The Resilience Recipe
Dr. Khanna's Blog
In the last 10 years, we have seen the rates of anxiety and depression increase in youth at an alarming rate. Decades of research have given us a lot of information on what works and what doesn’t, and it shouldn’t be kept a mystery; you deserve to know everything that the experts know. I know there are a lot of websites out there on “how to worry less” or “top tips for anxiety relief.” Some have just outright incorrect information. And while some may have useful science-based content, I’ve found it frustrating that they are often so general. So “byte-sized." I imagine these bulleted “tips” don’t feel very fulfilling to someone who is struggling and looking for help.
There are simple changes in how your child approaches new, uncomfortable, or challenging situations that can absolutely lessen how stressed or down they feel. If you can share this understanding with your child, you will be giving them an invaluable gift—the gift of awareness and agency over their emotions. In fact, the earlier you share this with them, the easier it will be for them to develop habits that feed confidence, allowing them to live empowered. Stress, worry, and anxiety don't have to be part of their daily life. I’ll share everything I know so you and your child can become experts. My goal is to equip and empower. It is my hope that we will see strong foundations built in homes across the country, helping more children lead lives full of passion, confidence, and well-being. The Time Is Now The current lifetime prevalence rate of anxiety in children and adolescents in the U.S. is a whopping 32 percent. Based on a recent epidemiological study, more than 1 in 20 children in the U.S. have an anxiety disorder or depression. Eight out of 10 report excessive “stress” on a daily basis. From 2003 to 2011-2012, the rate of anxiety in children ages 6-17 increased from 5.4 percent to 8.4 percent. After many years of research and academic writing, I have made it my mission to communicate to parents—and all adults working to support children and teens—everything I have learned. I want to take the mystery out of stress and anxiety management, so you can offer your children the greatest gift—the gift of resilience. The time is now. My recommendations are based on decades of clinical research with children and families across the country and around the world. It’s true; there’s much we still don’t know, but we do know a lot about what helps and what does not. We also know that parents are in a great position to learn strategies and create a lifestyle that helps their children develop skills to navigate stress and new challenges. The Ingredients Resilience is being equipped to approach life with confidence and the ability to respond adaptively in times of adversity. Developing an awareness of and compassion for our emotional and physiological experience, cultivating a mindset of growth and flexibility, and practicing prosocial behaviors and positive ways to problem-solve and approach challenges are the ingredients of resilience. article continues after advertisement Developing Awareness and Compassion. The first and most important ingredient is to help your child understand the connection between their mind, body, feelings, and behaviors. You can help them become aware of their own patterns—the way their body responds to different emotions, which thoughts pop up in different situations, and which behaviors have become habits—and to observe them without judgment. Awareness will give them distance from the situation, enough to be able to think about how they would like to respond. Compassion about one's emotional and physiological experience takes away the fear and guilt surrounding them, creating enough of an opening to try something different. Cultivating a Mindset of Growth and Flexibility. The next ingredient is to help them see how their thoughts and behaviors are influencing how they feel and what they are experiencing in their world. Having a mindset that there is no failure, or rejection, just opportunities to grow and learn, will equip them to be able to bounce back when they face a tough test, a betrayal from a friend, or any negative event. Over time they’ll become more automatic in viewing challenges as a problem to be solved and flexible enough to adapt and turn challenges into opportunities to learn and grow. They’ll know that they can choose their focus--what do I have, what can I do?—instead of what they may have lost. Adopting a Lifestyle of Approach. This is perhaps the most crucial, yet most often skipped, ingredient. Doing the thing that has been avoided, or purposefully planning to approach challenges, is a key step in rewiring our brains, creating new connections, and weakening old ones. Without practicing the “new” or “chosen” behavior, your child’s brain won’t really “learn” anything new. For example, they can change how they’ve been thinking about a situation (“It’s OK if I make a mistake, everyone makes mistakes”), but if they don’t change the behavior that has been maintaining the worry (still not raising their hand in class), they’ll still experience the same “fight-or-flight” response and can fall back into the cycle of worry about failure and humiliation every time they are faced with a similar situation. The Ultimate Gift: Security. Our job as parents is simple but not easy. We are to support, guide, appreciate and encourage in ways that will help them thrive. This is the greatest gift one can give, and a parent can offer it better than anyone else: the gift of security. Not in terms of safety from harm—sadly, we aren’t able to prevent or protect them from all harm—but security in knowing that you are there to support them. The gift of knowing you will always be there to help, comfort, trust, appreciate, and understand them unconditionally, exactly as they are. The Recipe In this blog, I will explain the key principles for creating long-term resilience and then provide guidance on applying the principles—walking you step-by-step through the FEAR plan. The FEAR plan is an acronym taught within the Coping Cat treatment program developed by Phil Kendall and colleagues that has been rigorously studied in children and adolescents and has been shown to be effective in helping manage mood and anxiety. Children walk themselves through the F-E-A-R steps, which are based on the key components of CBT, to reduce worry and anxiety and create a plan for approaching rather than avoiding uncertainty. For now, simply know that the FEAR acronym refers to steps kids can take to face fear, adversity, and self-doubt.
