Feelings Corner

The Feelings Corner — Center for Child Counseling
Center for Child Counseling

The Feelings Corner

A warm, playful place to explore big and small feelings, with games, tools, and check-ins for every age. Because every feeling makes sense, and no one has to handle the big ones alone.

Little Ones Kids Tweens Teens For Grown-Ups

Find Your Spot

Every feeling, from happy to worried to furious, is a normal part of being human, and learning to notice and name feelings is one of the most important things a child can do. Pick the space that fits, and start exploring. You can always check your feelings "temperature" first.

Choose your space
Ages 3–6

Little Ones

Name feelings, match faces, and see where feelings come from.
Explore →
Ages 7–11

Kids

Become a Feelings Detective, size up feelings, and fill your calm-down toolbox.
Explore →
Ages 10–13

Tweens

Enter The Feelings Lab: the iceberg, thinking traps, and what's really going on.
Explore →
Ages 14–18

Teens

Real Talk: an honest check-in, a regulation toolkit, and untangling the spiral.
Explore →
Are you a grown-up in a child's life?Parents, caregivers, and professionals have a whole section too, with practical, age-by-age ways to help.
For Grown-Ups →
For Little Ones
How Do You Feel Today?
Ages 3–6
For Little Ones · Ages 3–6

My Feelings Thermometer

How big is your feeling right now? Tap a color to fill up the thermometer and see!

Grown-ups: do this together, "Where are you right now?", and check in again anytime.

A Way of Being · For Little Ones

How Do You Feel Today?

Every feeling is okay. Tap a face that looks like how you feel, and let's explore it together.

Happy face
Happy
Sad face
Sad
Angry face
Angry
Worried face
Worried
Excited face
Excited
Calm face
Calm

Let's Try Together
Breathe in...
For Little Ones · Ages 3–6

Match the Feeling Face

Listen to the little story, then tap the face that shows how they might feel. There are no wrong answers, feelings are just for noticing!

Grown-ups: read each story out loud and let your child point to a face.
Which face shows how they feel?

🌟

You did it!

You're so good at noticing feelings. Every feeling is okay to have, and you can always tell a grown-up how you feel.

For Little Ones · Ages 3–6

Feelings Come From Things

Things that happen can give us lots of feelings! Tap something that happens and see what feeling it might bring.

Grown-ups: talk about each one together, "When has that happened to you?"
This might make you feel...
For Kids
The Feelings Detective
Ages 7–11
For Kids · Ages 7–11

My Feelings Thermometer

Checking your "temperature" helps you notice a feeling before it gets too big. Tap the level that matches how you feel right now, and watch the thermometer.

1

A Way of Being · For Kids

The Feelings Detective

A good detective knows there's no single right answer when it comes to feelings. Read each story, then pick the feeling (or feelings!) you think fit. Let's investigate!

Which feeling fits? Tap one to investigate.
Good Detective Work!

You're a Feelings Detective!

You investigated every case and named some tricky feelings. Remember: feelings aren't good or bad, and it's normal to feel more than one at once. Naming how you feel is the first step to feeling better, and there's always a trusted grown-up who wants to help.

For Kids · Ages 7–11

How Big Is My Feeling?

The same feeling can be teeny or HUGE, and knowing how big it is helps you know what to do. Pick a feeling, then show how big it feels right now.

Step 1: Pick a feeling
Step 2: How big is it?
A little
just a bit
Medium
pretty there
Big
hard to ignore
HUGE
taking over

For Kids · Ages 7–11

The Calm-Down Toolbox

When a feeling gets big, your body needs help calming down before your thinking brain can work again. Here are four tools you can use anytime. Pick one and try it!

Balloon Breath

Blow up a pretend balloon and let it go, slow and easy.

High-Five Breath

Trace your hand and breathe up and down each finger.

Squeeze & Release

Squeeze your muscles tight, then let them go floppy.

Countdown

Count slowly from 5 to 1 and feel your body settle.

For Tweens
The Feelings Lab
Three tools to explore what's really going on underneath.
Ages 10–13
The Feelings Lab · Ages 10–13

My Feelings Thermometer

Checking your temperature is a science move: you notice where you are before a feeling takes over. Tap your level, then see what might be underneath and what helps you come back down.

What might be underneath

What helps you come back down

The Feelings Lab · Ages 10–13

The Iceberg

Here's a secret real scientists of feelings know: the emotion everyone sees on the surface is usually hiding a bigger one underneath, just like an iceberg. Tap a surface feeling to find out what's often really going on below.

