Agenda & Learning Objectives

Day One 

• Sources of Anxiety and Treatment Overview
• What research tells us about therapy effectiveness applied to children
• How anxiety develops in children: the “three ingredients framework”
• Biological sensitivity
• Anxiety personality style
• Stress overload
• Treatment goals, strategies and recommendations
• The baseball analogy for behavior change and symptom reduction
• Behavioral health recommendations

Interventions: Stress Management and Anxiety-Regulation Skills

• The 1st intervention: “3-S” process for stress management
• Symptoms
• Sources
• Solutions
• The 2nd intervention: anxiety regulation skills
• “Relaxation response”
• Breathing practices
• Mindfulness practices for children
• Flow activities
• Yoga games
• Martial arts
• “Baby Buddhas” meditation for preschoolers
• Other approaches to self-regulation

School Recommendations, Medication, DSM-5® Classification, and Interventions for Separation Anxiety Disorder

• Recommendations for schools
• Pros and cons of medication
• Nature’s remedies
• Herbal treatments
• Homeopathy
• DSM-5® anxiety disorders: current updates
• Separation anxiety
• Normal separation process
• Therapeutic exposure
• “Helicopter,” “bulldozer” and “snowplow” parenting
• Strategies to help parents let go

Interventions for Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder

• Generalized anxiety
• Why we worry
• Introducing language for new thought patterns
• 9 strategies for replacing worry with alternative cognitive habits
• Panic disorder
• Diagnosis and treatment success rates
• Agoraphobia component
• Treatment metaphors
• “floating technique”
• “lifeSkills” Self Help Program

Day Two 

• Interventions for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders: expanded classification
• Relationship between obsessions and compulsions
• Trichotillomania (hair pulling)
• Excoriation (skin picking)
• Body dysmorphia
• PaNdaS (medically induced OCD: Pediatric autoimmune disorder associated with Streptococcus infection)

Interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder and Selective Mutism

• Social anxiety disorder
• Selective mutism
• Self-esteem issues and treatment
• Social communication skills
• Group therapy

Interventions for Phobias and Stressor- and Trauma-Related Disorders

• Specific Phobias
• Diagnosis and examples
• Virtual reality exposure
• Stressor and trauma-related disorders
• Expanded diagnostic classification
• Attachment disorders
• Adjustment disorders
• Acute stress disorders
• Trauma-related disorders
• New frontiers in trauma treatment

Learning Objectives

• Simulate the “Three Ingredients” framework to explain how anxiety develops in children and adolescents.
• Critique the role of family, schools, media, and global events in contributing to anxiety.
• Apply fun, engaging therapy activities to motivate your clients to change for each anxiety disorder.
• Apply a semi-structured child interview tips to develop targeted treatment plans.
• Verify four behavioral health recommendations to help all clients.
• Rate the pros and cons of prescription drugs and complementary medicine for anxiety.
• Assess how to manage ethical risks with families of divorce.
• Implement a three-step process for teaching stress management skills to young clients.
• Apply group therapy activities to reduce social anxiety.
• Detect the “Floating Technique” for panic anxiety.
• Produce exposure interventions to treat OCD, separation anxiety, social anxiety and phobias.
• Design anxiety reduction techniques to yourself to be a motivating role model.