One of our favorite interventions to teach parents, and kids and teens, was created by me and is called The Three Step Approach. You can read tons more about it here, and in my book, When Anxiety Makes You Angry. But today, we’re doing a video walk through!

We’re celebrating 6 years by sharing our favorite 6 games and books that parents can enjoy at home with their anxious kids and teens!

Here we are, a month into the new school year, and you're going through the homework struggle. Again.

You were hoping this year would be different. You worked so hard, collaborating with your child's teacher, and finally had a good system... by April. But now it seems like it's back tracked. And it kind of feels hopeless. You wonder if your kid is every going to get their act together when it comes to doing their homework.

What do you do?

Learn more about using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with anxious or angry kids and teens!

“Parents are often aware that a divorce or separation will happen well before their children, so this will be brand new information for them to process.” Learn more about supporting anxious kids during divorce with Heather Barnett, MA, LPC, and Chief Program Officer at Kids In The Middle!

“I also witnessed first-hand how effective art therapy can be when a loved one received various treatments for anxiety and depression. Art therapy helped them to relax, develop more trusting relationships with their therapists, and become immersed in a joyful creative process in the midst of such a difficult personal struggle. “

“There are many different signs and symptoms of trauma including depression, increased anxiety, irritability, mood swings, aggression, overwhelming fear. When a child presents with increased symptoms that begin to interfere with daily living and performing basic tasks then it may be time to seek out an assessment to look into trauma therapy. “

Stress responses impact emotional and behavioral health in a few ways. 

Physiologically, a stress response leads to increased heart rate, breath rate, pupil dilation, and muscle tension. Your child’s adrenal glands are pumping to prepare them for a fight, flight, or freeze response. It’s a healthy activation. 

What happens with repeated stressors?

But when this stress response gets activated again and again, it becomes maladaptive on the body’s long term health. A higher amount of adverse childhood experiences (stressors) is linked to a greater chance of cancer, drug use, stroke and heart attacks. 

Anxious or bratty kids?

Back in September, I contributed to an article entitled "Is Your Child Anxious Or Just Bratty? Experts Explain How to Tell," found on Romper, exploring the differences underpinning these two behaviors. What contributes to your child's anxiety vs. what contributes to them acting "bratty?" 

Kids and teens with anxiety, anger, or avoidance don't always volunteer information about their day. They may provide you with a few vague pieces of information about how school went, concerns they had with friends, or problems at class - or, they might not. It's helpful to have tools to actually hear more about their day. In this week's blog, I share some of the prompts that I often use in session to get kids and teens to dig a little deeper than just telling me "I'm fine." Click below to read more...

You can feel helpless when your child is out of control. The first step is to help them build a language for what's going on - is it nerves, anger, frustration? Then, build skills one at a time to help them manage these strong emotions - and ensure that you're being proactive, practicing skills before the freak out occurs.