Tap a surface feeling above
What people see
What's often underneath
The Feelings Lab

Feelings Aren't Facts

Feelings are always real, but they aren't always telling the truth. Usually a fast, automatic thought sets off the feeling, and those thoughts fall into sneaky patterns called thinking traps. Your mission: catch the trap, then find a truer, more helpful way to see it.

Something happens→A thought→A feeling→What you do
Round 1
0 caught
The Situation
The automatic thought
Which is a truer, more helpful way to think about this?

Your reframe toolkit

  1. Catch it: Notice the automatic thought. "What just went through my head?"
  2. Check it: Is it 100% true? Is it a thinking trap? What would I tell a friend?
  3. Change it: Find a truer, kinder, more useful way to see it.
The Feelings Lab

What's Really Going On?

Sometimes you know you feel off, but not why. This is a private check-in, just for you. Take your time and answer honestly, and we'll help you dig underneath to figure out what your feelings might be trying to tell you.

Totally private. Nothing you tap is saved or shared.
Question 1 of 5
What's the main feeling right now?
If there are a few, pick the loudest one.
Question 2 of 5
How big is it right now?
There's no wrong answer. Just notice.
Question 3 of 5
Where do you feel it in your body?
Feelings almost always leave a physical clue.
Question 4 of 5
When did it start, or get worse?
Try to trace it back. What was happening right before?
Question 5 of 5
If the feeling could talk, what would it be asking for?
This is the deepest clue. What do you think you actually need?

Here's what you noticed

A gentle truth

Something to try right now

Reaching out

For Teens
Real Talk
A private check-in and real tools for the hard stuff.
Ages 14–18
Real Talk · Ages 14–18

Where's Your Dial?

Everyone runs at a different level of activation, how wound-up or shut-down your system is right now. Checking it is a real skill: you can't manage what you haven't named. No judgment, just an honest read.

What actually helps here

Real Talk · Ages 14–18

How Are You, Really?

Not the "I'm fine" you tell people, the real answer. This is private, just for you. No accounts, no tracking, no one watching. Just a few honest questions and some real talk back.

Fully private. Nothing here is saved or shared.
Question 1 of 4
Honestly, how are you doing lately?
Pick whatever's closest. No judgment here.
Question 2 of 4
What's taking up the most space in your head?
The thing that keeps coming back.
Question 3 of 4
How long has it felt like this?
Just a rough sense.
Question 4 of 4
Who knows how you're actually doing?
Not who you post for, who actually knows.

Real talk

The honest part

Something that actually helps

On not carrying it alone

Real Talk · Ages 14–18

Your Regulation Toolkit

When your body's activated, stressed, panicky, furious, spiraling, logic doesn't work yet, because the thinking part of your brain has gone offline. These are real tools to bring it back online. Pick one and actually do it. They work better than they sound.

Box Breathing

For panic, racing heart, or right before something stressful.
~1 minute

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding

For anxiety, spiraling thoughts, or feeling unreal / detached.
~2 minutes

Urge Surfing

For a strong impulse you don't want to act on, sending the text, lashing out.
~3 minutes

The Thought Reset

For when your brain is stuck on one harsh or scary thought.
~2 minutes

Cool It Down

For intense anger or panic that needs to drop fast, a physical reset.
~1 minute

Burn the Energy

For restless, jittery, too-much-in-your-body stress or anger.
~2 minutes
Real Talk · Ages 14–18

Untangle the Spiral

You know the feeling: one thought grabs you, then another, then another, and suddenly your brain's convinced the worst is true. That's a thought spiral. The good news: spirals can be untangled, and you can learn how. Let's walk through it with whatever's spinning in your head right now.

Private. Nothing you type is saved or shared.
First, see the spiral

A spiral starts small, then each thought pulls in the next and it feels bigger and truer the longer it spins. Naming it is how you step off. Ready?

Step 1 · Catch it
What's the thought that keeps spinning?
Type it, or pick one that's close. Getting it out of your head and into words is the first move.
Step 2 · Notice the spin
How far has the spiral gone?
Spirals love to jump from one thought to a much bigger conclusion.
Step 3 · Check it
Let's test the thought against the facts.
Spirals feel true, but feelings aren't proof. Which is honestly most accurate?
Step 4 · Widen the lens
Now step back from the spiral.
Pick the question that helps you most right now.

You just stepped off the spiral

The thought you caught

What the check showed

Your wider view

One real next step

If you ever need more than this page

These tools are here for the everyday hard stuff. But if things ever feel like too much, if you're overwhelmed, not safe, or just can't carry it alone, that's exactly when to reach out. It's free, private, and there's always someone who wants to help. No problem is too big or too small.

