Your Anxious Child

In helping our anxious children, it is important to understand the context in which they are growing up in and how that might contribute to their struggles. Stephanie Malia is an author, educator and social worker who has provided us with a guide to navigate the complexity of parenting in our current age.
She  has just published her third book, How We Thrive: Caring for Kids and Ourselves in a Changing World. In this book, she explores the urgent need to protect human essentials, like sleep, play and connection-that modern life restricts or denies. She points out the modern era has been characterized by an accelerated rate of change in many domains that we are not equipped to metabolize. She identifies the dangerous "weather conditions" of modern life and after interviewing over a 100 experts for her book, how we can intentionally "Rehumanize" or get back to the essentials that help us thrive. She is talking about the foundation we need to strive for to help all children and especially our anxious ones. 
Her previous books are Whole Child, Whole Life and Making It : What Today's Kids Need for Tomorrow's World
For more information www.rehumaning.com

GI problems are so common in children and adolescents who struggle with anxiety. Dr Navidi talks about disorders of gut-brain axis such as irritable bowel syndrome and how a combination of CBT and hypnosis can lead to dramatic improvement. He talks about the brain can misinterpret signals from the body and how that can lead to the experience of chronic pain. Fortunately, there are therapeutic interventions which Dr Navidi describes in this interview,  that can make a dramatic difference with GI problems
Dr Navidi has established a practice  GI Psychology which provides telehealth services in all 50 states.
 For more information
https://www.gipsychology.com/

Bedtime is a time for stories and it also a favorite time for anxious thoughts to make an appearance.  Randolph B. Schiffer, MD has just written Bedtime Stories That Will Terrify Children: Eight Tales to Help Parents and Children Navigate Through Fear .  The stories won't actually terrify your child, but they give voice to how scary childhood can be.
"Children don't need us to make the world feel safe. They need to know that they are not alone when it isn't" Randolph B. Schiffer
He created these stories to help his son who was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia deal with the  very painful and arduous treatment process.  These are stories to model courage and persistence. 
For more information https://randolphbschiffer.com/

It has been estimated that 1 in 5 children and adolescents suffer from chronic pain and it can seriously interfere with their life.  Pain Reprocessing Therapy is an evidence based approach that has been proven effective for chronic pain. Daniella Deutsch, LCSW, Penina Zilberberg, PhD and Paulina Soble, LCSW have just published The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook for Teens: Rewire Your Brain To Find Relief From Chronic Pain.
In this interview I talk with Penina Zilberberg, PhD and Paulina Soble, LCSW about pain reprocessing and how to help teens turn the volume down on the pain through a carefully structured sequence of guided exercises. Teen learn to be pain detectives and ultimately to develop a different relationship to the pain and respond differently to it. I found their book very helpful and I rather liked their use of optical illusions to explain how the brain can get things wrong and the power of belief illustrated by a London construction worker.
For more information about pain reprocessing, their website contains a lot of useful material.
https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com/

Michaeleen Doucleff, PhD has written two books: Hunt, Gather, Parent What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans 2021and Dopamine Kids: A Science-Based Plan to Rewire Your Child's Brain and Take Back Your Family in the Age of Screens and Ultraprocessed Foods  2026.
In my experience, people outside of the mental health field often write the best books. Dr Doucleff, whose degree is in chemistry,  has provides a very clear explanation about how the neurotransmitter, Dopamine, is relevant to understanding why your child has trouble getting off of screens and why they might be such picky eaters. Her research into these topics is impressive, but more importantly is her capacity to explain the science in ways that anyone can understand. That is part of her gift. Drawing upon the latest work on habit formation, she also provides a template of how we can begin to free ourselves from screens and ultraprocessed foods. It is not about will power, but rather "Curating the Cues". 
For more information: michaeleendoucleff.com