Brief OverviewAnxiety in children and adolescents is often overlooked, under-reported or misinterpreted as being a behavioural or developmental problem. Anxiety is stifling to many young lives, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Modern insights have greatly expanded our capacity to support young people to engage with all aspects of life with resilience and courage. This two-day workshop will present a fresh, innovative approach to anxiety. It will draw on neuroscience, evidence-based strategies, and highly respected therapeutic models to support practitioners in developing a fresh approach to anxiety and the therapeutic responses that will effect powerful change. This will be bolstered by a series of experiential exercises, allowing participants to consolidate learning, deepen their insight into their own personal processes, and acquire a range of innovative therapeutic interventions. Some of the key content areas Karen will explore with participants include: - The neurobiology of anxiety and how to use this as a scaffold for therapeutic change;
- The different ways anxiety can manifest in young children and adolescents;
- How anxiety can interfere with learning, performance (exams, sport, on stage), behaviour and how to shift anxiety to maximise
learning, behavioural, and performance outcomes; - How to build high-quality relationships with children and teens, or facilitate those relationships with children and other important adults (such as school staff), and why this is a fundamental part of treatment;
- Making sense of separation anxiety and how to respond effectively to support brave behaviour;
- Working with school ‘refusal’ - an innovative, proven approach;
- How to engage parents to be changemakers, why well-intended responses from parents often make anxiety worse, and the
conversation and strategies that can have a transformational impact on anxiety; - What to do when parents are resistant to the therapeutic process - moving past the impasse;
- How to respond to anxiety and resistance in the moment to make way for calm and courage;
- The critical elements of ‘presence’ that children need from parents and important adults, and how to facilitate this;
Building the toolbox - practical strategies to diminish the inner experience of anxiety and build brave behaviour; - The four key responses to anxiety, and how to use this to inform a more effective response;
- Why old responses to anxiety can be resistant to change, and the simple explanation for young people that can break through this
and build resilience and courage; - The neuroscience of self-regulation, co-regulation, and the immediate and long term impact on anxiety;
- How a young person’s attachment history can impact anxiety and how to work with this;
- The relationship between trauma and anxiety, and how to build relationships that heal and protect;
- Bringing it all together - a therapeutic roadmap detailing a practical, innovative plan for working with anxiety.
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