Certification Training: Growing Up Anxious: Treating Anxiety Disorders in a Generation Hyper-focused on Achievement, Technology & Safety

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Faculty

Steven O'Brien, PsyD Related seminars and products

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Steven O’Brien, PsyD, is a clinical psychologist with nearly 30 years of experience treating children, adolescents, families and young adults in his Clearwater, Florida practice. His specialty areas include child-adolescent anxiety/depression, ADHD, Autism Spectrum disorders, and divorced/blended family adjustment. Dr. O’Brien utilizes an integrative-systems model, which tailors treatment to the developmental needs of youth and families. Intensive parent consultation and youth-focused family interventions are critical components of his therapeutic approach.

Dr. O’Brien has worked in numerous healthcare environments, including community mental health, psychiatric, inpatient/residential, substance abuse, and medical facilities. He served as associate professor of child-adolescent studies at the Florida School of Professional Psychology. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. O’Brien is an app developer (Life@Home by Psychtouch.com) and a media consultant for both Tampa Bay and national news outlets. Visit obrienpsychology.com for more information.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Steven O'Brien maintains a private practice. He receives a speaking honorarium, recording and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Steven O’Brien is a member of the American Psychological Association and the Florida Psychological Association.

Additional Info

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Objectives

1. Summarise the psychosocial characteristics of the “internet generation” and their contribution to anxiety development in children and adolescents.
2. Describe the primary developmental, systemic, academic, and social-technological factors relevant to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders in children and families.
3. Identify the various social, emotional, and behavioural manifestations of anxiety in children in multiple contexts, including home and school.
4. Utilise semi-structured observational and interview methods for collecting relevant history and clinical information with anxious and minimally verbal children and their parents/caretakers.
5. Determine effective rapport-building strategies with anxious, resistant, and defensive children and parents/caretakers.
6. Adopt a ‘parent consultation’ model as a supplement to individual child and family therapy and as part of an integrated treatment approach.
7. Conduct ‘Child-Focused Family Therapy’ using therapeutic agendas and directive communication techniques.
8. Teach children a developmentally appropriate psychoeducation framework for understanding the relationship between anxiety, the brain, and the body.
9. Implement self-regulation strategies to reduce child/adolescent anxiety and promote adaptive coping.
10. Identify clinical, co-occurring diagnostic patterns with respect to anxiety and related disorders in children and how to determine initial treatment targets.
11. Distinguish between over-arching versus disorder-specific interventions for child/adolescent anxiety. As well as the 3 levels of anxiety treatment.
12. Implement and integrate developmentally-appropriate CBT, desensitisation, and exposure therapy techniques to enhance treatment with anxious children.

Outline

• Emotional costs of a hyper-academic mindset and over-evaluation
• Performance philosophy pitfalls: perfectionism and procrastination
• Consequences of strong individualism: anti-collaborative attitudes

• Tech-savvy, socially naive
• Fearless online, fearful offline
• Gratification-dependent, grit-deficient

• Overprotected but underdeveloped … socially and emotionally
• How dysregulated adults promote anxiety-ridden kids
• Failure to launch: Why “adulating” is difficult and frightening

• Behaviour therapy/modification
• Cognitive-behaviour therapy
• Family-focused/systemic therapy
• Interpersonal therapy
• Play/art/creative therapies
• Mindfulness-based therapies

• Semi-structured parent interviews: Combining engagement with efficiency
• Developmentally-sensitive child interviews: Integrating observation, play and dialogue
• Parent consultation: Constructing a framework for parental involvement

• Teaching parents about their child’s overactive brain
• Giving a child-friendly “tour of the brain”
• Highlighting the mind-body connection

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL TREATMENT: THE SECOND INTERVENTION 

• ”LOWERING THE TEMPERATURE, SLOWING THE PACE”
• Reducing Emotional Intensity and Conflict for a Calmer Environment
• Healthy habits and daily transition rituals
• Self-expression and support-seeking skills
• 3 R’s of anxiety management: Recognise, Relax, Redirect

TARGETED TREATMENT FOR MAJOR (DSM-5™)  ANXIETY DISORDERS: THE THIRD INTERVENTION

• Generalised Anxiety Disorder
  • Identifying manifestations of chronic worry
  • Cognitive strategies for discrediting the “what-if? person”
  • Self-talk for empowering the “helpful coach”
  • Cognitive-behavioural redirection for worries
  • Paradoxical relaxation for overachievers
  • Separation Anxiety Disorder
  • Assessing psychological and somatic components
  • Pre-treatment preparation: It’s all about the plan
  • Developing a treatment-support team
  • Action plans for high-distress episodes
  • Strategies for distressed/enmeshed parents
• Social Anxiety Disorder
  • Evaluating cognitive versus physiological features
  • Cognitive-behavioural methods for getting teens out of their heads and into the world
  • Role-playing and free association games for promoting real-time interaction
  • Desensitisation strategies for combating social avoidance
• Phobias and Panic Disorder
  • Cognitive and physical/physiological symptoms
  • Essential ingredients for desensitisation
  • ”Challenge ladders” for gradual exposure
  • Planning-for-panic strategies
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
  • Variations in obsessive-compulsive symptomatology
  • ”Brain challenges” for rigid perfectionists
  • Mindfulness strategies: “Balloon breathing and wet noodles” for high-threat perceivers
• Controlled withdrawal and replacement for tech-addicts

CO-OCCURRING DISORDERS: TREATMENT IMPLICATIONS, RISKS, AND LIMITATIONS

• Depressive Disorders
• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
• Autism Spectrum Disorders

ANXIETY-RIDDEN AT SCHOOL: CONSIDERATIONS AND CLASSROOM APPLICATIONS

• Relationship-building with distressed/disruptive kids
• Dealing with the 3 (dreaded) 3 D’s: Defiance, Disrespect, Disruption
• Creating a calm, responsive classroom
• Reducing task avoidance and test anxiety
• Managing compulsive technology usage
• Identifying, intervening, and preventing bullying
• Tips for (post) pandemic adjustment

MEASURING TREATMENT PROGRESS

• Evaluating symptomatology and functional level
• School consultation and recommendations
• Medication: Guidelines for discussion and referral

Target Audience

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