Identify, express and manage emotions in a healthy way
The Rainbow of Emotions App provides a structured, step-by-step approach to teach emotional regulation, suitable for all ages. It combines visual aids with interactive tools to help users effectively identify, understand, and manage their emotions in everyday life.
Customisable web-based app available on PC, laptop, tablet or phone.
So How Does an Emotional regulation app work?
The app guides the user step-by-step to identify and express and manage their emotions.
Knowing how to regulate emotions successfully is not a matter of luck. Regulating emotions is a skill that is learnt. When people do not learn this critical skill, they do not know how to identify, express, and cope with their emotions. This in turn can make them feel overwhelmed, out of control, frustrated, confused, uncertain, and anxious. These feelings manifest through behaviours of concern.
The app provides a framework that can be used by caregivers, educators, support staff, behaviour support practitioners and mental health professionals to give the individual the tools they need to help regulate their emotions across all settings.
The app complements the workbook Bhargava, D. (2023). Taking CHARGE of my Rainbow of Emotions. Victoria, Australia: Behaviour Help Pty Ltd.
Component 1 - Rainbow of Emotions
A rainbow is an arch made up of different coloured parallel lines that forms in the sky in special circumstances.
Residing within each one of us is our very own Rainbow of Emotions, where each colour of the rainbow represents a different emotion. In the Rainbow of Emotions app you can set up two types of rainbows: one rainbow to represent physical emotions such as hungry, thirsty, tired or pain and another rainbow to represent negative emotions such as angry, worried, sad or jealous.
For each rainbow, the app helps the individual discover and design their own rainbow of emotions. You can choose the colour, picture, sound and name for each line in the rainbow to identify and express their emotions.
Component 2 - CHARGE toolkit
The CHARGE tool KIT aims to give the individual the power to choose alternative ways to manage their emotions appropriately. The letters in the acronym CHARGE stands for the different categories of emotional management tools:
Chat tools
Helpful thinking tools
Amusement tools
Relaxation tools
Good routine tools
Exercise tools
As a team you can work with the individual to personalise the CHARGE toolkit by including tools the individual already uses and find work for them, and adding select tools from the library provided in the app. The colour, picture, sound and name can be customised for each tool.
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“This innovative app is a game-changer for everyone working with individuals with emotional and behavioural difficulties.”
Key Features
Customisable Rainbows
Design and personalise rainbows to represent physical and negative emotions, using colours, images, and sounds that reflect each individual's unique emotional landscape.
CHARGE Toolkit
A suite of practical strategies for managing emotions, including strategies for Chatting (socialising), Helpful thinking, Amusement, Relaxation, Good routine, and Exercise.
Successful regulation of emotions is essential for being able to positively engage in life tasks such as learning, forming relationships, solving everyday problems, and adapting to the complex demands of growth and development.
Created by Dolly Bhargava
Dolly Bhargava, an NDIS Registered Specialist behaviour Support Practitioner and Speech Pathologist, is a leading expert in supporting individuals with complex emotional and behavioural challenges.
With degrees in Speech Pathology and Special Education, she has developed influential positive behaviour support resources used worldwide.
Dolly has been working with families, educators and care providers with behaviour help for 25 years and has used this wealth of experience to develop the app to create positive change in the lives of the individuals you support.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I use NDIS funding to purchase the Rainbow of Emotions Web Based App?
Yes it can be purchased by using the codes for NDIA Assistive Technology & Consumables, Behaviour Support and Therapeutic Support resources.
Who can use the Rainbow of Emotions web-based app?
The Rainbow of Emotions web-based app is a valuable tool for parents, educators, mental health professionals, allied health professionals and disability support staff.
The app can be used at home, early intervention centres, clinics, childcare centres, preschools, primary/secondary schools, disability services, child and youth services … anyone supporting individuals with emotional and behavioural difficulties with emotional regulation.
What approach is the Rainbow of Emotions App based on?
The Rainbow of Emotions App is based on the evidenced based Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) approach. CBT is a form of psychological therapy that helps the individual build a set of skills to take CHARGE of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviours to achieve symptom reduction, improvement in functioning and overall quality of life.
What is unique about the Rainbow of Emotions web-based app?
