Children and Adolescents

For parents:

We understand just how much the anxiety, thoughts, compulsions, or behavior issues have affected your entire family. Or maybe, they are just starting to affect your family and it feels way too overwhelming. So if you’ve read the tab on “what is exposure therapy?”, you now know what it is. What we also want you to know is that we can and will tailor this for your child. Kids may not know that their symptoms aren’t normal, and it feels extra scary for them to be asked to face their fears. Parent and caregiver involvement is crucial in children’s success in therapy. We can’t expect a child to hold themselves accountable to everything they are learning in therapy. We will be in contact with you often and also have you join parent sessions for you to learn how take therapy from the office to your home. We can also discuss how to talk about your child’s treatment with their siblings, as I’m sure they are feeling affected, too. We want to make therapy as fun and motivating as possible for everyone. We work with kids aged 6+, please see therapist bios to understand who would be the best fit for your child.

Set up a call with Outsmarting Anxiety & OCD to learn more about therapy for your child.

For kids:

Hi there, we want to help you feel better. If you feel worried all the time, we want to help you feel less scared. Maybe school is getting hard for you. Maybe you are frustrated because you yell at mom and dad or your siblings and don’t know why. Maybe you have some pretty scary thoughts in your head and you can’t seem to get rid of them. Maybe you get really upset when your grades aren’t perfect. Maybe you get worried about if other people like you. All we do is work with kids who have anxiety, so there isn’t anything that you might say to me that I will think is weird, promise!! Whatever it is, we can work on feeling better. ☺️

For adolescents:

We totally get it. You’re feeling different from your friends, and school is tough. You might be that star student normally, but lately it’s too overwhelming so you’re falling behind. You want to let your friends in on what’s going on with you, but you don’t want them to judge you. That worst case scenario is playing over and over, and it’s super draining. Your parents, teachers, and coaches have all these expectations that you’re trying to meet, but dealing with these thoughts you just wish would go away is more than enough to keep you busy while trying to stay afloat. We can work on it together.