Your Anxious Child

In this interview, I talked with Ellen Hendriksen, PhD about social phobia and her book How To Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety She is clinical psychologist  who works at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD) in Boston MA. Her website ELLENHENDRIKSEN.COM contains a number of helpful resources for dealing with Social Anxiety and a very helpful online course on Social Anxiety.  I have found the way in which she talks about Social Anxiety in terms of a worry that a fatal flaw will be revealed in four potential ways a very helpful tool in my work, but there much more as you will see in the interview 

Michael A. Tompkins, PhD has just published the anxiety & depression workbook for teens: simple cbt skills to help you deal with anxiety, worry, and sadness with New Harbinger Publications. He a cofounder of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy, an Assistant Clinical Professor at the Universtiy of California at Berkleley and an adjunt faculty at the Beck Institute for Cognitve Therapy. Among his other publications relevant to this podcast are My Anxious Mind: A Teens Guide to Managing Anxiety and Panic and Zero to 60: A Teen's Guide to Manage Frustration, Anger and Everyday Irritations. Given the documented increase in the prevalence of depression and anxiety in teens, this is a timely and important topic that I was fortunate to talk with Dr Tompkins about.  

Jeremy W. Pettit, PhD and Ryan M. Hill, PhD,  experts on suicidal ideation and suicide in teens talk about their new book overcoming suicidal thoughts for teens: cbt activities to reduce pain, increase hope, build meaningful connections I apologize for the sound quality in this interview, there were some unexplained technical problems, but the content is still very important and worth your listening time.

Ed Tronick, PhD is one of the leading authorities on infant development. His collaboration with the famous pediatrician, Berry Brazelton, MD was instrumental in the development of Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale. His Still Face Experiment with mothers and infant monumental in demonstrating the social competence infants. A link to a video demonstration is listed below https://youtu.be/YTTSXc6sARg

Robyn L. Stern, LCSW, is a licensed social and therapist in New York where she specializes in Body Dysmorphic Disorder, OCD and BFRBs. This is a condition someone becomes preoccupied with perceived defects in their appearance which are not apparent to others.  This is an important psychiatric condition to know about. It is more frequent than OCD, and can lead to unnecessary cosmetic surgery. In this interview I talk with Robyn Stern who is passionate advocate for BDD awareness She knows first hand about what it is like to suffer from BDD and she has two very compelling videos in which she bravely tells her story. I would strongly recommend watching these videos.  https://youtu.be/77JthR5HXv8 and https://fb.watch/go3vJ3C-2q/

Heather White is the author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet. She is the founder of OneGreenThing.org and has two decades of experience in environmental advocacy including serving as a presidential campaign staffer for Al Gore and numerous other activities. Climate change is the big challenge for the younger generation and many therapist such as myself are noticing how much it comes up with our young clients. Heather White discusses the importance of a intergenerational discussion of climate change, how doing one green thing a day can create the necessary cultural shift to deal with this crisis and most importantly how to identify the ways in which you and your child can play a part. The program of action Heather White describes are crucial in managing the understandable anxiety that comes with thinking about climate change. 

Silke Rose West and Joseph Sarosy have written a wonderful book How to Tell Stories to Children. Anxious children can greatly benefit from stories that parents tell them and this book tells you how to get started. As they explain storytelling "... becomes like a Swiss Army knife for parents-a multi-tool that helps a child learn new skills, build empathy, soothe difficulty emotions, and make meaning out the challenging moments in life". Story telling is as much and probably more  about building a connection with your child than making a narrative. As they explain "The goal is not perfect story. The goal is connection". And if we are going to help our anxious children, it begins with connection.   You can learn more about this story telling method at HowToTellStoriesToChildren.com and there is also a podcast on itunes with the same name

Jon Hershfield, MFT is the Director of The Center for OCD and Anxiety at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore Maryland. He is the author of several books on OCD and is prominent figure in the world of OCD treatment. In this interview, we talk about his book for teens the ocd workbook for teens: mindfulness & cbt skills to help you overcome unwanted thoughts & compulsions  with illustrations by Sean Shinnock, New Harbinger Publications.  Jon Hershfield has provided a workbook that provides both an explanation of  the treatment of OCD and relevant exercises presented in a very adolescent friendly fashion. This is a valuable resort for clinician, parent and teen. 

