Treating anxiety in kids and teens
One of my areas of specialty is working with tweens and teens who are struggling with anxiety. As a family therapist, I prefer to include the parents in the therapy session so that the parents can understand the principles I am teaching and help to implement them at home.
For kids and tweens, I use a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program. The first part of the program usually takes about 8 sessions to complete. This can be done weekly or every other week. This part of the program is psychoeducational and focuses on teaching the child how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are related.
I teach children how to recognize physical symptoms of anxiety and techniques for relaxing the body. Next, we work on recognizing automatic negative thoughts and how to replace these unhelpful thoughts with coping thoughts. We work on structured problem solving to help the kids understand that they always have many choices for how to react in an anxiety-provoking situation. Then we talk about growth mindset and rewarding ourselves for effort and progress.
The second part of the program focuses on practicing the techniques described above. We develop a hierarchy of gradually more difficult and anxiety-provoking situations and practice the techniques until the hard things seem much easier. The goal is to increase coping skills and drastically reduce anxiety, and my clients and I have had a lot of success with the program!
Many of my clients with anxiety qualify for a 504 plan, which is a plan that provides accommodations at school to help manage anxiety in the classroom. A 504 plan is different than an IEP or Individualized Education Plan. An IEP is for students with diagnosed specific disabilities, such as a learning disability or autism. An IEP is more comprehensive and typically includes specialized instruction outside of the general classroom.
A 504 plan simply requires the school to provide accommodations to help the student be more successful at school. Common accommodations include extra time on tests, preferential seating, extra breaks, and modified classroom and homework assignments.
Are you an adult that struggles with anxiety? I use the same principles in individual therapy with adults, but in a less structured format without a workbook. If you’re interested in treatment for anxiety, book an appointment or contact me for more information.