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Outsmarting Worry: an older kids guide to managing anxiety ISBN: 9781785927829
Huebner, Dawn and McHale, Kara
Published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2017
Written in highly accessible English, this very detailed guide with lots of comic-style black and white illustrations will be an excellent way of helping kids with anxiety problems solve their own difficulties. Whilst being a self-help book, the intention is that parents will be involved too - and possibly therapists. The suggestions are down-to-earth practical, and no one suggests that the solutions are easy. They take practice just like other things in life, but the approach is positive and often quite humorous. The book starts with an explanation of the flight or fight response and the part the brain's amygdala plays in this. Then we learn about Worry with a higher case W as 'a little creature, a monster, or critter, or pest' that wants to upset you. We go on to learn about safety behaviours, false alarms, exposure and the fear this can cause. There are exercises in each section that tell us how to unlearn learned responses and all the tricks that Worry can use to stop our progress. There are 109 packed pages of help and suggestions, so this is not a short panacea. The good result will have to be worked at, but with parental help and possibly with help from a therapist, there is bound to be a good end result: 'You are a person who outsmarts Worry.' A very personal approach to a problem often faced by sensitive children. Available from Amazon, from good bookshops, and from the publisher: www.jkp.com.
Age: 9+