Managing Anxiety – How to Help Children Name, Claim and Tame Their Distress

Real Talk for Real Teachers with Dr. Becky Bailey and special guest Jill Molli

Episode Summary

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 40 million adults. Persistent worry has a lasting negative impact on both mind and body. In children, anxiety often looks like avoidance, clinging, aggression and other challenging behaviors. This can make it difficult for adults to recognize and support children in managing the anxiety that’s at the root of the behavior.

In this episode, Jill Molli teaches us new skills as she shares her personal journey with her own anxiety and with helping her daughter manage similar feelings. Discover the powerful transformation that occurs as Jill and Meg shift from thinking about anxiety to naming the feeling, taming it and developing healthy strategies for managing it.

Essential Takeaways

• Anxiety in children presents itself through many different behaviors.
• A child’s ability to self-regulate won’t develop without first experiencing co-regulation with a calm adult.
• Naming the feeling, rather than asking a child to think about the feeling, is the first step in managing anxiety.

Steps for Tomorrow

• When you or a child feels anxious, name and acknowledge the feeling rather than questioning why it is there.
• Practice active calming so you can become a co-regulator for children who feel anxious.

Important Links

• Video: Naming and Taming Anxiety

Product Mentions

• Managing Emotional Mayhem ©

Show Outline

• :23 What is Conscious Discipline
• 1:21 Effects of anxiety and types of anxiety in children
• 5:23 Introduction of guest Jill Molli
• 6:24 Jill’s story of growing up anxious
• 8:55 Genetics and anxiety
• 9:32 Story of Jill recognizing anxiety in her daughter
• 13:42 The progression of anxiety as Jill’s daughter got older
• 15:30 Effect of new experiences on people who experience anxiety
• 16:56 Naming the feeling to tame it
• 19:51 Having a “person” to help download calm
• 21:49 The Safe Place and its purpose
• 24:02 Asking the child to think about anxiety through questioning won’t help
• 25:05 Jill’s story of where her anxiety came from
• 27:25 Story of Meg’s anxiety as a teen during soccer games
• 30:57 How Jill’s journey has helped her support teachers and other children
• 32:44 Meg’s essay about anxiety

Thank You for Listening

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On behalf of our Conscious Discipline family, we wish you well.