Children Experiencing Fear and Anxiety
Bonnie Zucker, PsyD
Series IX: Children and Adolescents
Title release date: November, 2018
For more information about the therapist and for suggested readings, please visit www.apa.org/pubs/videos/series9.html.
This clip is an excerpt taken from the APA Psychotherapy Video Series program: Children Experiencing Fear and Anxiety
It is common for children to experience fear and anxiety throughout the course of their young lives, which is why it is important to equip children in therapy with tools and strategies to effectively handle stressful situations and learn how to face their fears. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most empirically supported approach to treating anxiety disorders, in both children and adults, for several reasons. The approach provides an opportunity for the client to take ownership in the treatment process, fosters social and cognitive learning, and encourages self-regulation and problem-solving skills. The successful treatment of childhood anxiety requires that the three primary components- physiological (body), cognitive (thoughts), and behavioral- be addressed systematically. In this video, Dr. Bonnie Zucker works with a young female client to demonstrate specific CBT techniques and strategies, such as identifying and replacing cognitive distortions, conquering worry with loop recordings, and showing how to construct a hierarchy used to help the child face her fears in a gradual, step-by-step fashion.