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Why Building Awareness is the crucial first step to building Resilience Ancient philosophies have long identified the need to develop awareness as the critical path towards living enlightened, or, living with a sense of peace. Philosophers have argued for thousands of years that humans are capable of more than going through the motions of life reacting to outside forces, and that finding inner peace involved knowing this. Buddhist philosophy, Yogic philosophy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (Linehan, 2014), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and so many other world philosophies and theories of human personality have all included methods to hone and practice awareness. Many of us find ourselves in reaction mode – simply going from situation to gut reaction. This creates the sense that we have no control over our inner experience – the world is acting on us, it makes us feel how we feel, and we are just trying to react in whatever way we can to survive. But our mind and our bodies are always working to maintain our health and well-being -- judging, responding and adapting. Awareness of these processes gives us tremendous agency over our experience. CBT breaks our internal processes down into categories - cognitive (thoughts), behavioral (learning/actions), and biological/physiological - to help us organize our understanding of all the forces in play at any given moment. We are who we are, and feel what we feel, and do what we do in each situation, because of the interplay of these three things: our thoughts, what we have learned through ongoing and past experiences, and our biology. Over time, we develop enduring patterns of interpretation of events (these become our stories) and enduring patterns of reacting physiologically and emotionally (feelings) that produce patterns of behavior (actions) that are either adaptive (working well for us) or maladaptive (not working well for us). You can see why CBT would consider awareness a necessary skill for building resilience. Being an expert of our beliefs, thoughts, stories, our biological makeup and vulnerabilities, our habits and patterns of behavior and responses, and awareness of where they come from and what drives them, gives us distance from the immediate situation. Awareness of how we usually react and the ability to “listen” to our internal experience instead of just experience it as it unfolds, gives us the time and space needed to not “react” but choose our response. Instead of just reacting from our “gut,” we can choose how we want to think and how we would like to respond. We can choose to keep things in perspective, adapt, try again, bounce back - be resilient. Where to begin: Thinking about thinking When we assume that the world is acting on us and we are just living in response, we lose the opportunity to create our experience. We find ourselves in struggle – just trying to stay above water – going moment by moment experiencing emotions and feeling helpless in what happens next. But it is our interpretations or thoughts that are creating our emotional experience, or why we feel what we feel. The world is happening around us, we are interpreting it, and that interpretation is bringing about the emotional experience. We can have unimaginable wealth, but if focused on a loss, can feel hopeless and deprived. We can be surrounded by friends and family, but if focused on a rejection, can feel alone and unloved. If we listen to, instead of react to our thoughts, we get the time and space needed to decide our focus, or choose our interpretation. This is being aware of our thoughts. If we have awareness, we can disagree with our initial instinct or what we call in CBT our “automatic thought.” And because we know how powerful our thoughts are in influencing our emotions and behaviors, this would mean that we also have the power to choose our emotional response as well as our behavioral response. This is our superpower - we can choose our response. This is an incredibly powerful and key element for human well-being. It means we can create the experiences we want, rather than waiting for circumstances to create our experience. Creating the life we choose, rather than taking an approach of succumbing to life as it presents itself. Kids are vulnerable to giving in to the idea that we are just responding to the world rather than in control of our response more quickly than adults because of their level of cognitive development and their more limited life experience. They are in the developmental stage of moving from concrete thinking to more abstract thinking but are still very black and white – seeing things as good or bad, right or wrong, in their control or out of their control – when interpreting events and choosing their response. They also do not have as much ability to think long-term – not usually thinking about what their response would mean for their future or how it’s impacting their own growth and character development. But they still have the same superpower. They do have the ability to choose their response. We want to give them the gift of awareness of this power – show them how in control they are of their moment. We want to help them understand the connection between their mind, body, feelings and behaviors. Help them become aware of their own patterns – the way their body responds to different emotions, which thoughts pop up in different situations, and which behaviors have become habits – and to observe them without judgement. We want to help them understand that while we don’t have the power to control others, or the world around us, we do have the power to control the direction and focus of our thoughts and, from there, our subsequent actions. Which means that we have the power to create our experience. Conversation Starter: