Your child has been worrying more than usual, and now you’re worried about them. They frequently cry when other children don’t, or they fear getting involved in activities that other children love. You watch your child struggle with waves of intense emotions, and you long to be able to provide them with some sense of relief.
Child Anxiety
You see your child’s panic escalate and wonder how to help them calm their anxious fears. You even notice your child repeating behaviors in order to keep anxiety at bay. Whatever it is, it’s overwhelming your child, and something needs to change.
Your child’s stress level is beginning to impact the rest of the family. You can’t take them places without them melting down or screaming, and even the smallest tasks turn into battles. Lately, your child is more clingy, afraid to go to places that you’d like them to enjoy. They avoid people and places that could be good opportunities for them to learn and grow.
You can tell they are always uncomfortable. It’s as if their thoughts are racing so much with worry that they can’t control them. You find that they fear the worst in everyday situations, and they can’t sleep at night.
So here you are, wondering if your child needs therapy for anxiety.
Often, your child feels worried, fearful, or panicked. They are struggling with everyday life, and their emotions are getting the better of them.
You truly want your child to have peace and to be confident in their own skin. You long for them to engage boldly in situations where they now cower in fear. But you have no idea how to help them overcome the symptoms of anxiety which are causing them distress right now.
You never imagined you’d feel as helpless as you do seeing your child struggle with anxiety. And you certainly didn’t expect you’d need to reach out for professional help.
Signs Your Child Might Be Struggling with Anxiety
- Behavioral: your child is irritable, tantrums, avoids, and/or pays extra close attention to their surroundings
- Cognitive: your child has trouble concentrating and/or has racing or unwanted thoughts
- Mood: your child often feels worried, dread, or like they are doomed
When You Seek Support for Your Child from The Center for Anxiety and Behavior Management
- Your child will stop avoiding the people and places they once enjoyed
- Your child will learn to cope with everyday stress without becoming anxious
- You will learn parenting strategies to increase positive behaviors
- You will learn how to help your child better function at home and at school
- You and your child will grow closer together and enjoy spending more time together
The Anxiety Counseling Process
Therapy for anxiety is intended to help your child stop worrying and participate freely in their life. Together, your child and their therapist will work with scientifically-backed evidence-based therapies to help them gain control of their inner and outer worlds in more effective ways.
Therapy for children with anxiety is based upon helping them to learn to identify their triggers and overcome them in such a way as to be successful in school, family, and peer environments.
Here’s what to expect…
FIRST CONTACT: Free phone consult
Prior to beginning treatment with us, we want to make sure that we are a good fit for you and your child’s needs. For this reason, we offer a free 15-minute initial phone consult to learn more about your/your child’s current circumstances and to determine if we are the best resource for you. Assuming that we are a good match, you will then schedule an intake session.
WEEK ONE: Intake Session
During this initial 90-minute session, the assigned therapist will meet with you as the parent(s) or guardian(s) to gather background information on your child and to fill out rating scales to provide an assessment baseline upon which to build our treatment plan and goals.
WEEK TWO: Child Intake Session
During this 45- to 60-minute session, the therapist will interview your child as well as meet with you as the parent(s) to ask any follow-up questions which may be helpful in treatment planning and goal-setting to best meet your child’s needs.
WEEK THREE: Feedback Session
Now that we’ve thoroughly assessed your child’s needs, we will meet with you to discuss the diagnoses, identify starting goals, and provide education on the apparent causes and factors which are leading to your child’s troubling thoughts and behaviors.
WEEK FOUR and Beyond: Childhood Anxiety Therapy
At this point, your child will attend regular weekly therapy sessions. However, your therapist may determine that your child needs to come more or less frequently, depending upon the presenting symptoms. Additionally, especially with younger children, parent involvement may be suggested.
Together, in each subsequent session, your child and their therapist will use evidence-based psychotherapy models to help your child learn to identify and address the challenges they experience because of anxiety. This typically includes the integration of techniques from Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention Therapy (ERP), or other evidence-based modalities.
