, temporary and relatively shorter in comparison to moods.

Further we discussed how many emotions are there exactly? The answer is probably infinite! But, Paul Ekman defined a special set of six emotions that can easily be identified in every individual. All around the world.

The participants were told why these 6 emotions universal. The following are the reasons:

1. Everyone feels them the same way.
2. They have consistent facial expressions across cultures.
3. They’re easily recognisable, no matter what cultural background you come from.

Charles Darwin hypothesised that “The ability to express and understand emotions is an innate ability”. It helps us survive, our ability to express is a survival instinct.

Next they were told that our bodies are trying to keep us safe at all times. Emotions are our bodies way of getting us to action.
Our thinking influences emotions and Emotions influences thinking.
Further the trainer threw light upon the topic of psychosomatic issues and the reason behind them being trapped emotions. So, they were taught techniques which could help them release the stored emotions.

The techniques that the trainer covered were the following;

• Emotional Empowerment Technique (helps in reducing the intensity of the overwhelming emotion that one is going through)
• FLIP Model (helps the client understand the source of emotion and a solution to it)
• Light House Exercise (helps an individual to know who they consider as an anchor when they’re going through tough times)

Closure:

Further, the participants were provided with a safe environment to share anything they wish to. All the doubts were clarified and a feedback was taken before closing the session.