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Caring for Children with Anxiety or OCD

Weekend and Weekday options available

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Online Conference

Parent Workshop - Workshop Presenter: Kimberly Glazier Leonte, PhD

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Caring for Children with Anxiety or OCD
Caring for Children with Anxiety or OCD

Time & Location

Weekend and Weekday options available

Online Conference

About the event

Anxiety is a natural human emotion that everyone experiences.  However, some people experience a nearly constant level of high anxiety,  which makes it challenging to enjoy life. OCD is a type of anxiety;  people have unwanted thoughts that cause them to feel highly anxious and  then perform certain rituals (also known as compulsions) to try to  reduce the anxiety.

Often times when people feel anxious they try to do whatever they can  to make their anxiety go away. It is common for loved ones to give  advice such as “don’t worry about that,” “it’s okay, that would never  happen,” or “try thinking of more happy thoughts instead.” While these  approaches are well intentioned, with anxiety/OCD, they unfortunately in  the long term do not work. The reason they are not effective is because  the underlying component of anxiety/OCD has to do with people’s  difficulty tolerating doubt and uncertainty. Even though the person  knows the chance of their scary thoughts happening in real life is  either impossible or incredibly unlikely, the thought of “but what if it  could?” always returns. That is why the logical/reasoning part of the  mind cannot overpower the emotional part of the mind. If reassurance and  trying to rationalize with the anxiety/OCD is not the answer, then what  is?

This workshop is designed to comprehensively answer that question.  The key components of the workshop include the importance of:Anxiety is a natural human emotion that everyone experiences.  However, some people experience a nearly constant level of high anxiety,  which makes it challenging to enjoy life. OCD is a type of anxiety;  people have unwanted thoughts that cause them to feel highly anxious and  then perform certain rituals (also known as compulsions) to try to  reduce the anxiety.

Often times when people feel anxious they try to do whatever they can  to make their anxiety go away. It is common for loved ones to give  advice such as “don’t worry about that,” “it’s okay, that would never  happen,” or “try thinking of more happy thoughts instead.” While these  approaches are well intentioned, with anxiety/OCD, they unfortunately in  the long term do not work. The reason they are not effective is because  the underlying component of anxiety/OCD has to do with people’s  difficulty tolerating doubt and uncertainty. Even though the person  knows the chance of their scary thoughts happening in real life is  either impossible or incredibly unlikely, the thought of “but what if it  could?” always returns. That is why the logical/reasoning part of the  mind cannot overpower the emotional part of the mind. If reassurance and  trying to rationalize with the anxiety/OCD is not the answer, then what  is?

This workshop is designed to comprehensively answer that question.  

The key components of the workshop include the importance of:

Exposure

Exposure, also referred to as exposure and  response/ritual prevention, is the first-line treatment recommendation  for anxiety/OCD. Exposures help people learn how to face their fears in a  structured, supportive, and empowering way.

Defusion

Defusion is a term from Acceptance and  Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is a type of Cognitive Behavioral  Therapy (CBT). Defusion helps people learn to see their thoughts as  thoughts. It is a powerful tool to help people learn to be okay with  their thoughts rather than to get stuck in the trap of trying to get rid  of them.

Self-Compassion

Unfortunately we live in a society that often  makes people feel shame/embarrassment for their anxiety/OCD worries.  Self-compassion helps people normalize and validate their emotions, and  also learn to be kind to themselves and their struggles.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is an approach that helps people  to be more aware of the current moment and therefore learn to live in  the present, rather than getting lost in one’s thoughts. A mindfulness  mindset consists of attributes such as being non-judgmental, objective,  appreciative, and curious.

The aim of this workshop is to provide  parents with a strong understanding of how anxiety/OCD works and  specific strategies that parents can use with their child to help them  work through and not around their worries. To create an individualized  and supportive environment the workshop registration slots are limited  to a maximum of ten. In addition, prior to the workshop, parents will be  asked to complete a brief survey, so that specific questions/needs can  be integrated within the workshop.

The workshop presenter is Kimberly Glazier Leonte, PhD. Kimberly is  an OCD specialist, who previously worked at McLean’s OCD residential  treatment facility, and Roger Memorial Hospital’s OCD residential,  partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs. She provides  continuing education workshops to help educate therapists on the  assessment and treatment of OCD/anxiety. For further background  information on Kimberly please click here.

Dates: Weekend and Weekday options available Duration: 2.5 hours Cost: $250

If you have any questions and/or are interested in attending the  workshop please contact Kimberly at:  kimberly.glazier.leonte@cvhorizons.com or 978.270.8925. You are also welcome to message us via the RSVP botton below.

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