Just because you thought it, doesn’t mean you think it Here’s an example or “conversation starter” of how you can introduce the concept of thinking about thinking to your child. Notice in the example that you’re using a situation that is neutral – not something your child is immediately struggling with – but a situation they can relate to and have some experience with. This takes the blame/judgement out of the idea of useful and not useful thoughts and makes it easier to agree to the idea of listening to self-talk or our inner voice. It’s easy to think that our feelings come from whatever situation we are in. Like you might assume, if you’re at a birthday party with friends (fill in any type of event that your child enjoys), that because you’re in that situation you will feel happy. But it’s really how you’re thinking about the situation (your self-talk) that makes you feel the way you feel – no matter what the situation. Take the birthday party as an example – can you imagine that not everyone at the party is feeling happy? Even though they are all at a party, everyone is feeling something different. It might be that someone is feeling nervous because they don't know any of the other kids and not sure how to make friends. Someone else might be bored because they don't like the kinds of activities at the party. Someone else might be sad because they didn't get picked to be on the team they wanted when the kids were playing games. These kids all feel differently – not because they are in a different situation – it’s because they are all thinking about different things. They feel differently based on what they are focused on. It’s not just the situation that makes us feel a certain way, it’s what we are thinking about the situation that makes us feel that way.” “ In the moment it seems like whatever thought pops up is just true. Like that’s just the situation we’re in and that’s all there is to it. But there are a million things that are also true in every situation and maybe even more true. Remember, just because you thought it, doesn't mean you think it!” We can share with them that we don't have to just react to situations, we can challenge our initial “automatic” response and choose our response. We don't have to just react to situations, we can choose our perspective. We can choose our focus – choose to focus on what we do have, and what we can do, rather than what we are lacking. We can choose to not give up. We can choose to be resilient. In my next post, I’ll talk more about thinking about our thinking. In the meantime, you can start listing or writing down your child’s most common worry thoughts or sad thoughts. This will be good information for when you want to start helping them identify patterns of thinking. We know that even our thinking becomes habit over time. Learn more about how to teach awareness and compassion and become a resilience expert yourself by reading Khanna & Kendall (2021). The Resilience Recipe: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids in the Age of Anxiety. New Harbinger.
This post contains excerpts from Khanna & Kendall (2021). The Resilience Recipe: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Kids in the Age of Anxiety. New Harbinger It’s that time of year that we are starting to try to figure out what to do about summer camp for our kids. Summer camps are a great way to structure the day during the long summer months. They offer opportunities for our kids to make new friends, have new experiences, learn new skills. But for us parents it can be very daunting to choose the right summer camp programs for our children. There is so much to consider: program options, dates, costs, transportation, your child’s interests, friendships, and of course the importance of some downtime and family time. Where do we start?
1. Make a list of some of your goals and some of your child’s goals. Before starting your search, ask your child what their hopes are for the summer. What would they like to try, practice or experience? Who would they like to spend time with? Then tap into your own intuition about what you know would be valuable for your child to learn, try, or experience. Make sure not to let your hopes for their summer cloud your ability to hear what they are hoping for. Considering both will get you on the right path to finding a good balance. 2. Consider your child’s personality. For a child who does well with structure, they would do well in a camp that has a detailed schedule for the day, while a child who needs some flexibility (particularly younger children) may do better with a more open/free-form camp day. For children who enjoy learning and are able to stay focused on a topic for extended periods of time, signing up for a specialty camp such as a theater camp or video-game design camp, might be ideal, whereas for kids who tend to need breaks in focused activity may do better with a general day camp that includes specialty activities within a varied day. Too many back-to-back weeks of a single focus specialty program may cause burn-out in some kids so you might offer a break or a different program after 2 or 3 weeks to give a chance to have some variety if you think your child might be likely to start losing interest. If your child tends to get nervous about starting camp and having to make new friends, it may be helpful to start with a camp where they can expect to find a familiar friend or one that has a smaller counselor:camper ratio, or a program where the main activity is something they enjoy and feel confident about. If they are terrified at the idea of starting somewhere new, try a half day at first and then add an hour – lunch, swim, and keep going until they get comfortable with a full day. Multiple weeks at the same camp will help too, giving them an opportunity to get comfortable. 