Outline

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
• 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 rate
• 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

Wrap Up

• Therapy progress measures
• Case consultations​