Therapy for Child and Adolescent Anxiety
What is adolescent anxiety?
Adolescent anxiety refers to the persistent and disturbing worries felt by children, teenagers, and young people. Although some anxiety is normal, worrying about anything and everything can become a concern.
Common causes of anxiety in children and teens include:
- Relationships with friends and family
- School-related pressures and worries
- Body image and appearance
- News and world events
If your child or teen is struggling with anxiety, there are therapies and treatments that can help you manage it. Generalised anxiety disorder in children and young people can lead to other mental health conditions such as depression if left untreated.
How does anxiety affect children and teens?
Children and young people can experience challenges in their lives, just as adults do. Anxiety only becomes a problem when your child’s worries are out of proportion with relatively harmless situations. This may feel overwhelming and interfere with their everyday lives, education and relationships with friends and family.
Often children and young people experience physical symptoms such as:
- Agitation
- Feeling short of breath
- Feeling hot and sweaty
- Muscle aches
- Nausea
- Heart palpitations
Those who have generalised anxiety disorder will often have other types of anxiety such as social anxiety, academic anxiety, health anxiety, or specific phobias.
When should you seek therapy for adolescent anxiety?
Children and teens struggling with anxiety disorders may display some of the following symptoms:
Struggling with sleep
Being more irritable or feeling out of control with angry outbursts
Being much more clingy and struggling to be separated from parents
Struggling to concentrate
Complaining of feeling physically unwell such as having frequent tummy aches or being nauseous
Constantly worrying or having negative thoughts
Therapy for adolescent anxiety with Onebright
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the most popular type of therapy for treating a range of anxiety disorders in children and teens, including school-related anxiety and social anxiety.
At Onebright, we offer a wide range of support to children and teens experiencing anxiety. Our team of experts use an evidence-based, ‘here and now’ approach to help adolescents cope with their anxieties.
Examples of the services we offer include:
- Support from our early intervention team to help prevent smaller problems with anxiety and low mood developing into something bigger
- Parent-led support to support parents of primary aged children to manage anxiety or behaviours of concern
- CBT
- Trauma focused CBT
Learn more about CBTAt Onebright, we offer a wide range of support to children and teens experiencing anxiety. Our team of experts use an evidence-based, ‘here and now’ approach to help adolescents cope with their anxieties.
Examples of the services we offer include:
- Support from our early intervention team to help prevent smaller problems with anxiety and low mood developing into something bigger
- Parent-led support to support parents of primary aged children to manage anxiety or behaviours of concern
- CBT
- Trauma focused CBT
Benefits of therapy for anxiety in children and teens
Working with a therapist to face and overcome your difficulties can be a challenging and daunting prospect, but one that can also be extremely rewarding.
By working with a therapist, you and your child can better understand the difficulties that they are experiencing, and how to manage and work through their anxieties.
Working alongside your therapist, you can learn the tools and approaches that work best for you and your child to help you take back control and get back to a life that's worth living.
Learn more about therapy for children and teensBy working with a therapist, you and your child can better understand the difficulties that they are experiencing, and how to manage and work through their anxieties.
Working alongside your therapist, you can learn the tools and approaches that work best for you and your child to help you take back control and get back to a life that's worth living.
Support for children and teen anxiety
Onebright’s expert support services will teach you and your child a number of skills and techniques to help lower anxiety, including:
- Problem solving skills: Often in generalised anxiety disorder, young people can focus on worries that don’t exist whilst ignoring practical problems. Being able to identify and solve problems effectively can build confidence when potential problems occur in the future.
- Emotional recognition: Young people with generalised anxiety disorder often have a difficult time managing difficult emotions and assume that they will be overwhelmed by big emotions. Therapy will support them to understand that these emotions are important, won’t last indefinitely and give life meaning .
- Decreasing physical anxiety: We will teach relaxation and breathing techniques that can help regulate the nervous system, working to calm both the body and mind.
- Feeling the fear and doing it anyway: Young people will be supported to identify the situations, thoughts and physical sensations that increase anxiety. They will develop a hierarchy of fears ranked from least to most feared, gradually exposing them to feared situations to find out something new about the scary situation.
- Thought challenging: We help young people to identify and challenge negative thoughts, by taking their thoughts to court, looking for the evidence of common negative assumptions, and considering what else might be going on instead.
Booking therapy for anxiety in children and teens is simple with Onebright. Simply fill in the contact form below or call our client liaison team on 020 8129 0558.
Book therapy for child and adolescent anxiety
The client liaison team are available Monday to Friday between 9am-5pm (excluding bank holidays).
Your child must be aged 5-17 years to access our therapy services.
Your child’s assessment will cost £100 (this includes consultation and report).
After your assessment, if your child is recommended for therapy, this will cost £150 per appointment.
Your child must be aged 5-17 years to access our therapy services.
Your child’s assessment will cost £100 (this includes consultation and report).
After your assessment, if your child is recommended for therapy, this will cost £150 per appointment.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is considered to be one of the most effective treatments for anxiety in children and teens.
CBT is a type of talking therapy that helps teach individuals how to identify unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and change the way they think and behave. Techniques learned during CBT can be applied to different situations throughout the individual's life.
CBT is a type of talking therapy that helps teach individuals how to identify unhelpful thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, and change the way they think and behave. Techniques learned during CBT can be applied to different situations throughout the individual's life.
Yes, it is normal for teenagers to experience anxiety. Teenagers go through a period of significant change which can cause distress and worry. However, if your child is constantly anxious and it is starting to impact their education, friendships, and family life, you might want to seek professional help.
There are various reasons why children and teens experience anxiety at school. Causes of school-related anxiety can be grouped into 3 main categories:
Social anxieties: adolescents might experience anxiety around making friends, fitting in, and being bullied.
Educational anxieties: adolescents might become anxious as a result of academic pressure or feeling the need to perform well in exams or presentations.
Environmental anxieties: changes to the normal school environment or routine such as moving to a new school or getting a new teacher can cause anxiety.
Social anxieties: adolescents might experience anxiety around making friends, fitting in, and being bullied.
Educational anxieties: adolescents might become anxious as a result of academic pressure or feeling the need to perform well in exams or presentations.
Environmental anxieties: changes to the normal school environment or routine such as moving to a new school or getting a new teacher can cause anxiety.
If you live or work with teenagers dealing with anxiety, it can be difficult to know how you can best provide support. Some ways you can offer support include:
- Encouraging open communication: it is important to create a safe, comfortable environment where the young person can express their worries and concerns without fear of judgement.
- Actively listen to their worries: when talking to the young person about their anxiety, make sure you are actively listening to their concerns and show you understand their feelings, even if it seems irrational.
- Provide reassurance and find solutions: ensure the young person understands you are there to support them, and work together with them to find actionable solutions to any situations they are feeling anxious about.
- Help them find professional support: if the young person is facing severe anxiety that is impacting their everyday life, it might be best to help them seek professional support.
- Encouraging open communication: it is important to create a safe, comfortable environment where the young person can express their worries and concerns without fear of judgement.
- Actively listen to their worries: when talking to the young person about their anxiety, make sure you are actively listening to their concerns and show you understand their feelings, even if it seems irrational.
- Provide reassurance and find solutions: ensure the young person understands you are there to support them, and work together with them to find actionable solutions to any situations they are feeling anxious about.
- Help them find professional support: if the young person is facing severe anxiety that is impacting their everyday life, it might be best to help them seek professional support.