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

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Steven O'Brien, PsyD Related seminars and products

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Dr. Steve O’Brien, is a clinical psychologist with over 25 years of experience treating children with a variety of anxiety disorders, including separation anxiety, generalized anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. He specializes in treating children with co-occurring disorders, especially those who struggle with both anxiety and ADHD or Autism. Dr. O’ Brien’s expertise also includes treatments for childhood depression, oppositional behavior, and divorced/blended family adjustment.

Dr. O’Brien utilizes an eclectic approach which tailors treatment to the developmental level of both children and parents. His approach integrates individual child therapy with intensive parental and familial interventions. Dr. O’Brien has worked in a variety of clinical settings including community mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals and medical clinics. He earned his PsyD at Nova Southeastern University and received specialized training applied developmental psychology. Dr. O’Brien incorporates pediatric and child psychiatric consultation into his therapeutic work. He served as associate professor at the Florida School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University from 2000 to 2016. While at the University, Dr. O’Brien developed a unique doctoral level course, ‘Parent Consultation’, designed for graduate students specializing in child/family therapy. In 2015, he developed Life@Home by Psychtouch.com, an innovative clinical tool/app for obtaining a child’s perception of family life. Dr. O’Brien also serves as a media consultant for Bay News 9, Tampa Bay’s 24-hour news source.

 

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.

Objectives

1. Summarize 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. Utilize 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, desensitization, and exposure therapy techniques to enhance treatment with anxious children.

Outline

GROWING UP ANXIOUS - 3 KEY INGREDIENTS
EARLY EMPHASIS ON HIGH ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

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

TECHNOLOGY IMMERSION: PLUGGED IN BUT TUNED OUT

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

PREOCCUPATION WITH SAFETY AND POTENTIAL THREAT

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

INTEGRATING EVIDENCED-BASED TREATMENT APPROACHES

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

GUIDELINES FOR RAPPORT-BUILDING AND CLINICAL INTERVIEWING

• 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

PSYCHOEDUCATION FOR PARENTS AND KIDS: THE FIRST INTERVENTION

• Teaching parents about their child’s overactive brain
• Giving a child-friendly “tour of the brain”
• Highlighting the mind-body connection
• 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
  • Desensitization strategies for combating social avoidance

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: Recognize, Relax, Redirect

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

• Generalized 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
• Phobias and Panic Disorder
  • Cognitive and physical/physiological symptoms
  • Essential ingredients for desensitization
  • “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 (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
• Counselors
• Teachers
• School Administrators
• Occupational Therapists
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Nurses
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Other Helping Professionals who Work with Children

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