Each session is designed to help your child learn to relax and better enjoy the world around them
TERMINATION: The Final Sessions
As your child gets closer to their therapy goals, we will develop a plan for successfully transitioning them into a life without weekly therapy. This often means moving sessions from once a week to every other week, to monthly sessions, or to finishing out services completely. We also work with you and your child to develop a relapse prevention plan at this time. Our goal is for your child to be able to retain what we have worked on together and to implement all they have learned in therapy outside of sessions in their everyday life.
Are we the right providers for you?
Click below to request more info, and we’ll be sure to give you all the details about how we can help you take back control of your life.
More About The Center for Anxiety and Behavior Management
As a team of licensed therapists, we are experts at teaching you to make the behavioral choices that get you closer to your goals.
We work from an evidence-based perspective. This means that our job is to help you understand your struggles and provide solutions proven to be very effective. Negative thoughts, distressing feelings, and unhelpful behaviors don’t have to be part of your life, and anxiety therapy at The Center for Anxiety and Behavior Management is about changing the way you think, recognizing how your beliefs are holding you back, becoming informed, seeing the world more accurately, and engaging in behaviors that you won’t regret later.
We make it our mission to help you regain control of your life by providing effective strategies supported by science. We are dedicated to being on top of the most recent knowledge and helping you solve problems based on what the research says is effective. It is our passion to educate you on what is and isn’t working in your life so that you can get back in the driver’s seat and take yourself where you want to go.
Who Benefits Most from Anxiety Counseling
Therapy for children with anxiety is best for those who have begun to avoid anything in life that once made them happy, or children who refuse to try new things because of fear, dread, or worry.
Often, the child with anxiety thinks there is something wrong with them and that is why they can’t feel at peace. Anxiety counseling can help them to find a sense of mastery and control.
Your child will benefit from anxiety therapy if:
- They are experiencing racing thoughts
- They struggle to participate in daily activities
- They aren’t enjoying even the simplest things in life
- They are avoiding friends and family members
- They are avoiding new situations and opportunities that will help them grow
- They have trouble falling or staying asleep at night
- They often act out in order to avoid uncomfortable situations
There are certain situations where your child might not be ready for counseling sessions with us.
These include, but are not limited to:
- Situations where your family’s schedules are too busy to commit to weekly therapy
- Situations where the child or parent does not want to practice the techniques outside of session
- Situations where parents are not committed to the process
- Situations where parents believe their child will grow out of harmful moods or behaviors
If you are currently experiencing any of these issues, we can provide you with appropriate referrals for your level of care.
What Does Therapy for Anxiety Cost?
Anxiety counseling for children is a fee-for-service program. As such, we do not take insurance, but we do provide paperwork that you can submit to your insurance company for out-of-network benefits and potential reimbursement.
When and Where are the Counseling Sessions?
Our office is conveniently located at 259 Main Street in Chester, NJ, 07930.
Sessions are currently held by appointment only Monday – Saturday.
Your Next Steps
You absolutely can begin to identify the triggering situations and thoughts associated with your child’s anxiety
A calm, relaxed, and engaged child may be a long way off right now, but that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to cope when things don’t go their way. They just need the support of a caring professional and evidence-based strategies while they figure out how to best manage it all.
Your child will get the tools they need to be more successful in school and with their friends in addition to being more comfortable at home. And they’ll also develop more positive self-esteem as they will get along better with friends and be able to control their emotions.
Ultimately, your child will be more care free and willing to experience what life has to offer. We can help.
Call or text (908) 914-2624 to schedule your 15-minute phone consult to see if we’re a good fit for your child’s anxiety treatment needs today!
Our Team
Meet our experienced & professional team
Our therapists’ commitment to providing quality treatment and giving you practical, action-oriented strategies are why we are one of the most sought after mental health practices.