The Rainbow of Emotions App allows you to design the two components (Rainbow of Emotions and CHARGE Toolkit) to be as personalised as possible to your individual. This is to ensure that the app is set up to match your individual's skills, which will help increase your individual's connection, motivation and sense of success when using the app to help improve emotion regulation skills.
The app in its history section will record each time the individual uses it (i.e. identifies an emotion, selects a tool, and documents if it helped address the emotion). This information is stored in the app history, allowing you to filter and sort the user history table by any column by clicking the title of the column to sort by emotion, rating, date, time, tool category and outcome. You can then print selected history within a date range or save as a pdf that can be shared with the individual's support team.
How many individuals can I use the Rainbow of Emotions web-based app with?
Depending on the plan you purchase you can have as many users as you wish.
What devices can the Rainbow of Emotions web-based app be used on?
Rainbow of Emotions is a web-based app that can be used on your Mac or PC, or on an Android, Apple or Windows tablet and phone.
Is the Rainbow of Emotions app suitable for individuals with emotional regulation disorder?
Yes, the Rainbow of Emotions app is well-suited for individuals who experience emotional regulation disorder. The app is designed to help users recognize, understand, and manage their emotional experiences in a structured and supportive way. By providing visual aids and interactive tools, it makes it easier for individuals to identify their emotions and develop emotional control.
For those with emotional regulation difficulties, such as individuals with Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) or similar conditions, the app can be a helpful supplement to therapeutic approaches. It encourages self-awareness, emotional labeling, and the use of various emotion regulation strategies—skills that are essential for managing intense emotional reactions. However, while the app can be a valuable tool, it is recommended that individuals with emotional regulation disorder also seek guidance from a mental health professional to ensure comprehensive support.
How does the Rainbow of Emotions app support children with autism or ADHD?
The Rainbow of Emotions app is particularly helpful for children with autism or ADHD, who often face challenges in identifying and regulating their emotions. The app’s visual aids, personalized interface, and step-by-step approach make it easier for children to understand their feelings and respond to emotional triggers in a healthy way. By tracking emotional responses and utilizing the CHARGE Toolkit, children can learn practical strategies for managing emotions, which is essential for enhancing emotional self-regulation and social interactions.
How does the Rainbow of Emotions app support emotional development in early childhood?
The Rainbow of Emotions app is ideal for young children as it simplifies complex emotional concepts with visual cues and age-appropriate language. By using the app in early childhood settings, such as preschools or early intervention centers, children can learn to identify triggers, label their emotions, and build foundational emotional regulation skills early in life. This early engagement helps foster emotional intelligence, leading to better social interactions and self-awareness as they grow.
Can the Rainbow of Emotions app be used as part of behavioral intervention programs?
Yes, the app integrates well with behavioral activation and intervention programs designed to help individuals modify emotional and behavioral responses. By tracking emotional triggers and outcomes, the app provides insights that can be used to adjust intervention strategies, ensuring they are tailored to the individual’s needs. It serves as a companion tool for professionals working with clients on emotional regulation and behavior management.
What are Emotional Self Regulation Skills?
Emotional regulation is a crucial skill that many strive to master. Emotional regulation, or emotion regulation, refers to the ability to manage one’s emotions, particularly negative emotions, in a way that is constructive and beneficial for mental health. This skill set is essential for navigating life’s challenges and fostering healthier relationships with oneself and others.
Understanding Emotional Regulation Skills
Emotional regulation skills are strategies individuals use to manage their emotions effectively. These skills enable a person to maintain control over how they express both positive and negative emotions, avoiding impulsive reactions or emotional dysregulation. People with strong emotional regulation skills can balance their emotional responses, leading to better outcomes in stressful situations.
One of the primary components of emotional regulation is self-awareness. By recognizing one’s emotional state, individuals can begin to understand how their emotions influence their thoughts and behaviors. Developing self-awareness is the first step toward enhancing emotional regulation and creating emotional balance.
Why are Emotional Regulation Skills Important?
Being able to regulate your own emotions helps in reducing emotional outbursts, which are often fueled by stress, anxiety, or frustration. Without these skills, emotional dysregulation can occur, leading to difficulties in managing intense feelings. Emotional dysregulation can be a major challenge for people with certain mental health conditions, such as borderline personality disorder (BPD). For individuals with BPD, emotional regulation strategies become even more vital to prevent emotional instability from interfering with daily life.
