Is it teenage anxiety or teenage angst?!

“Anxiety is treatable, but 80% of kids with a diagnosable anxiety disorder are not getting treatment, according to the 2015 Child Mind Institute Children’s Mental Health Report”

It can be really hard to identify with your teenage people.  I myself, am a Mother to a teenager.  I am incredibly passionate about working with teenagers for this very reason. You see, I lost my daughter, for a while.  It was an incredibly challenging time for both of us.  She felt helpless, frustrated, frightened and lost. She was so anxious, school became unbearable and she quickly went from anxious to full blown panic attacks.  I felt out of my depth.  I felt out of my depth, even as a therapist.

So, I started to imagine what this must be like for parents who don’t work in this field, and have little knowledge on how best to help their child and I’ve made it a big of a personal mission to offer an affordable solution.

The reality for many parents is that private therapy is the only option. There are HUGE waiting lists for the NHS, and although I’m told they are working hard to improve these, the reality is that as a parent you want to end your child’s suffering quickly and effectively.

However, that in itself poses another problem.  Affordability.  What if your budget doesn’t stretch to being able to take your child to see a therapist?  This is where my journey of researching CBT and programs for children and adolescents began.

I researched and researched the best way to work with teenage anxiety, and trust me when I say this was no easy task.  Wading through all the information and quick fixes, and money making schemes, I had to trial pretty much everything until I found something that actually works.

My research took me all the way to Australia, and to discovery of an incredible program called B.R.A.V.E, which stands for:

B – Body Signs

R – Relaxation

A – Active Helpful Thoughts

V – Victory over your fears

E – Enjoy! Reward yourself

This program had been rolled out across Australia, and importantly researched to make sure it works!  Now it doesn’t work for every type of anxiety disorder, but what is PERFECT about this program, is that the work is carried out by the parent and the child, so the parent can really support the child.

Like any therapeutic intervention, this isn’t a magic wand, and BOOM, you’re fixed!  BRAVE guides the child and the parent through a PROVEN process to help the anxiety; be it phobic, general or social.  The end goal is to reduce anxiety to manageable levels, and this program is hugely successful at it.

Is it perfect?  No, but it’s as close to it, as I can find on the market place, and having actually trialed this out, I wanted to be able to share this so every parent and child can affordably access support for their anxiety, and improve their mental well-being overall.

“Online delivery of CBT, with minimal therapist support, is equally efficacious as clinic-based, face-to-face therapy in the treatment of anxiety disorders among adolescents” Research Gate

This is now available on our self help section, and if you have any questions, we’d be happy to answer them.