Helping the Anxious Student: What Helps…and What Doesn’t?

The VT-HEC is bringing back internationally-recognized psychotherapist, author, and speaker, Lynn Lyons to Burlington, VT, on May 9, 2019 to address the challenges and treatment of anxiety in children and youth.

Anxiety is on the rise in our kids and cut across all demographics – no group is immune. Anxiety is now the foremost reason that parents seek help from a mental health provider and is a top predictor of developing depression in adolescence or early adulthood.

About 30% of girls and 20% of boys–totaling 6.3 million teens–have had an anxiety disorder (National Institute of Mental Health). Experts suspect that these statistics are on the low end of what’s really happening, since many do not seek help for anxiety.  It’s also hard to quantify behaviors related to anxiety because they are deliberately secretive and can be very difficult to recognize.

Anxiety often leaves teachers and parents at a loss for how to help. To exacerbate the problem, many things families and schools do to help can actually make anxiety stronger.  In this workshop Lynn will offer proven strategies that help children, and their teachers and parents, manage anxiety and prevent patterns that lead to serious long-term challenges such as depression, avoidance and other physical and emotional challenges.

What we teach children about risk, danger, uncertainty, and problem-solving makes a huge difference in whether they go on to become anxious or depressed teens and adults. Lynn will explore concrete and often counter-intuitive strategies that educate children and adults about anxiety and provide an “umbrella approach” that is applicable to all the anxiety disorders and OCD. For more information on this workshop or to register see: here

Lynn has been featured in the NY Times magazine, Psychology Today and on a number of NPR stations across the county, including On Point. She has presented all over the US and Canada in addition to maintaining her own practice. Lynn has a particular interest in interrupting the generational patterns of anxiety in families.  See Lynn’s web site

The VT-HEC (VT Higher Education Collaborative) is one of Vermont’s largest statewide providers of professional development focused on the education, health and well-being of children and youth. For more information: vthec.org