What Is Emotional Literacy?

If you’re seeking information on emotional literacy, this article answers the question “What is emotional literacy?” and includes emotional literacy activities.

Emotions and emotional literacy have come to the forefront  in multiple settings in recent years. For example, whereas in the past many corporate workplaces and academic institutions downplayed the significance of emotions, they now highly prioritize their workers’ and students’ emotional awareness.

Emotional literacy is now esteemed as an admirable trait, one which has wide-ranging benefits.

Defining emotional literacy

Closely linked to empathy, emotional literacy refers to an individual’s ability to correctly identify and respond to emotions in themselves and others. It requires skillful attunement to various emotional states in order to properly recognize and manage feelings.

Unsurprisingly, proficiency in emotional literacy is a highly desirable trait due to the tremendous impact it has on relationships (e.g., active listening, attunement, compassion, unity). These effects are apparent across multiple environments, including business, school, and household settings.

Emotional literacy vs. emotional intelligence

The notion of emotional literacy has often been used synonymously with the concept of emotional intelligence. However, the difference between emotional literacy vs emotional intelligence is that while both terms address a person’s level of emotional awareness, emotional literacy has more specifications.

Additionally, while emotional intelligence is believed to be an innate trait, emotional literacy is not something with which we are born with—it must be learned.

This can be an encouraging detail for individuals who do not naturally possess warm or nurturing temperaments. Emotional literacy can be developed across the lifespan through a variety of sources, including counseling.

According to Claude Steiner, the therapist to whom emotional literacy is attributed, emotional literacy is composed of several facets which produce a high level of emotional maturity when they intersect:

• Knowing your feelings
• Having a sense of empathy
• Learning to manage your emotions
• Repairing emotional problems
• Emotional interactivity

Counselors are well-versed in emotional literacy due to our study of human development and

interpersonal communication. Emotional literacy books, resources, and activities are abundant.

As we interweave these supplements into counseling sessions, we can help our clients increase their emotional literacy, which helps them to better manage tense scenarios that arise outside of sessions.

Emotional literacy activities

Rather than relying on talk therapy to elicit emotional awareness in clients, consider

using the following emotional literacy activities.

These emotional literacy activities are creative ways to help your clients build emotional literacy and can be tailored for children, adolescents, and adults:

Feelings Playing Cards by Jim Borgman

These cards contain simple cartoon faces which detail a vast spectrum of emotions. Besides the familiar feelings of happy and mad, the deck features lesser mentioned emotions, such as shy, guilty, and lovestruck. During your session, shuffle the cards, hold them facedown, and ask your client to pick five. Next, direct them to use each emotion in a sentence.

Fill-in-the-Blank Emotions

Tell your client you will give them five prompts using emotion words and instruct them to fill in the blanks. Personalize the activity based on your client’s presenting problem.

For example, if your client is addressing anger, use prompts centered on that emotion:

•  “It makes me furious when ________”
• “I get annoyed that ________”
• “I feel angry about ________”
• “When _________ happens, I feel enraged”
• “Thinking about ________ irritates me”

Emotions Wheel

Print a copy of an Emotions Wheel and discuss with your client how emotions can be categorized. Show them how an emotion such as sadness can take many different forms: disappointed, lonely, depressed, despondent, brokenhearted, etc. Then, ask your client to name and explain any emotions they have felt that day or week using the Emotions Wheel.

Emotions Thermometer

Review with your client how regular assessments of our emotions can prevent them from becoming unmanageable. Help your client sketch a scale from 0-10 for use with negative emotions, like sadness, anger, or anxiety, and imagine triggers for each level. Encourage them to visualize this scale whenever they experience a negative emotion to maintain self-control.

Movie Clips

The original Inside Out film (2015) and its sequel Inside Out 2 (2024) provide clear, honest depictions of emotions using an array of colorful animations. During your session, play select clips from the movies and discuss with your client their reactions and personal applications. If you are working with a child client, encourage their parents to continue the conversations at home during a family movie night.

Emotional literacy books

There are several emotional literacy books therapists and counselors can recommend to clients to help them develop emotional literacy. Therapists can read excerpts aloud and discuss them in session, or even role play sample scenarios.

Some useful titles that highlight emotional literacy include:

The Way I Feel by Janan Cain: Designed for children, this book contains playful and

whimsical illustrations of different feelings. Set up floor pillows in your office and read this story with your child client, mimicking the facial expressions depicted, for a playful therapy session.

Zach Gets Frustrated by William Mulcahy: Based on the author’s own parenting experiences, the story centers on a young boy whose rumination and sour attitude threaten to ruin his family trip to the beach. As with the other books in Mulcahy’s Zach Rules series, the main character learns coping skills to keep his feelings in check.

The Teens’ Workbook to Self-Regulate by Richard Bass: Workbooks are especially useful with adolescent clients, who are caught in-between childhood and adulthood. This workbook contains 42 CBT-based activities which can be practiced in and out of sessions.

Emotions for Teens and Tweens by Ivi Green: One of its kind, this book is full of attractive infographics which can help raise adolescents’ emotional literacy. Cleverly designed, the book portrays emotions through vivid and impactful illustrations (i.e., anger is depicted as a fire-breathing dragon).

Untangling Emotions by J. Alasdair Groves and Winston T. Smith: Geared toward adults, the book offers explanations for the origin of emotions. It reviews practical suggestions for successful emotion regulation and highlights the benefits of a self-controlled lifestyle.

The Emotional Intelligence Skills Workbook by Stephanie Catella, PsyD and Matthew McKay, PhD: Written for a more mature audience, this workbook offers strategies for managing high emotions in common adult scenarios, such as workplace conflict or relational tension. The questions and activities listed can serve as a session outline, in which the counselor helps the client envision how they would handle difficult interactions.

Emotional literacy scale

Yet another way counselors can help their clients improve emotional literacy is through their use of assessments.

One scale in particular, the Emotional Literacy Skills Scale (ELSS), can provide detailed insight regarding clients’ current practice of emotional literacy.

The scale, which was developed by Melek Alemdar and Huseyin Anilan in 2020 as they researched emotional literacy’s impact within the academic environment, has a five-pronged foundation: self-regulation, motivation, social skills, empathy, and emotional awareness.

It includes specific prompts for scoring, such as, “I can plainly say why I am sorry,” “I feel happy when I share things with my friends,” and “I have difficulty in expressing my worries.” The ELSS and other adaptations can be shared with clients so they can assess their emotional literacy. These scales can be administered at various points throughout treatment to measure a client’s progression with emotional literacy.

Summary

Because of our daily experiences of emotions and continual interpersonal encounters, the

possession of high emotional literacy is a tremendous attribute. Individuals who have this asset are able to demonstrate greater self-control and resiliency, as well as develop and maintain healthier relationships.

Mental health counselors are in prime positions to help their clients increase their emotional literacy and can do so using a variety of methods. As clients’ emotional literacy grows, they can more readily face challenges and overcome adversity.

Sources

• Alemdar, M., &Anılan, H. (2020). The development and validation of the emotional literacy skills scale. International Journal of Contemporary Educational Research.
• Medium (2020). How to Use ‘Wheel of Emotions’ to Express Better Emotions.
• Steiner C. (2003). Emotional Literacy: Intelligence with a Heart. Personhood Press.

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