2-Day Certification Training: Treating Anxiety Disorders in Children & Adolescents

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Paul Foxman, PhD Related seminars and products

Vermont Center for Anxiety Care

---

Paul Foxman, PhD, has led hundreds of workshops throughout the US and Canada, and he has appeared on television and radio as an expert on the topic anxiety. His books include The Clinician’s Guide to Anxiety Disorders in Kids & Teens (PESI, 2016), Dancing with Fear (Hunter House, 2007) and award-winning The Worried Child (Hunter House, 2004). He also co-authored a casebook, Conquering Panic and Anxiety Disorders (with Glatzer) (Hunter House, 2002). Dr. Foxman’s most recent book, Traumas and Triumphs, was published in 2022. Dr. Foxman is known for his knowledge and clarity, sense of humor, compassion, and engaging speaking style.

Dr. Foxman is a clinical psychologist, as well as founder and director of the Vermont Center for Anxiety Care. In 1985, he co-founded the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Shelburne, VT, now flourishing from kindergarten through high school. Dr. Foxman has over 40 years of clinical experience in a variety of settings including hospitals, community mental health centers, schools, and private practice.

Dr. Foxman’s education includes Yale University (BA in Psychology), Peabody College of Vanderbilt University (PhD in Clinical Psychology), and training at the Department of Psychiatry of Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco, the Kennedy Child Study Center in Nashville, and the San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Paul Foxman is the founder and director of the Vermont Center for Anxiety Care. He is a published author and receives royalties. Dr. Foxman receives a speaking honorarium, book royalties, and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Paul Foxman is a member of the Vermont Psychological Association and the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology.

Objectives

1. Incorporate motivational therapeutic activities into your practice to improve client engagement in treatment.
2. Implement structured clinical interviewing strategies to aid in developing comprehensive treatment plans.
3. Summarize the “3 ingredient framework” of how anxiety develops in children to assist with assessment and treatment planning.
4. Analyze the efficacy of prescription drugs for treatment of anxiety symptoms in children.
5. Implement a three-step skill building model for stress management among young clients.
6. Evaluate exposure therapy interventions for effective treatment of OCD, separation anxiety, social anxiety and phobias.
7. Design effective strategies to decrease the stress response in kids with learning disabilities to improve information processing, listening skills, and comprehension.
8. Implement calming techniques to reduce overall anxiety, such as mindfulness and yoga, to reduce fight or flight response and simultaneously engage the relaxation response.
9. Evaluate the impact deep breathing exercises have on anxiety to enable task completion in children with ADHD.
10. Utilize specific anxiety techniques to minimize the ruminative nature of obsessive thoughts that often precede dysfunctional compulsive behaviours.
11. Teach clients to engage the parasympathetic nervous system to create new neuropathways to reduce hyper arousal and decrease maladaptive behaviours.
12. Implement clinical strategies to decrease symptoms of pervasive separation anxiety in children and adolescents.

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 behaviour change and symptom reduction
• Behavioural 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

Target Audience

• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Counselors
• Teachers
• School Administrators
• Nurses
• Occupational Therapists
• Occupational Therapy Assistants
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Physicians
• Other Helping Professionals who Work with Children