However, emotional regulation is not only about managing negative emotions. It also involves amplifying positive emotions to enhance well-being and mental resilience. By regulating emotions effectively, individuals can maintain a healthy balance between stress and relaxation, frustration and contentment.
Emotional Dysregulation and Mental Health issues
When someone is unable to regulate their emotions, they may experience emotional dysregulation, which often leads to impulsive behavior, mood swings, and intense emotional reactions. For those with BPD, emotional dysregulation can be particularly overwhelming. This can result in unstable relationships, erratic moods, and difficulty managing stress. In such cases, professional support and therapeutic interventions such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) can be incredibly beneficial in helping individuals learn emotion regulation strategies.
How the Rainbow of Emotions App Can Help Build Emotional Regulation Skills
Mastering emotional self-regulation skills is essential for maintaining mental well-being and nurturing positive emotions, while also managing negative emotions constructively. One of the most practical ways to teach emotional regulation is through tools that make the process engaging and accessible. The Rainbow of Emotions app, developed by Dolly Bhargava, is specifically designed to support individuals in understanding and regulating their emotional experiences.
The app provides a visual and interactive way to explore emotions, making it an ideal tool for users of all ages who want to develop emotional intelligence and emotional control. By helping users label and recognize their feelings, the Rainbow of Emotions app fosters self-awareness, an important first step in emotional regulation. This approach allows individuals to actively engage with their emotions, making it easier to practice emotional regulation strategies in real time.
One of the app's core strengths is its ability to teach emotional regulation through structured activities that focus on improving emotional awareness, control, and understanding. It guides users through the spectrum of their emotional experiences, helping them identify how they feel and why they feel that way. This awareness helps users make more informed decisions about how to respond to their emotions, reducing emotional dysregulation and fostering a balanced emotional state.
For those seeking to develop emotional intelligence, the app is a valuable resource that aligns well with other techniques such as mindfulness and cognitive reappraisal. By consistently using the app, individuals can enhance their emotional control, creating healthier emotional wellbeing and improving their responses to both stress and joy.
Incorporating tools like the Rainbow of Emotions app into your daily life makes practicing emotion regulation strategies more accessible, especially for those who struggle with identifying their emotions or managing emotional intensity. As users become more familiar with the different aspects of their emotional experience, they build the capacity to navigate life’s challenges with greater ease and confidence.
With patience, consistent effort, and the right tools like the Rainbow of Emotions app, anyone can achieve emotional balance, leading to a more peaceful, resilient, and fulfilling life.
Self-Regulation and Building Healthy Relationships
Emotional self-regulation is not only key to personal well-being but also plays a fundamental role in developing and maintaining relationships. Our ability to manage our emotional responses to others—whether those responses are driven by unpleasant emotions, intense emotions, or negative thoughts—directly influences how we interact with and relate to the people around us.
When we lack emotional regulation, we may struggle to cope with strong emotions like anger, frustration, or sadness, which can lead to reactive behaviors that strain relationships.
Negative feelings, left unchecked, often manifest in impulsive actions or words that may damage trust and emotional connection with loved ones. This is especially true for individuals who experience co-occurring mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression, or emotional regulation disorders like borderline personality disorder. These conditions can exacerbate emotional intensity, making it difficult to maintain balanced and supportive relationships.
Emotional Regulation Techniques for Healthier Interactions
Developing distress tolerance—the ability to manage difficult emotions without resorting to impulsive or destructive behaviors—is a critical component of emotion regulation. When unpleasant emotions surface in a relationship, distress tolerance techniques, such as deep breathing or taking a pause before responding, can help de-escalate a situation and prevent misunderstandings. By practicing distress tolerance, individuals can better navigate emotionally charged moments and avoid the negative spiral that often results from reacting in the heat of the moment.
Emotional regulation techniques such as cognitive reappraisal (reframing how we think about a situation) and mindfulness can also greatly improve relationship dynamics. For instance, instead of interpreting a partner’s comment as criticism and reacting defensively, cognitive reappraisal allows one to consider alternative interpretations, promoting healthier and more constructive communication. These techniques not only help in managing one’s own emotional experience but also foster empathy and understanding toward others.
Coping with Negative Thoughts and Emotional Responses
Negative thoughts can often spiral into strong emotions that cloud judgment and lead to unnecessary conflict.
