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A review by bookshelf_al
Freeing Your Child from Anxiety: Practical Strategies to Overcome Fears, Worries, and Phobias and Be Prepared for Life--From Toddlers to Teens by Tamar E. Chansky
4.0
I read this as a part of ASCA's professional development course on children with anxiety.
I first feel the need to say that the author explicitly recommends seeing a child therapist that is trained to deal with anxiety. She points out that therapy (sometimes in concert with meds) is effective. The tools and strategies she discusses in this book shouldn't be used as the sole treatment for serious anxiety. As a school counselor this is also important. I am not trained to treat anxiety. I am trained to help the child deal with anxiety in a school setting and can offer support for the child and family, but I do not do long term counseling. Referring to a qualified practitioner is key.
The book is divided into 4 parts. Part one is a basic intro. Part 2 is where the meat is at. It deals with the nuts and bolts of dealing with anxiety in children: what works, what doesn't, steps you can take, making a plan, what happens if it doesn't work at first, etc. Part 3 got pretty repetitive for me. It breaks down steps in dealing with specific types of anxiety (generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, tics, trauma, etc). The beginning of each chapter is very informative about the diagnosis, red flags to look for, what it feels like for the child, etc (all very helpful), but the rest of the chapters lay out plans for dealing with it that is basically just like the author lays out in part 2. I don't know if some of it could have been presented in graphics (since a lot of it was thoroughly explained previously) or if she could have referenced the specific pages in part 2... obviously I'm not an editor, but some of those chapters really dragged on since I had already read it. Part 4 is more nuts and bolts about general topics concerning anxiety: how to talk to your anxious child, working with the school, dealing with your own anxieties, etc.
Overall, a very good book and one that I will keep in my office!
I first feel the need to say that the author explicitly recommends seeing a child therapist that is trained to deal with anxiety. She points out that therapy (sometimes in concert with meds) is effective. The tools and strategies she discusses in this book shouldn't be used as the sole treatment for serious anxiety. As a school counselor this is also important. I am not trained to treat anxiety. I am trained to help the child deal with anxiety in a school setting and can offer support for the child and family, but I do not do long term counseling. Referring to a qualified practitioner is key.
The book is divided into 4 parts. Part one is a basic intro. Part 2 is where the meat is at. It deals with the nuts and bolts of dealing with anxiety in children: what works, what doesn't, steps you can take, making a plan, what happens if it doesn't work at first, etc. Part 3 got pretty repetitive for me. It breaks down steps in dealing with specific types of anxiety (generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, tics, trauma, etc). The beginning of each chapter is very informative about the diagnosis, red flags to look for, what it feels like for the child, etc (all very helpful), but the rest of the chapters lay out plans for dealing with it that is basically just like the author lays out in part 2. I don't know if some of it could have been presented in graphics (since a lot of it was thoroughly explained previously) or if she could have referenced the specific pages in part 2... obviously I'm not an editor, but some of those chapters really dragged on since I had already read it. Part 4 is more nuts and bolts about general topics concerning anxiety: how to talk to your anxious child, working with the school, dealing with your own anxieties, etc.
Overall, a very good book and one that I will keep in my office!