3. Plan for some variety.There are many types of camp: traditional day camp, sports camp, art camps, adventure camps, and academic camps. Doing a full summer of tennis camp may seem like a great opportunity to get better at tennis, but research suggests that participating in multiple activities actually improves performance. Plan to take a week here or there to try a new sport or just a general day camp or a totally different type of activity like cooking camp or exploration camp. This is a perfect time to try something new, something that would not be offered during the school year, or that your child may not have time for during the busy months. Just because it’s summer, you don’t have to shy away from a week or more of a more academic camp. They can be a great way to give kids a chance to develop or improve an academic skill and can really make life better their upcoming school year. 4. Be clear on the camp’s mission and program style to make sure it’s a good fit.Talk with the camp directors and ask questions about the program and the counselors. How intense/relaxed is the competitive aspects? What do they do for kids who may be having a hard day? How do they handle special needs? What about diversity in campers and counselors? What is the average age of the staff and what are their training requirements? Ask around about the program in your community or ask the camp for references. It’s best to hear from other parents and kids to find out what the camp is really like – but keep in mind that every child is different and you know your child best. 5. Choose without fear.There is no bad choice. Everything is a learning opportunity for you and your child. If it turns out they don’t like the program, you both learned that they don’t enjoy that type of activity. If you’re worried you chose something, but another program was better, be assured that life will allow the same type of opportunity again if you seek it. If they had a difficult transition, or a struggle with a new activity, they learned that they can make it through a difficult situation, and this will help build self-efficacy and resilience. If they weren’t very “good at” an activity or didn’t achieve as well as they had hoped, it’s an opportunity to teach them about keeping a “growth mindset” - remind them that they may not have gotten it yet, but the more they practice it, the better they’ll get. The best part of camp is that it’s temporary and that it’s all very voluntary. The most important thing (which is true during the school year as well) is that your child knows he or she is valued and loved. As long as you are spending some time each day listening, laughing and learning with your child, you’re covered. Your reaction to your child’s anxiety is one important response to be aware of, but also equally as important, is your reaction to the situation. Are you worried he or she might not make the team? Worried they might not get a good grade? Worried he or she may not have enough friends? Worried he or she might not get into a good college? Worried he or she might not get enough sleep? If you are feeling anxious about the situation, this will impact how respond to your child’s anxiety.
And of course there will be times when you would feel anxious – of course! What parent wouldn't want to see their child make the team, be able to give a book report, or come home with a good report card? What parent wouldn't hope to see their child get into a good college or career? Our responses during these important milestones often reveal our greatest personal strengths and weaknesses. That said, it is almost always true, that when we respond from fear, it’s not the response that would be the most helpful. It is time consider control, anger management, pride, and of course, your own anxiety. You might find yourself being quick, short-tempered, impatient, or the opposite - too empathetic, too quick to jump in to solve problems or relieve stress. While each specific situation and child has it’s special circumstances and nuances, it is always important to remember, in the end, what is important is never the win or loss, the grade, the friend, the name of the college or job title, but about how they respond to the moment. Whether they are able to learn, grow, and continue to pursue. What are your own beliefs, past experiences, or values about this situation that might be shaping your response? What are your fears about this situation? How will you handle an outcome that you are afraid of (e.g., your child getting a bad grade, getting in trouble at school, not winning a game, getting a bad SAT score, missing an important event)? Have you put a deadline on success/failure for this situation? If yes, must you agree with this deadline (given that the journey will continue regardless of this outcome)? Has your belief and/or fear impacted your response to your child in this situation? What can you say is really what you want your child to learn from this experience and what do you think he/she will need to do to learn it? (define real “success”) Are your expectations for the outcome realistic? age appropriate? appropriate (not masterful, just appropriate) for their level of training/practice? What are the things your child needs to work on to get to that learning? What could you do to support their learning from this situation so that they may have future successes? Would you choose to react differently or add anything to what you are currently doing? I get lots of urgent calls from parents right at the beginning of the school year, after long holidays, and even at the start of new sports seasons. They are asking for help because their child is having a “really hard time” going back to school or going to the first practice of the season. Starting something new is filled with uncertainty and this can bring on a lot of anxiety – which then can lead to a lot of avoidance.