Learning to recognize and challenge these thoughts is an important part of building healthier relationships.
For example, questioning the accuracy of a negative assumption, such as “They don’t care about me,” and replacing it with a more balanced thought, “They may just be stressed or distracted,” can reduce emotional overreactions and promote more open, calm conversations.
When faced with negative feelings or an emotional response that feels overwhelming, it’s important to have a range of coping strategies to draw from.
Journaling, talking with a trusted friend, or engaging in physical activity can serve as healthy outlets to process emotions before approaching a difficult conversation. Using these techniques helps individuals stay calm, preventing emotional dysregulation from harming their relationships.
Strengthening Bonds Through Emotional Regulation
Ultimately, strong emotional self-regulation enables individuals to be more present and supportive in their relationships. By managing distressing emotions and responding to others with empathy and patience, people are better equipped to build deeper connections.
Healthy relationships are rooted in mutual respect, understanding, and effective communication—all of which thrive when emotional regulation is practiced consistently.
Building relationships requires not only emotional awareness but also the willingness to manage our own emotions for the sake of fostering emotional safety and trust.
Whether it’s dealing with intense emotions in a romantic partnership or practicing emotional regulation with family members, self-regulation is the foundation for positive, lasting connections.
Emotional Self-Regulation Skills in Anger Management
Anger is a natural emotion, but without effective emotional self-regulation, it can escalate into destructive behaviors that harm relationships, personal well-being, and mental health.
In the context of anger management, developing emotional regulation skills is essential for identifying triggers, controlling emotional responses, and making constructive choices in heated moments.
In modern life, where stress and frustrations are commonplace, it’s easy to fall into patterns of reactive anger.
Without understanding the root cause of anger, it can become overwhelming, leading to impulsive actions and words that damage both personal and professional relationships.
A key part of anger management involves recognizing and addressing these emotional triggers before they lead to a negative response.
Identifying Triggers and Managing Emotional Responses
To effectively manage anger, the first step is to identify triggers—specific situations, people, or events that provoke an emotional reaction.
Whether it’s a stressful day at work, feeling disrespected, or a disagreement at home, understanding these triggers helps individuals anticipate their emotional responses.
Once identified, emotional regulation techniques such as behavioral activation (engaging in positive activities to interrupt negative emotional patterns) and mindfulnesscan be used to de-escalate the intensity of the anger before it becomes unmanageable.
Practicing mindfulness is a powerful technique for staying present and aware of emotions as they arise. By focusing on the current moment without judgment, individuals can slow down their emotional reactions and approach the situation with a clearer, calmer mindset. This prevents anger from spiraling out of control and provides space to respond thoughtfully rather than impulsively.
Developing Self-Compassion and Positive Feedback Loops
In anger management, one of the most important aspects of emotional self-regulation is cultivating self-compassion. Anger is often fueled by internal frustration or feelings of inadequacy, and responding to oneself with harsh judgment can intensify these emotions.
By practicing self-compassion, individuals can acknowledge their feelings without criticism, creating a healthier emotional response. This self-compassion opens the door to more productive responses, including seeking positive feedback from others and focusing on solutions rather than blame.
Behavioral activation—actively engaging in positive activities like exercise, hobbies, or socializing—also plays an important role in managing anger. By intentionally shifting focus away from anger triggers and toward constructive actions, individuals create a positive feedback loop that supports emotional regulation.
Is the Rainbow of Emotions App Suitable for Anger Management?
Yes, the Rainbow of Emotions app by Dolly Bhargava is a useful tool in the context of anger management.
The app helps users identify triggers by encouraging them to label and understand their emotions in real time. It provides a structured framework for practicing emotional regulation techniques, including recognizing the onset of intense emotions like anger and developing healthier responses.
The app’s visual and interactive approach makes it particularly effective for helping individuals practice mindfulness and engage in self-reflection.
By giving users a way to track their emotions and responses, it supports the development of self-awareness, which is a critical first step in managing anger. Additionally, the app promotes self-compassion by guiding users through strategies to cope with negative emotions in a non-judgmental way, fostering emotional growth and resilience.
While the Rainbow of Emotions app can be a valuable tool for anger management, it works best when used in combination with other therapeutic approaches, such as counseling or behavioral interventions, for those with severe anger issues or emotional dysregulation.
