Supporting Anxious Youth in Schools

Mental health issues are on the rise and rates of anxiety are growing.

In this 3-hour course we will talk about anxiety, how it shows up at school, and how we can unintentionally reinforce it. We will build research-based activities tailored for immediate use with your students and material that you can share with your school staff.

This course aims to:

1. Build knowledge of brief anxiety treatments that are possible within the school setting.
2. Discuss the ways anxiety can be inadvertently reinforced.
3. Tailor research-based activities to use immediately with your students.
4. Help you create material on anxiety to share with your school staff to promote common language and responses to various behaviors in the classroom.

Counselors will leave with a series of tangible activities tailored for immediate use with their students, along with information to share with staff on supporting the mental health of students at the school level.

Intended Audience

This course is intended for school counselors who are actively working within a school setting at this time. It will be most beneficial for those who practice individual or group counseling.

ISCA Student Standards

Social/Emotional

Standard A: Students will demonstrate the dispositions, knowledge, and skills to develop and maintain positive relationships with self and others.

Standard B: Students will make decisions, solve problems, set goals, and take necessary action to achieve personal goals.

Global Perspectives & Identity Development

Standard D: Students will demonstrate the dispositions, knowledge, and skills to manage transition effectively

Academic

Standard A: Students will demonstrate the dispositions, knowledge, and skills that contribute to effective learning in school and throughout life

Standard B: Students will make decisions, solve problems, set goals, and take necessary action to achieve personal goals

ASCA Professional Standards and Ethical Standards and Practices

B-SS 3. Provide short-term counseling in small-group and individual settings

M 5. Effective school counseling is a collaborative process involving

school counselors, students, families, teachers, administrators, other school staff and education stakeholders.

M 6. School counselors are leaders in the school, district, state and nation

Essential Questions

1. How would you describe your current methods of supporting anxious students?
2. How have my current interventions been working to support those students?
3. How would I describe my school’s approach to supporting students’ behavioral and emotional health? If you were a student in your school and were struggling, what resources would be available to you?

Participants will have knowledge about:

1. Anxiety reduction methods
   Adapting CBT to young children (if applicable to audience)
2. The types of accommodations that exacerbate anxiety
3. Language that supports anxiety management
4. Behavioral responses that support anxiety management

Participants will be able to:

1. Build a series of tailored activities to support anxious students in their school sites.
2. Access a library of in session material to support their students.
3. Build a database of systems level changes that support children’s mental health (check in check out, morning circle, fewer suspensions, increased activities related to what kids directly need).

Tara Eddy

Tara Eddy, M.S. is an educational psychologist, an international speaker, and entrepreneur.

She is passionate about helping children, teens, and adults find their path, learn their strengths and overcome challenges. Tara has an M.S. in counseling and school psychology and is licensed through the Board of Behavioral Sciences in California (United States). She has been providing therapy, consultation, and comprehensive evaluation for 13 years, specializing in neurodiversity and anxiety. Beyond therapeutic and diagnostic work, Tara provides global courses and workshops on topics related to anxiety, mental health, neurodiversity, motivation, and behavior. In this capacity, Tara has worked with families, counselors, and educators in 49 countries.

She is the Founder & CEO of Feelings in Motion, a company producing educational content and games that support children’s social and emotional health. Their first multi-sensory educational game, Stomp It Out, was released on Amazon in November of 2020 and is currently used by parents, therapists, and educators around the world. Tara leads What Now (www.whatnow.org), a new virtual space for parents of neurodiverse children and teens to find research, strategies, courses, and community. She is an American mom of two young children and lives currently in Berlin, Germany.

ISCA Member Price: $180

Non-Member Price: $260

Dates and times of offerings:

Option 4: February 23, 2026 - 12:00 PM TO 3:00 PM UTC

Contact Hours: 3-hour course

Time commitment between sessions: None

Required Resource(s):

Have nearby:

1. Any material or activities you regularly use for reducing anxiety in your students.
2. Any system wide programs used to support kids with anxiety.
3. Any accommodations your school has provided to kids demonstrating anxiety.