Melissa L. Kilbride - Working with Worry: A Workbook for Parents on How to Support Anxious Children

Copyright 2021 by Melissa Kilbride and Samantha Sweeney.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Bull Publishing Company

P.O. Box 1377

Boulder, CO USA 80306

www.bullpub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Kilbride, Melissa, author. | Sweeney, Samantha, author.

Title: Working with worry : a workbook for parents on how to support anxious children / Melissa Kilbride, LICSW, Samantha Sweeney, PhD.

Description: 1st Edition. | Boulder : Bull Publishing Company, 2021. | Includes index. | Summary: Working with Worry is designed to give parents practical tools they can use to support their children as they try to manage their anxiety in todays increasingly stressful world. It is a hands-on workbook that you can turn to for easy-to-understand information, recommendations, and support. Parents will learn about what anxiety looks like in children, reflect on their own experiences with anxiety, and find a wealth of intervention activities to try with their children. The activities use proven techniques including mindfulness, creativity, and self-regulation, and are organized by type of intervention, age, and areas of interest. This book is unlike any other workbook available on this subject because it offers both education and guidance around supporting children, while helping parents understand the need to be self-reflective about their own relationships with anxiety-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2020043175 (print) | LCCN 2020043176 (ebook) | ISBN 9781945188459 (paperback) | ISBN 9781945188466 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Anxiety in children. | Parenting. | Parent and child.

Classification: LCC BF723.A5 .K55 2021 (print) | LCC BF723.A5 (ebook) | DDC 155.4/1246--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043175

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020043176

Printed in the U.S.A.

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Interior design and production by Dovetail Publishing Services

Cover design and production by Shannon Bodie, Bookwise Design

Dedication

To our former and current clients,

thank you for letting us into your worlds.

For all that youve shared and taught us, we are so grateful.

To our families: Paul, Caden, and Violet; Mark, Tyler, and Lila.

Thank you for being our worlds.

About the Authors

Melissa L. Kilbride is a clinical social worker in private practice on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. She completed her undergraduate education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and received her social work degree from the Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of IllinoisChicago. Melissa has over fourteen years of clinical experience working with children, families, and adults. Prior to opening her own practice, she worked for the DC Department of Behavioral Healths School Mental Health Program doing individual and group counseling with children and teens, crisis intervention, and parenting workshops. Before moving to Washington, DC, Melissa was a member of the administrative team for a network of charter schools in Chicago, where she helped to create their social-emotional learning curriculum and oversaw all mental health-related services. Currently Melissa works with adults and couples with a focus on anxiety, depression, trauma, infertility, and relationship and sexual issues. She has developed Conversation Is the New Talk: The Why and How of Talking to Children about Their Bodies and Sex and other seminars for parents on topics related to early sexual health education and consent designed to help parents have conversations with more confidence.

Samantha C. Sweeney is a licensed psychologist in the District of Columbia. She has a PhD in school psychology from the University of MarylandCollege Park, where she was a fellowship recipient. Samantha earned her undergraduate psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to opening her own practice, Samantha was a preschool teacher, a consultant and researcher in the DC public schools, and a school psychologist in the Fairfax County, Virginia, public schools. She has also worked at Wediko Childrens Services Summer Program for children and adolescents with significant emotional and behavioral challenges, served as an adjunct professor in Howard Universitys School Psychology Program, and was a preschool screening team leader at the Kathy Wilson Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. Samantha has a website and blog for parents to help their children develop the essential skill of cultural competence. She also speaks on the topic of cultural competence.

Contents

Acknowledgments

For your assistance and support in making this book happen, we want to thank Dr. Erica Berg, Julie Berman, Jennifer Coffey, Joan Dim, Seth Gold, Amanda Hopper, Sarah Jordan, Robin Leon, Barry Lippman, Annie McLennan, Natalie Nadler, Cynthia Serrato, Anya Stockburger, and Howard Yoon.

Thank you to our parents and siblingsJennifer, Carol, Robert, Julie, Rene, and Barryfor their love, support, and guidance over the years. Without you, we certainly wouldnt have gotten this far and this book could not have become a reality. We love you!

A special shout-out to Christina Wiginton at Metamorphosis Book Development. Without her, this book would not have come to life the way it did.

Thank you so much to Jim Bull and the team at Bull Publishing. Your support and responsiveness has helped to quell our own anxiety as first-time authors.

Introduction:
Welcome to Our Workbook

Welcome!

Welcome to our workbook. This book is designed to help you provide targeted and intentional support to your child so they can successfully manage their anxiety. This is a place you can turn for easy-to-understand information, recommendations, support, and a little humor along the way. Because how do you survive parenting without a sense of humor? As we welcome you, we want to take a quick moment to acknowledge that this book is for anyone with a child who experiences anxiety or who works with children who experience anxiety. Actually, we believe this workbook is for everyone because everyone experiences some amount of anxiety sometimes and its a good thing to know how to manage it! Youll see we use the word parent most frequently, but please know that we are not just referring to biological parents; we are including stepparents, adoptive parents, foster parents, LGBTQIA+ family members, grandparents, extended family members, family friends, teachers, babysitters, and anyone else in a childs life who wants to support them.

How to Use This Workbook

This book has five chapters, and we highly recommend that you go through them in order. Although it might be less time consuming to skip straight to the interventions, we recommend that you dont do that. Chapter 1, Anxiety: The Basics, is full of important information about what anxiety is and how it may look in your child. We suggest you read that chapter first, as it provides an important framework for everything that comes after.