2 Day Skills Practice Intensive: Supporting the Anxious Mind with Children and Adolescents

Presented by Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych

Monday, May 8, 2023 – Tuesday, May 9, 2023  |  Saskatoon, sk

Date & Location

This hands-on, dynamic workshop is different from any other. Packed with illustrated case examples, experiential learning activities, worksheets, practice tips, and opportunities to master key skills, you will learn practical, powerful, cutting-edge interventions to confidently help children and teens manage even the most severe of anxiety while boosting their overall courage, confidence, resilience, and well-being.

Despite all the information and resources we have about anxiety, anxiety continues to grow exponentially. Anxiety is the most common mental health concern among children and teens. Unfortunately, most go without effective support, making them vulnerable to lifelong mental health, social, behavioural, academic, and health difficulties.

Without having a full understanding of the nature of anxiety and knowing what to look for, it’s easy to miss anxiety when it shows up. Worse, many well-intentioned parents, teachers, and even mental health professionals unwittingly make anxiety stronger in their attempts to make children feel better.

Fortunately, anxiety is highly treatable with the right tools and know-how. Fortunately, Dr. Buzanko created this comprehensive workshop to give you the innovative clinical tools and skills to work with anxious children and teens effectively.

This workshop is essential for anyone working with anxious children and teens. Don’t wait to get the tools you need to enhance your practice and make your interventions to get kids unstuck from anxiety more effective, efficient, and durable.

Who Should Attend

Education and Clinical Professionals: All education and mental health or healthcare professionals who work with children or youth including, but not limited to K–12 Classroom Teachers, School Counsellors, Learning Assistance/Resource Teachers, School Administrators, School Paraprofessionals including Special Education Assistants, Classroom Assistants and Childcare Workers • All other professionals who support behavioural challenges and complex learning needs including but not limited to: Nurses, Social Workers, Psychologists, Clinical Counsellors, Family Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech Language Pathologists, Addiction Counsellors, Youth Workers, Mental Health Workers, Probation Officers and Community Police Officers.

Agenda

*Case base examples and experiential learning opportunities are interspersed within each domain of learning.

Understanding the neurobiology of anxiety and its contributors

• Gen Z, Generation Alpha, pressures, and technostress
• Normal vs. problematic worry
• Transdiagnostic approach to anxiety
• The nature of anxiety
• Anxiety & the brain
• Anxiety schemas
• 4 key routes to anxiety
• How anxiety shows up
• What maintains anxiety and the anxiety traps to avoid
• Student IPPs addressing anxiety
• Anxiety & neurobiology of trauma

Relationships and effective communication in addressing anxiety and trauma

• Rapport building and safety
• Effective emotion coaching
• Parent management and effective co-regulation
• Building emotional literacy
• Responding to anxiety in helpful ways
• Promoting confidence and independence

Establishing parent and child/teen buy-in

• Helping children and teens become experts of anxiety & their own neuropsychology
• Identifying and connecting the “Big Why”
• Collaborative agenda setting
• Motivational interviewing & values clarification
• Promoting an anxiety busting attitude
• Parent buy-in
• Addressing pushback

Externalizing and exposing anxiety

• Externalize and expose anxiety
• The trickster brain
• Identifying & individualizing henchmen
• Building awareness

Accepting anxiety & getting unstuck

• The power of paradox
• Acceptance vs. elimination
• Downfall of experiential avoidance
• Building emotion tolerance (and uncertainty tolerance)
• Exercises to promote acceptance of somatic symptoms
• Building flexibility

Detaching from anxiety & enhancing the thinking brain

• Detaching from anxiety
• Interrupting rumination and overwhelm
• Strategies to demote anxiety
• Building the problem-solving brain (vs. strengthening the anxious one)
• Becoming rulers over anxiety
• Somatic integration

Daring and defying anxiety

• Functional assessments to individualize treatment
• Identifying fear cues and consequences, safety behaviours and functions
• Importance of stress inoculation
• Setting up exposures successfully
  • Interoceptive exposure
  • Interpersonal exposure
  • Cognitive exposure
• Trauma approaches
• Habituation (and its traps)
• Maximizing fear extinction and safety learning
• Promoting an anxiety busting attitude
• Rewiring the anxious brain
• Creating an anxiety-busting lifestyle
• The risk-takers advantage
• Overcoming fear obstacles
• Addressing reverse hypnosis
• Effective responses to anxiety meltdowns and panic attacks
• Case examples
  • Panic
  • Social anxiety
  • Generalized anxiety
  • School refusal

Thriving from anxiety into the future and beyond

• Sustaining success
• Success bridges
• Breathing
• Mindfulness
• Healthy anxiety busting habits
• Changing baseline arousal levels & regulating the nervous system

Learning Objectives

• Explain the unique stress our children and teens face
• Differentiate normal and problematic worries
• Identify how anxiety manifestsin neurobiology, emotions, and behaviours
• Explain the key pathways to anxiety
• Identify the key variables that maintains anxiety and stalls progress
• Develop and provide client-friendly psychoeducation about anxiety
• Explain the impact of traumatic stress on the brain and how traumatic memory is stored
• Discuss the shortcomings of traditional approaches
• Implement rapport-building tips and tools to improve relationships and create safety
• Engage as an effective anxiety coach
• Demonstrate skills to elicit buy-in from any child, teen, or parent
• Utilize strategies that help family members become effective emotion coaches for their children and teens
• Detect and challenge any of anxiety’s henchmen
• Explain the mechanisms for coping with anxiety
• Apply strategies to enhance clients’ uncertainty tolerance and acceptance of somatic symptoms
• Implement an effective process-oriented treatment plan to maximize anxiety management across all context and end safety behaviours that prolong anxiety,
• Identify and overcome barriers to success
• Build collaborative treatment plans tailored to each client’s unique experience of anxiety
• Skillfully individualize and apply effective strategies to promote child and teen success managing across contexts
• Implement strategies for lifelong anxiety management

Your Presenter

Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych

Caroline Buzanko, Ph.D., R. Psych, is a psychologist. Mother. Professor. International Speaker. Yoda of Anxiety. ADHD Superhero. And Changer of Lives. With nearly three decades of experience, she is a recognized expert in resilience and the social, emotional, and behavioural well-being of children and teens. In 2024, Dr. Caroline was honoured as Alberta’s Psychologist of the Year for her exceptional contributions to the field.

Known for her dynamic, engaging style, Dr. Caroline has a knack for simplifying complex challenges and equipping professionals with practical tools that make a real difference. Her workshops go beyond theory, providing strategies that educators, caregivers, and mental health professionals can use immediately to support children and teens facing any challenge.

Through her work at Koru Family Psychology and research at Athabasca University, Dr. Caroline’s mission is clear: to help every child unlock their potential, build confidence, and embrace resilience. When you train with Dr. Caroline, expect to be inspired, empowered, and ready to create a world where everyone thrives.

Testimonials

“The presenter was very knowledgeable in her area of expertise. She provided several personal and work-related examples; this was extremely helpful. This webinar will definitely help me in my work as a school psychologist. Thank you Caroline!”
– Webinar | May 2021

“The presenter was exceptional- one of the best I have listened to in years. She was extremely knowledgeable in her area of expertise. Caroline used many personal and professional examples of her work. This webinar will be a significant help in my role as a school psychologist.”
– Webinar | May 2021

“Caroline was very informative, animated and delivered the information in an interesting way. She was passionate about ADHD.”
– Webinar | March 2021

Registration & Fees