Anxious to Brave: Strengthening Children and Teens Against Anxiety. An online course for parents.
Children with anxiety have everything they need inside them to light up the world, but too often anxiety will tell them a different story. We know they are capable, brave, strong, and that anxiety doesn’t change that a bit. The challenge is to help them realise it too.
Research has shown that with the right support, information, and strategies, parents and carers have a profound capacity to move children and teens towards brave behaviour and strengthen them towards long-term courage, calm, and resilience. The move through anxiety isn’t an easy one, for children or the adults who love them, but it is absolutely possible. As part of this in-depth program, we will explore how.
The program will provide parents with research-backed information and strategies to strengthen children and teens against anxiety in the moment and for the long term. We will discuss the what and why of anxiety and how to open up a world for your child or teen where anxiety stops getting in their way, and brave behaviour becomes possible.
‘Anxious to Brave’ will also provide parents and carers with ways to support children and teens through big feelings (including anxiety, anger, meltdowns) and the range of behaviour that can be fuelled by those big feelings (including at school, bedtime, when faced with a challenge, or more generally). We will also discuss ways to empower children and teens with an understanding of their brain and body that helps make sense of feelings and behaviour, and opens up new ways to respond.
The ‘Anxious to Brave’ program consists of six online modules plus ‘mini videos’, totalling over 7 hours of content. Participants will receive workbooks which are included as part of the course. Access to the course will be available for 12 months from purchase. As part of the course, we will explore:
- Module 1:
- Turning anxiety into an ally. How, and why it’s so important.
- Using neuroscience to take the anxiety out of the anxiety.
- The single worst thing for anxiety (that every loving parent has likely done at least one or hundreds of times!).
- When anxiety fuels behaviour. How to respond, and why we need to rethink the old responses.
- Why parents are key to strengthening young people against anxiety.
- Module 2:
- How behaviours are built in the brain.
- Why old responses die hard and why new ones take time.
- Parents don’t cause anxiety, but here’s why you’re a powerful part of the solution.
- The responses (that all loving parents will do) that will inadvertently increase anxiety – why, and what to do instead.
- A proven way for parents to increase brave behaviour in children – making a step-by-step plan.
- When their anxiety becomes yours.
- Module 3:
- How the brain registers threat or safety – and what they need from you.
- The house model of regulation – how our nervous systems influence each other, and how you can use yours to bring calm to theirs.
- Practical strategies to build their capacity for calm, courage, and resilience.
- How to respond in the moment when anxiety hits in a way that helps build calm, connection, and maximises your influence and their capacity for brave behaviour.
- Co-regulation or co-dysregulation?
- Dealing with anxiety fuelled behaviour – during the storm, after the storm.
- Separation anxiety – practical examples and strategies to build brave.
- School anxiety and how to build their attachment village.
- Module 4:
- Anxiety – 4 Responses. Which one when.
- Building their Toolbox. The practical strategies for young people that will build calm, courage, and resilience.
- Making the move towards brave behaviour – the practical plan that won’t depend on their response or their willingness to engage;
- Module 5:
- The different ways your child might respond when their anxiety is big, and how to respond.
- Managing their reaction – the key strategies.
- When their reaction is especially big.
- The most important rule.
- Module 6:
- Proven strategies to strengthen against anxiety in the long-term.
- Practical strategies to reduce anxiety at bedtime and ensure a restful sleep – for everyone.
- ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’
- This is a video for children and teens to watch on their own or with you. It will introduce the language and concepts we’ve been discussing to make sure they feel as ready as possible to make the move towards brave. This module includes 20-page workbook, ‘Calming Your Amygdala’. In this module, we will explore:
- Why anxiety feels the way it does.
- Why anxiety always comes with courage.
- A way to think about anxiety that will help soften its impact.
- How to feel braver, stronger, and more powerful when you need to.
- How to calm anxiety.
- The connection between anxiety and your ‘thinking brain’ – and how to switch your thinking brain on.
- The things that will help anxiety in the moment and in the long term.
- This is a video for children and teens to watch on their own or with you. It will introduce the language and concepts we’ve been discussing to make sure they feel as ready as possible to make the move towards brave. This module includes 20-page workbook, ‘Calming Your Amygdala’. In this module, we will explore:
NOTE: This course includes ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’ (valued at $90). This is a workshop just for young people to help them discover their own brave way through anxiety. A workbook is included.
USD $206.53
Parent (Australia) –
The course was brilliant, a great resource for parents with anxious kids and with some amazing tools.
Parent (Australia) –
Fantastic course. It has changed my parenting trajectory. In 8 short weeks I have changed my perspective and approach. In many ways it has removed the struggle ‘against’ my child’s actions/ inactions, and encouraged me to see their behaviour through the lens of their nervous system.
Parent (Australia) –
I learned so much and really feel stronger to help my daughters. We never realised the power we had in helping our children.
Parent (Australia) –
I thought it was brilliant! Absolutely brilliant. I would recommend to any parent of an anxious child. Even the strategies for sleep and separation anxiety were very helpful for my (not super anxious) 5 year old (as well as of course to my anxious 8 year old).
Parent (Australia) –
This course has made a huge difference to my understanding of what [my child] is struggling with and how I can help her. I have found it so hard to be brave and send her off to school, knowing how unhappy and anxious she was. I have been repeatedly told – by our GP, her therapist, 3 different paediatricians, many teachers and lots of well-meaning family members and friends – that I have to be the strong one, but had no understanding of how I was supposed to do that. Understanding why it is hard for me to be brave and why it is hard for [my child] to be brave has been quite revelatory and having a plan and a strategy and tools to help her and to help me help her is such a relief. I can already see changes in her and feel for the first time in a very long time that we might actually be able to get to a point where she can fully participate in life. The course contained so much valuable information, the sessions and notes were informative and well-structured, but the best thing about the course was Karen. She created such a warm, sympathetic and supportive environment, she explained everything in a clear and direct way!