Compass

Anxiety in children and adolescents is often overlooked, under-reported or misinterpreted as being a behavioural or developmental problem. In reality, anxiety disorders are the most common child and adolescent mental health complaint affecting as many as 1 in 5 young people in New Zealand. When recognised and properly managed, anxiety disorders are very treatable. This workshop will help participants to recognise anxiety disorders and respond appropriately within their own professional context, becoming effective allies for children in overcoming anxiety.

The three main areas of discussion will include:

Recognition

• An overview of the most common anxiety disorders in childhood and adolescence, their prevalence, how to spot them, and how to tell them apart from normal developmental behaviours.
• Psychosocial Implications: Understanding the impact of anxiety on learning and development, peer relationships and family.
• Comorbidity: When anxiety is not the only problem, or leads to other problems
• The prognosis if anxiety is left without intervention.

Assessment

• Tools to assist in assessment that can be used by any helping professional, with specific attention on child self reporting tools and parent reporting tools.

Interventions and Management

• Use of cognitive-behavioural strategies (the evidence based intervention of choice) in an age appropriate way.
• The importance of involving parents and key strategies for working with them.
• Strategies for building treatment-readiness, managing anxiety in schools, working with reluctant children, and relapse prevention.

Vanessa Cobham holds a PhD in the area of child and adolescent anxiety disorders. Currently she splits her time between lecturing for the School of Psychology at the University of Queensland and working clinically for the Mater Child and Youth Mental Health Service in Brisbane. She has completed a broad range of research projects in the area of anxiety, the results of which have been published internationally. Vanessa is the author of a series of workbooks for both children with anxiety disorders and their parents and has co-authored a self-help book for parents called ‘Helping Your Anxious Child’. She is also actively involved with Australian Government initiatives to provide psychological care to children and adolescents affected by natural disasters.

Her warm, down to earth presentation style, combined with her vast knowledge of the subject ensures that this is a workshop not to be missed for all professionals working with children and young people.

"Vanessa Cobham is a highly interactive speaker with itellectually stimulating content . I am confident that I will be using her thoughts, strategies and philosophical appraoch in a constructive way with my clients"

Guidence Counsellor

"What a fantastic presentation! I found it very affirming of what I do in practice. I will be implementing a number of strategies she used. I foung Dr Cobham very inspirational both as a Psychologist and a parent"

Psychologist

"I thought Vanessa's presentation was awesome, very informative and well presented!"

Doctor

"I have appreciated the opportunity to listen to a mental health professional with an overview on anxiety. I feel I have been empowered further through gaining more professional development to manage the challenges in my school community"

Primary School Teacher

"This workshop was informative, useful and easy to assess. I liked the level of academic content and the level of interaction. Vanessa was able to convey a huge volume of information in a relaxed, flexible way. Her experience and skills shone through"

RTLB