Call or Text
988
The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. 24/7, free, confidential.
Text
HOME to 741741
Crisis Text Line. Text with a trained counselor, any time.

And one real-world step: think of one adult you trust, a parent, relative, teacher, school counselor, coach, or doctor, and let them know how you've really been. Starting with "Can I talk to you about something?" is enough. You don't have to have the words figured out first.

For the Grown-Ups in Their Lives

Supporting the Children & Teens You Care About

The tools above are built for young people to explore on their own. This next part is for you, the parents, caregivers, and professionals who walk beside them. Find practical, HOPE-informed ways to understand what a child is feeling and how to help.

For Parents & Caregivers

The Feelings Guide

Every feeling your child has is a chance to connect, at every age. Choose a feeling, then choose your child's stage, for practical, real-world ways to help. It's all grounded in our A Way of Being approach: children grow best through safe, caring relationships.

A Way of Being with Children · choose an age stage below
Little Kids
Ages 2–6
School Age
Ages 7–11
Tweens
Ages 10–13
Teens
Ages 14–18
What it looks like

What's happening inside

What they need

Try saying

What to do

Gently avoid

This guide supports everyday moments and isn't a substitute for professional care. If a feeling seems overwhelming, lasts a long time, or worries you, reach out to a licensed professional. In a crisis, call or text 988.
For Parents & Caregivers

Check Your Own Temperature First

Before the tools for your child, one for you. Children borrow calm from the adults around them, they literally can't regulate a big feeling until yours is steady. So the most powerful thing you can do for your child is notice where you are first.

This isn't about being calm all the time (no one is). It's about noticing, because you can't pour steadiness from an empty cup.

What your child is picking up

What helps right now

For Therapists, Social Workers & Pediatric Providers

The Clinical Toolkit

A quick-reference for the feelings behind the behavior, organized by clinical cluster and spanning early childhood through adolescence. Each feeling opens a full profile: what it may signal, its developmental arc, relationship-based support, and a three-tier guide to what's expected, what to monitor, and what may warrant screening or referral. Grounded in the HOPE framework and early relational health science.

Using These Tools in Practice

The interactive tools on this page (for little ones through teens) are built for young people to use independently, but they also work well as clinical aids. A few ways to put them to work:

In session

Use The Feelings Detective or The Iceberg as a warm-up or externalizing activity with a child or tween who struggles to name affect. The faces give a shared, low-pressure vocabulary.

How Big Is My Feeling? is useful for building emotional granularity and scaling distress (0–10 work). How Are You, Really? can open a session with a guarded teen, then explore their answers together.

As between-session practice

Assign the Regulation Toolkit (teens) or The Calm-Down Toolbox (kids) as skills practice, breathing, grounding, urge surfing, and review what worked next time. It reinforces coping between visits.

Feelings Aren't Facts and Untangle the Spiral are natural companions to CBT-informed work on cognitive distortions and rumination.

With families

Point caregivers to The Feelings Guide for age-specific, HOPE-informed strategies, a shared language that supports carryover at home.

Use the faces in psychoeducation about co-regulation, the window of tolerance, and layered emotions.

Clinical note: This toolkit supports relationship-based, trauma-informed practice and is not a diagnostic instrument. Use alongside validated screening tools, developmental history, and clinical judgment, and follow your setting's screening and referral pathways. In a crisis, direct families to 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline).

What it may signal

Developmental arc
Relationship-based support

Clinical guide, what to make of it
Expected

Monitor

Screen / refer

For Therapists, Social Workers & Pediatric Providers

Your Own Regulation & Capacity Check

Before the reference material, a check-in for you. Your regulated presence is the active ingredient in every co-regulation, attunement, and repair you offer. It's also the thing depleted first by trauma-exposed work, and the easiest to stop noticing.

A quick read on your own activation, capacity, and countertransference, because self-monitoring is a clinical skill, not a luxury.

What this may be signaling

What supports you here

Your wellbeing is part of your clinical effectiveness, and it deserves the same care you extend to the children and families you serve.
Go A Little Deeper

The Approach Behind These Tools

The Feelings Corner grows out of how Center for Child Counseling works with children every day. If it resonated, here are two ways to go further.

A Way of Being with Children

The heart of everything here, a relationship-based, HOPE-informed way of understanding and supporting children's feelings. Learn about the approach, the manuals, and the training behind The Feelings Corner.

Learn About the Approach →

The HOPE Assistant

Have a question about a child's feelings or behavior? The HOPE Assistant offers warm, HOPE-informed guidance rooted in the same science that shapes these tools, any time you need a thinking partner.

Ask the HOPE Assistant →
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