1. Remind him/her that it’s uncomfortable, not dangerous: It's understandable you’re feeling this way at the start of something new. Our bodies don't like new things – anytime we are unsure of how things will go, whether we’ll be OK…and it’s important for us to remember it that a new year (or new team etc.) is uncomfortable, but not dangerous. After a few times, it won't feel so uncomfortable anymore.” If your child is stating a specific worry, you can remind them to challenge the worry - OK what is one helpful or useful thought that you could think that would prove that there are other ways to look at this situation or facts that you have that challenge what the worry is saying? (you can add – “You’ve been to many first days and it always gets easier by the end - you've seen how it's uncomfortable at first, but gets easier each day). Then ask “what do you want to do on your first day that will make you feel good?" (message is to focus on what you can control, which is your own actions: you can add for example, that maybe you can focus on saying hi to all the friends you haven't seen over the summer – or plan to focus on being helpful to your teacher, or help a new student or younger student feel comfortable on their first day in a new place). 2. Don't engage in a “debate” – keep your message short and simple: when you see an escalation or tears or upset, it’s easy to get sucked into a conversation to try to help them feel better. Instead of engaging in a debate about whether they should/should not go to school, or whether or not they will be successful, or trying to convince them that it will be OK, say ONE time “I know you’ll use your talents and kindness to make it the best day it can be, after that each day will get easier,” and then disengage. If they are getting late/thinking they don't want to go or refusing to go to school: just sit quietly and state calmly, “It's important for you to go, so I’ll wait here until you’re ready to go. We will be going each day regardless, because it's important, it’s your responsibility, and I know you can do it.” Don't say too much else – being a “broken record” saying this once every 10 minutes is better – debate/convincing always keeps the escalation going. Nothing else should happen until you “go” either – so no TV/read/play while you are waiting. 3. Try not to over-empathize with his/her discomfort: It is hard to see your child feel terrible. Be careful not to over-empathize – or feel what they are feeling too much - it will suck you into trying to make him more comfortable which will lead to the discussion of not going at all or to planning or trying to prevent discomfort (such as planning something "relaxing" with mom after school, or dad planning to stay in the parking lot for the first period) – this can actually lead to more anxiety because then they are “learning” that they are not OK. The goal is to know they can tolerate being uncomfortable the days leading up to and the first couple of days of a new school year. 4. "Blur" the line between home and school: Give structure/tasks/homework at home so there isn’t a stark contrast between demand at school and no demand at home. That’s one of the problems with long holidays and weekends – there is a sense that it is "free" of demand, they are unstructured days, lots of warm comfortable feelings, which understandably makes it really hard to want to go back to a not warm and relaxing place like school. So I encourage you to keep the days at home a bit structured – waking up and going to sleep around the same time, keeping some school type of work (reading, math worksheets) as a responsibility most days, being expected to finish chores like cleaning room/making their bed/taking dog for walk, before other “fun” things can happen. And bring home to school - planning to meet up with school friends for sleepovers at home, playing baseball with dad in the school field, taking the dog for a walk around the school, also helps. I always say to try to “blur the line” between home and school (or any other place they need to go) – this helps them to not feel uncomfortable at the thought of doing school type things when the time comes to go to school. In the summer holidays it’s good to start this plan at least 1-2 weeks before school starts. 5. No such thing as “can’t,” just, “haven’t yet.” Know for sure they will get there: Your belief about whether your child can/can not handle a difficult situation absolutely gets communicated in your interactions with them. When your child “reads” your belief, they will act from it (like when a child looks at your reaction and then starts crying when they see that you’re worried after a fall). Which is why it is so important for you to know and truly believe that the situation is something your child can handle. Knowing that it can be hard at first, but if you are consistent with your message and actions each day, they will get there. They will see that you believe that it’s important, and that they can do it. Then stay calm and steady in your plan to leave the house when it’s time, every time. Careful not to ask “do you think you’ll be able to go tomorrow?” this communicates that you’re not sure they can handle it. Just like if your child said he/she wasn’t sure they would ever be able to do multiplication. You wouldn't be worried inside or communicate that you were worried that maybe they wouldn't. You’d want to communicate your strong belief that it can be hard at first but that he/she’ll practice a little every day and eventually will get it. Similarly, you wouldn't give up and say OK you don't ever have to learn multiplication – you’d just find smaller steps, different ways to teach, and keep practicing. That’s the same with anxiety – you can find smaller steps (see our Child Anxiety Tales program for more about how you can do this), different ways to practice, but you must keep practicing – no such thing as “can’t,” just, “haven’t yet.” Know for sure they will get there. Note: I understand that all children are different and use examples that are general and may not fit your child. I do not mean to minimize the struggle in learning math/multiplication for those kids who may have learning differences or learning disabilities. Please excuse the general nature of the examples. CBT stands for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. It is a type of talk therapy. In this type of therapy, a therapist helps the patient see how they may be thinking (cognitive) about things in a way that is not helpful and help them see things that they are doing (behavioral) that may be holding them back. The goal of the treatment is to (1) help the person understand their own patterns, (2) think more accurately about their situations, and then (3) plan actions that will help them reach their goals. In the course of the therapy, the therapist should help them practice their new “skills” in real-world situations.
