An Intensive 2-Day Workshop on Treating Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents – Paul Foxman

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Divorce, family breakdown, violence in society and the media, has produced a “shell shocked” generation of kids suffering from anxiety!
Watch anxiety expert and author, Dr. Paul Foxman, demonstrates how you can “connect” with anxious children and inspire them to practice new self-regulation skills. You will learn how to help parents (“bulldozers,” “helicopters” and “snowplows”) and schools gain confidence, gratification and success in helping their most anxious kids.
To increase your effectiveness with the various manifestations of child anxiety, Dr. Foxman will address each of the following disorders with case examples and clinical vignettes:

• Separation Anxiety Disorder
• Panic Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders (including skin picking and hair pulling)
• Social Anxiety Disorder/Selective Mutism
• Specific phobias
• Trauma- and Stressor-related disorders

Emphasis will be on creative psychotherapy involving insight-oriented, cognitive-behavioral, biological, mindfulness, and family systems interventions.

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 as compared to complementary medicine 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 behaviors.
11. Teach clients to engage the parasympathetic nervous system to create new neuropathways to reduce hyper arousal and decrease maladaptive behaviors.
12. Implement clinical strategies to decrease symptoms of pervasive separation anxiety in children and adolescents.

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 behavior change and symptom reduction
• Behavioral 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
• Nature’s remedies
• Herbal treatments
• Homeopathy
• 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 rates
• 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 realty 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

Limitations of Research and Potential Risks

• Consider scope of practice
• Empirical and anecdotal evidence
• No “one size fits all” for any modality of anxiety treatment