Perfectionism in children and adolescence is a growing problem with serious implications. Drs Molnar and Flett are leading investigators on perfectionism and children. In this interview they provide an overview of perfectionism, discuss an intriguing study they did on the effect of the pandemic and provide a cautionary word about perfectionism and suicide.  Danielle Molnar, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University in Catharines, Ontario, Canada. Her blog/vlog on her most recent research findings can be found at https://brocku.ca/dphwb-lab-blog-the-young-and-the-perfectionistic Gordon Flett, PhD is a professor in the Department of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. His most recent book with Paul Hewitt is Perfectionism in Childhood and Adolescence: A Developmental Approach. 

I interviewed Stephanie Meyers, MS, RDN about her recent book End the Mealtime Meltdown: Using Table Talk Method to Free Your Family from Daily Struggles over Food and Picky Eating  newharbingerpublications.  She is a registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of Families Eating Well, a nutrition practice training parents to coach healthy eating habits in kids. She can also be found on Instagram under tabletalkcoach.  Mealtimes can be a tremendous source of stress for parents and children for many reasons. Fortunately, there are some very simple ways that you can change the way you talk about food with your child that can have a dramatic difference. In this interview, Ms. Meyers describes how changing your table talk can dramatically decrease mealtime time stress and anxiety. She provides very concrete suggestion about what to say that is reminsent  of the classic parenting book How to talk so children will listen and listen so children will talk.  Ms Meyers provides us with a great opportunity to change t

Angela Mansolillo is a speech-language pathologist and Board Certified Specialist in Swallowing and Swallowing Diorders who works at Cooley Dickenson Hosptial, Northampton MA. She is a clinical supervisor and adjunct faculty member at Elms College Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is the author of Let's Eat! A Clinical Guide to the Management of Complex Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders. I have encountered a number of children who have developed a fear of choking and consequently become very cautious eaters. Choking is of course a very frightening thing to happen and can be rather traumatic.  Interestingly, there a some children who have a reason to be worried about choking because of the mechanics of their eating. In this interview, Angela Mansolillo talks about how sometimes a fear of choking and cautious eating can be the result of a problem in motor component of eating. This leads to an additional approach in dealing with a fear of eating where the mechanics of eating are ad

David A Clark, PhD is a clinical psychologist and emeritus professor at the University of New Brunswick. He is a leading authority on the nature of intrusive thoughts, cognitive behavior therapy and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. He is the author of numerous books and articles, in this interview I talk with him about his latest book the anxious thoughts workbook for teens: cbt skills to quiet the unwanted negative thoughts that cause anxiety & worry newharbinger publications 2022. The adolescent has a new found ability to think about thinking which is a departure from the more concrete thinking of middle childhood. This ability opens new possibilities but also create challenges. Dr Clark provides a comprehensive guide for dealing with the more problematic aspect of dealing with unwanted thoughts,

Dawn Huebner, PhD is a clinical psychologist and parent coach specializing in childhood anxiety.  Today we are talking about two of her more recent books for school age children Facing Mighty Fears About Throwing Up and Facing Mighty Fears About Health. Her workbooks for children and parents, What to Do When Worry Too Much: A Kid's Guide to Overcoming Anxiety and What to Do When Your Brain Gets Stuck: A Kids Guide to Overcoming OCD  are basically the classic, go-to references for helping anxious children. In addition, she has a book for older children Outsmarting Worry (An Older Kid's Guide to Mangaging Anxiety) that was the focus on an earlier podcast in 2018 with me. At her website there is an online class Seven-Step Solution For When Worry Takes Over that covers in greater depth what was talked about in this podcast. 

