ISCA - Supporting Anxious Youth in Schools

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Supporting Anxious Youth in Schools

Learn more about the course in this short video

Course Title

Supporting Anxious Youth in Schools

previously named:

A Toolbox to Support Anxious Youth in Schools

Course Number

ISCA 604

Course Overview

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:

Build knowledge of brief anxiety treatments that are possible within the school setting.
Discuss the ways anxiety can be inadvertently reinforced.
Tailor research-based activities to use immediately with your students.
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.

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

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

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.

Essential Questions

How would you describe your current methods of supporting anxious students?

How have my current interventions been working to support those students?

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?

Knowledge

Skills

Participants will have knowledge about:

Participants will be able to:

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

Build a series of tailored activities to support anxious students in their school sites.
Access a library of in session material to support their students.
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).

About the Facilitator

Tara Eddy is a school psychologist, counselor, mom of two, and game developer. She has a BA in psychology and an MS in counseling and school psychology. She has a private license through the Board of Behavioral Health in California (United States). Tara has been providing therapy, consultation and comprehensive evaluation for 10 years. In her daily practice, she specializes in learning differences, ADHD, and anxiety. During her years directly working in schools, she led the redesign of various therapeutic programs for Santa Monica schools.

Tara is also the Founder & CEO of Feelings in Motion, a company producing educational games that support the social and emotional health of children around the globe. Currently, she works with Linden Education providing assessment and counseling to international students while running her two companies from Berlin.

Dates and times of offerings

Cohort 1: September 10, 2024 - 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM UTC

Cohort 2: February 27, 2025 - 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM UTC

Contact hours

3-hour course

Time commitment between sessions

None

Required Resource(s)

Have nearby:

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

References

Herzig-Anderson, K., Colognori, D., Fox, J. K., Stewart, C. E., & Masia Warner, C. (2012). School-based anxiety treatments for children and adolescents. Child and adolescent psychiatric clinics of North

America, 21(3), 655–668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chc.2012.05.006

Mychailyszyn MP, Mendez JL, Kendall PC. School functioning in youth with and without anxiety disorders: comparisons by diagnosis and comorbidity. Sch Psychol Rev. 2010;39(1):106–21.

Van Ameringena M, Mancinia C, Farvolden P. The impact of anxiety disorders on educational achievement. J Anxiety Disord. 2003;17(5):561–71

James AC, James G, Cowdrey FA, Soler A, Choke A. Cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents. Cochrane Library. 2013;(6). doi:10.1002/14651858.CD00460.pub4.

Higa-McMillan CK, Francis SE, Rith-Najarian L, Chorpita BF. Evidence base update: 50 years of research on treatment for child and adolescent anxiety. J Clin Child Adolesc. 2016;45(2):91–113.

Wilson, R & Lyons, L. (2013) Anxious Parents Anxious Kids: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle. Health Communications Inc.

International School Counselor Association