Parenting Anxious Kids
- LGBTQIA+ Affirming
Description:
Dr. Amy Bohlander offers a 6-session small-group workshop (60 minutes per session) designed for parents and caregivers of children who experience anxiety or OCD. Sessions are held via Zoom during the school day (PST) and are for parents/caregivers only.
CONTENT/ TOPICS COVERED:
Parents and caregivers will learn practical, evidence-based strategies to help their children better manage anxiety. Content includes:
1) Intro to Childhood Anxiety: Information about childhood anxiety, how it develops and why it continues (the “anxiety cycle”), and how to help your child break free of it.
2) Exposure: How to encourage your child to be brave and gradually face their fears in a step-wise fashion, using a process called “Exposure and Response Prevention” (E/RP).
3) SPACE: Parenting strategies based on the “Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions” (SPACE) program, including how to increase your support of your anxious child while also identifying and decreasing any ways the anxiety is being accommodated.
4) Thinking Strategies: Techniques and strategies based on Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), including the connection between thoughts, feelings, and actions, and how to help your child learn to think more realistically when they are worried (“Detective Thinking”).
IS MY FAMILY A GOOD FIT?
If your child worries a lot, is overly fearful, avoids things that they want or need to do because of worry, or asks you for frequent reassurance or to help them feel better when they are worried or distressed, then this class is for you.
This class is appropriate for parents and caregivers of children with a diagnosis of anxiety or OCD, as well as for those children who do not have a formal diagnosis, but show patterns of worry, fear, or avoidance.
Neurodivergent families/ parents are very welcome. Anxiety and OCD commonly co-occur with autism, ADHD, and other forms of neurodiversity, and the strategies taught in this class are designed to be flexible and supportive.
All family structures are welcome, including single-parent families, two-parent families, blended or stepfamilies, and LGBTQ+ families.
Parenting Anxious Kids can be a great starting point for families who are just beginning to seek support for their child’s anxiety, while waiting for individual services or as a standalone resource. It is also a great complement for families already engaged in therapy, for example, when a child or teen is receiving their own treatment and parents would like additional tools or a better understanding of how to support their child’s progress.
This workshop is open to parents and caregivers located in Washington State and in any of the 40+ states participating PSYPACT.