FlowingLove (Daniel Siegel) suggests parents explain that our brains remember things that we aren’t aways aware of, expecially negative emotions, and that it’s like puzzle pieces of what happend floating around in our heads.
Explain that telling and retelling the story of what happened pulls the puzzle pieces together so that they can make sense of them, and feel less scared, sad, or angry, and feel braver, calmer, and happier.
Explain that they can do this on their own too.