Empowering Parents to Manage Childhood Anxiety | Parenting Great Kids Ep. 234

Dr. Stephen Whiteside is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Pediatric Anxiety Disorders Program at Mayo Clinic and the author of “Mayo Clinic Anxiety Coach: A Parent’s Guide to Treating Childhood Anxiety and OCD.”
A Board-Certified Clinical Psychologist dedicated to enhancing access to evidence-based care for pediatric anxiety disorders and OCD, Dr. Whiteside joins the Parenting Great Kids Podcast with Dr. Meg Meeker to empower parents and families to understand and navigate childhood anxiety with a unique approach that involves working with kids and parents together.
In this episode, you’ll learn about:
✅ Recognizing the signs and symptoms of childhood anxiety
✅ Effective treatment options for childhood anxiety and OCD
✅ The benefits of exposure therapy in helping children cope with anxiety
✅ Different anxiety disorders in children and how to better understand their struggles
✅ How parents can support and empower their child through their anxiety
✅ Practical ways to manage school bullying anxiety and overcome challenging situations
This podcast is essential for parents of children struggling with anxiety and are unsure how to help them. It is packed with expert advice on supporting a child's mental health and effective strategies so parents and their kids can handle anxiety-inducing situations at home independently.
The key moments are:
00:00 - The Role of Family in Addressing Childhood Anxiety
04:24 - Recognizing Anxiety in Children
10:36 - Different Types of Childhood Anxiety
12:31 - Treatment Approach for Childhood Anxiety
13:51 - Empowering Families to Seek Appropriate Help
13:57 - Importance of Proper Diagnosis and Treatment
15:21 - Identifying the Root of the Anxiety
17:31 - Creating a Treatment Plan
22:01 - Involvement of Parents in Therapy
25:25 - Common Mistakes Made by Parents
26:50 - Balancing day-to-day life and treatment
27:31 - Surge in anxiety and depression in kids due to COVID
29:53 - Understanding exposure therapy
33:08 - Addressing bullying and healthy avoidance
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[@rivasoucie]

The stereotype of the overprotective/hypervigilant mother is exhausting and fairly useless, especially for mothers of special needs children. How about telling us what mental health professionals get wrong? Those mistakes are more egregious than the ones parents make. After all, we are laypeople not therapists. Please also consider including non-allistic voices in discussion of appropriate therapies. Exposure/behavioral therapies are rarely neurodivergent-affirming - and often they are autism-hostile - for a wide range of documented reasons.