Anxiety is a protective and motivational force that allows us to react to real threats to our safety. Experiencing anxiety is a normal emotional response, however when anxiety interferes with your child’s daily life or causes a great deal of distress it becomes a problem that needs to be addressed.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT teaches children and adolescents ways to recognize signs of unwanted anxious feelings and see them as cues to utilize anxiety management strategies. This treatment focuses on three main aspects of anxiety (1) physical and emotional reactions (feelings), (2) negative or maladaptive cognitions (thoughts), and (3) avoidance of feared situations (behaviors). The overall goal is to teach children and adolescences to recognize signs of anxious feelings and to implement strategies to better cope. A key component is taking the time needed to practice applying anxiety management strategies in real, anxiety provoking situations or “exposures.” Please note that I will not use Exposure therapy to desensitize sensory overload. I do a through screening before treatment starts to sort stress responses from anxiety related fears.
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE)
What if your child does not want to go to therapy, is not motivated to do so or is too young (under 8yo) to learn and apply the techniques to cope with their anxious feelings on their own? In this instance, there is another option.
Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) is a new evidence-based program from the Yale Child Study Center. The SPACE program is a treatment for childhood anxiety that is a parent-based intervention. This allows the child, who may be unresponsive or resistant to individual child based cognitive behavioral therapy, to be treated in an effective and empathetic manner. Childhood anxiety is often experienced differently than anxiety in adults. Anxiety in a child can be seen through their social behaviors that call out for help from their parents. When a child suffers from anxiety, it is common that the problem exists both within the child and in the relationship between the parent and child. A key element of the SPACE approach is to recognize that while parents are not responsible for their child’s anxiety, they do have a unique opportunity to help their children cope and overcome unwanted or problematic anxious feelings through their relationship with their child. Through this program, parents will learn approaches to reduce their child’s anxiety indirectly by making changes in their own behavior. My training in this approach was with its founder, Dr. Eli Lebowitz, associate director of the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program at the Yale Child Study Center and lead author of the SPACE program.
Evidence shows these programs can help to treat a range of challenges such as:
Generalized Anxiety
Social Anxiety
Separation Anxiety
Obsessions and Compulsions
Specific Phobias (e.g., fear of needles/bloodwork, insects, animals)
If you recognize any of the issues raised in the above, please take advantage of a free phone consultation with me to discuss how these approaches might be of benefit to your family.