Inside Out - helping kids deal with messy feelings
Dr. Meredith Gillespie works with children at Boomerang Health, a clinic affiliated with Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.
She says the Pixar film, Inside Out, has given people - particularly children - a much-needed vocabulary to help express their messy feelings. She has begun to use the dolls from the movie in her clinical practice to help cultivate that vocabulary in young people and to help them learn how to manage their emotions.
Watch the video below to see Dr. Gillespie in action and learn to use the dolls to help speak to your children about their emotions.
When Pixar released the hit film Inside Out, kids loved the movie for its fun. Critics called it "inventive" and "gorgeously animated". And psychologists love it for the way it depicts the inner life of a teenage girl and drives home how vital our uncomfortable emotions can be.
Inside Out tell the story of an 11-year-old girl, Riley, who moves with her family to a new city. The audience goes inside Riley's mind (also known as "Headquarters") where the girl's emotions - shown as cartoon characters - advise her through life's ups and downs.
A key message of the movie is that Joy can't run the show all the time - nor should it. It's a counter-intuitive idea in our how-to-be-happier culture. So what do we do with all those other emotions?
Click LISTEN above to hear the full interview.