Helping Your Anxious Child: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents

Review

“In Helping Your Anxious Child, parents are provided a step-by-step guide for assisting their children in overcoming a panoply of worries, fears, and anxieties. The strategies described are well-established ones, backed by considerable scientific support. Parents will find this book engaging, easy to read, and full of important ideas about how best to help their children.”
–Thomas H. Ollendick, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor in the department of psychology, Virginia Tech

Synopsis

This expanded and updated version of a best-selling classic guides readers to help a child overcome anxiety and fears. It describes in detail strategies and techniques they can combine into a comprehensive self-help programme for a child’s particular needs. From separation anxiety to general anxiety, social anxiety, specific phobia and panic disorder, the book describes the common types of childhood anxiety, how anxiety originates, and options for dealing with the problem, with or without a therapist’s help. In this updated version, the progression of chapters reflects the authors’ clinical programme, in which major skills are introduced early and then are consolidated and built upon in later chapters. Throughout, the book employs a step-by-step approach that is both structured and directive. Written activities are incorporated throughout the chapters, some intended for the child and others for his or her parent to complete.

About the Author

Ronald M. Rapee, PhD, is currently professor in the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and director of the Centre for Emotional Health. He has been involved in an advisory capacity with the DSM-IV and DSM-V, and he is a member of the US-government-sponsored Project Liberty, which works to develop anxiety management programs for children affected by disasters. He is on the scientific advisory committee for the Swiss Etiological Study of Adjustment and Mental Health, and the editorial board of several international journals. Ann Wignall, M. Psych, is senior clinical psychologist and director of child and adolescent mental health for Northern Sydney Health Service. She founded the Child and Adolescent Anxiety Clinic, Royal North Shore Hospital, and works clinically with children and families with a broad range of anxiety and behavioral disorders. Susan H. Spence, PhD, is professor of psychology and dean of the Division of Linguistics and Psychology at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. She was previously head of the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland, where she was also the head the School of Journalism and Communication for a time. She is a researcher and clinical psychologist who specializes in the assessment, prevention, and treatment of child and adolescent anxiety and depression. To date she has published more than 100 books and academic articles in her field. Heidi Lyneham, PhD, is currently a research fellow within the Department of Psychology at Macquarie University and deputy director of the Centre for Emotional Health. Vanessa Cobham, PhD, holds appointments within the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland and within the Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Service in Brisbane.