Heather Turgeon, MFT and Julie Wright, MFT have written their third book together Generation Sleepless: Why Tween and Teens Aren't Sleeping Enough and How We Can Help Them  which is the topic of this interview.  As they point out in their book, it is going to be very hard to help an anxious child if they are sleep deprived. This book explores this alarming problem of sleep deprivation in tweens and adolescents and offers some very practical suggestions.  Their other books are The Happy Sleeper: The Science-Backed Guide to Helping Your Baby Get a Good Night's Sleep-Newborn to School Age and Now Say This: The Right Words to Solve Every Parenting Dilemma They also offer online courses at their website thehappysleeper.teachable.com for infants, toddlers and preschool children.  

The topic of today's podcast is fostering resilience in children. Caren Baruch-Feldman, PhD and Rebecca Comizio, MA, MEd have just published a very timely book The Resilience Workbook for Kids: 32 Skills to Build "I CAN DO IT Muscles" Caren Baruch-Feldman, PhD is a clinical psychologist and a certified school psychologist. She maintains a private practice in Scarsdale, NY and works as a school psychologist in Harrison, NY. She is also the auther of The Grit Guide for Teens.  Rebecca Comizio, MA, MEd was named Connecticut's 2019 School Psychologist of the Year. She is a practicing school psychologist , and licensed professional counselor at the New Canaan Country School, in New Canaan, CT. and the Waverly Group. She is also the cohost of the School Psyched Podcast and the coauthor of 70 Play Activities for Better Thinking, Self-Regulation, Learning, and Behavior. They also have an instructional webnair on teaching resilience to children which can be found below https://www.praxiscet.com/our-courses/#courses-ta

Mona Delahooke, PhD is a clinical psychologist with a specialization in infant mental health. She is the author of Brain-Body Parenting: How to Stop Managing Behavior and Start Rasing Joyful, Reslient Kids  and Beyond Behaviors: Using Brain Science and Compassion to Understand and Solve Children's Behavioral Challenges In this interview, she describes how using Steve Porges Polyvagal Theory helps us understand when our children's behavior is intentional and when it is a stress response and how making that distinction is a critical guide about what to do next. Her website monadelhooke.com contains several useful webnairs, a blog and other useful information

Dr Alan Sroufe has been described as "attachment chief spokesman in the United States"  He conducted a longitual/prospective study of 170 people from birth to middle age looking at the type of attachment they had in infancy and what happened to them in subsequent years. He found certain types of experiences in infancy increased the chances that one might develop an anxiety disorder in adolescents. He is the author of three books: The Development of the Person: The Minnesota Study of Risk and Adaptation From Birth to Adulthood, Emotional Development: The Organization of Emotional Life in the Early Years, and A Compelling Idea: How We Become the Persons We Are and 150 scientific papers.

Ben Sedley, PhD is a clinical psychologist in Wellington New Zealand and author of two books for teens Stuff that Sucks: a teen's guide to accepting what you can't change and committing to what you can and with Lisa Coyne, PhD Stuff's That's Loud: a teen's guide to unspiraling when OCD gets noisy He is talking with us today about the treatment of OCD and how ACT (Acceptance and Committment Therapy) is an important tool in helping teens with OCD.  

https://www.competitivedge.com/dr-alan-goldberg/ Dr Alan Goldberg is a sports performance coach and internationally recognized expert in peak sports performance. He is talking with us today about the how the principles used to enhance the performance of atheletes can be used in everyday performance situations with children.

Kelsey Torgerson Dunn, LSCW has just published when anxiety makes you angry in which she describes how angry outbursts in teens can sometimes be an expression of anxiety. Her book describes how to recognize when anxiety may underlie explosive episodes and what the teen, parent and therapist can do to help. As she points out, the fight part of the fight-flight-freeze response to danger is often overlooked and this book helps correct that