Emotions Can Hijack Learners

In these challenging times, emotions are running high for so many students (as well as for the faculty and staff who support them). Modern brain science has moved away from the antiquated notion that emotions are separate from, and can get in the way of, cognition. Rather, they operate hand-in-hand with the thinking brain, and have significant effects on its output. As theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow puts it in this interview about his book Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking, "Emotion is a functional state of the mind. It’s a state of processing that you’re in." 

How can a coach help a student manage emotions while moving through coursework? When students come to coaching overwhelmed with emotion, a coach can take actions like these:

• Recognize the emotion without judgment. A coach can ask how a student is feeling and acknowledge the challenge of the emotion, helping the student to feel seen and accepted. 

• Clarify the boundary between the coach's function -- to support academic performance -- and needs that are best served elsewhere. A coach can let the student know that they can address how these emotions affect coursework and progress, but that managing emotions is best handled with a counselor or therapist. 

• Ask questions about the effects of the emotions. Explore what the student is doing, or not doing, as a result of these emotions, and the potential academic consequences. Ask what a student can do to address the emotion so as to make room for action. 

• Acknowledge the reciprocity between emotion and action. Even as emotion affects the ability to take action, one or two actions taken can begin to shift emotion. Encourage the student to choose one next action, or maybe two, and to check in with how they are feeling as a result.

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