On Wednesday, January 24th, parents and community members are invited to join the Ridgefield School District and NW Anxiety Institute’s Kevin Ashworth, LPC for a free event titled “Supporting Kids, NOT Their Anxiety.”
This event will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Union Ridge Elementary School in Building B (the newer brick building) in Rooms 203 and 204, located on the second floor.
Kevin Ashworth, LPC, Clinical Director of NW Anxiety Institute has worked for the past decade with children, teens, adults, and families who live with anxiety disorders and specializes in the delivery of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and exposure therapies. Kevin presents regularly on topics of anxiety, parenting, and CBT and is passionate about helping individuals overcome their fears and change their relationship with anxiety.
Last school year, Ashworth joined the district’s Assistant Director of Social Emotional Learning, Kataira Smith to respond to parent and teacher inquiries. You can watch this event and read about the different episodes below.
Episode 1: Helping our children tackle unknown situations. We explore a scenario of a child that has anxious events by “throwing tantrums” for when he goes to places like Disneyland or Birthday Parties.
Episode 2: Children may not want to go to or complete activities we expect them to. Such as going to school, a sport, or specifically here, a piano lesson that they were excited for! Join us as we explore ideas around knowing when to push your child and how to help them be successful in doing an event that may cause anxiety at times.
Episode 3: Learn about some key takeaways in helping students who may refuse to eat due to a form of anxiety as we explore a school-based scenario of not wanting to eat at school.
Episode 4: Kevin shares some great insight on how to help children who are very hard on themselves whenever they make a mistake, even if the mistake is very minor.
Episode 5: Here we explore a scenario of students who may talk very poorly about themselves. For example, they may say things like “I’m not smart” or “my name is stupid.” How do we help our kids when they struggle to think positively about themselves?
Episode 6: Are you experiencing children who come to you already anxious? How do we help support and be there for kids coming into our classrooms or back to our homes who are bringing anxiety with them?
Episode 7: Some students thrive in brick and mortar schools, while others thrive with online schooling. Even with the academic success online, students can struggle with anxiety in talking with their teachers. How do we help our kids in communicating with staff through a virtual environment?
Episode 8: There is a wide variety of coping skills children can use to help navigate their anxiety. Unfortunately, sometimes children turn to self-harming. Not in a purposeful, want to hurt themselves way, but a way that helps them cope through their anxiety. But that’s not healthy. Let’s explore a scenario of a child that scratches their hands when they are nervous. How do we help our children stop unhealthy coping skills and turn to healthy ways instead?