For anxiety, CBT must include one important component – and that is what is called “exposure.” Exposure just means practice doing things that have been avoided, in small steps, in real-world situations, with the help and guidance of the therapist. If you are working with a CBT therapist for help with anxiety, this should be a major part of the treatment. How long does CBT for anxiety take? CBT for anxiety is short-term, which means it typically involves 8-14 sessions (2-4 months of weekly or every other week visits) and it is very goal-oriented - the goal being to reduce symptoms and improve functioning in the target areas. If there are multiple problems (like depression and anxiety) or the symptoms of anxiety are very severe and it has been going on for many years, it may take longer than 14 sessions, but you should be able to start seeing positive changes within the first couple of months. In other words, you would not be sitting on the couch talking with your therapist about your week and problem solving day-to-day issues for the next few years. We call that “supportive counseling” which can be a very helpful and important form of support, but this would not be considered active CBT. Here’s an example of CBT for Social Anxiety: 1. Cognitive work - they will uncover with their therapist the thoughts that frequently pop-up that intrude and cause anxiety, such as “I won’t know what to say,” “I’ll mess up and everyone will make fun of me.” Then together they will think of more helpful and accurate thoughts like “I’ll be nice to them and then if they are not interested, no big deal, I’ll find other things I enjoy doing and maybe someone else will want to play what I’m playing.” Or “Everyone messes up, and people aren’t really paying attention to what other people are saying,” “mean kids might laugh but they’re being mean to everyone and they’re doing it for attention – it’s not really about me.” 2. Behavioral Practice - They will uncover the things they may have been doing to avoid these types of feelings and situations, such as, sitting in the library during recess, or staying home from school on the day of the presentation. The therapist will explain that avoiding these situations actually makes the anxiety stronger, even though it feels better in the moment. They will plan practices (or exposures) that involve doing the things they have been avoiding in small steps. In the case of speaking in front of class, the child may practice reading out loud in front of the therapist, then reading a presentation off of note cards in front of the therapist, then doing the same presentation in front of a family member and the therapist, then at home in front of a few family members for “CBT homework,” then doing the same presentation while the therapist records on a camera, and if needed, they can do the presentation in front of the teacher during study hall for a practice. By the end of all of this practice NOT avoiding the presentation, the child will feel less anxious and more ready to do the presentation in front of class. Important parts for Parents In CBT for anxiety in kids, parents are very much part of the team. Parents are shown how to encourage practice and not give-in to avoidance or reassurance at home. In this example, if parents were asking the teacher for accommodation to write the report instead of read it in front of class, or let the child miss school on presentation day, the therapist would help them encourage practice of small steps (like have them practice in front of them a few times, then ask the teacher if they can practice 1:1 first before doing it in front of the class) instead of avoidance. Welcome to my Outsmarting Anxiety blog. I'm Dr. Muniya Khanna. I'm a clinical psychologist with an expertise in CBT for anxiety disorders, OCD, and related disorders. After many years of research and academic writing, I've decided to focus my energy on getting evidence-based treatments and tools for anxiety and OCD to the public.
Decades of research has given us a lot of information on what works and what doesn't - it shouldn't be kept a mystery - you deserve to know everything that I know. I'll provide answers to the most common questions that kids, parents, and adults have when they are looking for answers on how to reduce anxiety and stress in their lives. Send questions back to me and I'll create new posts and do my best to give you the answers you are looking for - and if I don't know it myself, I'll seek out the experts who do know and relay what I find to you. I'll also link you to those experts so you can get straight to the source yourself. Stress, worry and anxiety don't have to be part of your daily life. I'll share everything I know so you can become your own expert. My goal is to equip and empower. Now you have an anxiety expert in your pocket and together we will be Outsmarting Anxiety. |
AuthorDr. Khanna is a clinical psychologist with an expertise in CBT for anxiety and OCD. Read her blog for tips and tools to help children and adults struggling with stress, anxiety, OCD, and other related difficulties. Archives
October 2021
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