- Home
- strategies list
Strategies and resources for engaging with your child and reducing their anxiety
Strategies are a parent's best friend!
It's so easy to fret about the problem and get nowhere – we're all so busy. But any life coach would tell us that if we have a plan (and possibly also a plan B) we'll make progress.
This page contains links to the content of two special pages and their sub-pages: Strategies to engage your child, and Strategies to reduce your child's anxiety plus more...engage and more...reduce.
I'm providing individual activity links below if you want to choose first. Otherwise click the links above and browse.
Both lists are updating all the time – and you'll probably have to mix and match to find out what works for you and your child, because all families and all children are different.
Each link here takes you to the exact spot on the corresponding page.
Strategies to engage your child:
Non-judgemental listening – so they’ll spill the beans
Listen to what you say – or even how they say it!
REPOH actions – practice makes perfect
The family club – for resourceful weekly fun
Make the link – hold them in mind
15 words to put in order – the fun anxiety scale
Special play times – your presence, their choice
Hobby horses – or rather, just hobbies
Acknowledge feelings – and keep quiet!
Rituals – the skeleton of family bonding
Relax, relax – but find your best way
Discovering “opposites” – ask how they see the problem
Use picture cards to tell stories
Collect a small group of soft hand puppets
Invent a game and vary the rules
Deal with a broken parachute problem!
Normal worry OK, false alarms NOT!
Choose your question words with care!
3 Guys loo-king for a solution
Ditch perfection – a family art game
Strategies to reduce your child’s anxiety:
Diaphragmatic breathing – restore normal body state
Blowing out candles – release tension
Butterfly tapping – to calm down
The block game – accept what life throws at you
Teach skills that will help – what does your child need to know?
Limit the agenda – what can you offload?
Away with too many choices – become the commanding officer
Change the ingredients – still a cake but not the same
Best Way Forward – the Body, Words, Focus solution
The routine routine – “this is just what we do!”
Bother, Bother, try again – the resilient kid’s mantra
The "Fish, Hammer, Gift" choice – get sorting
Don’t sweep out the worry – bring in the light!
Circle of excellence – step into it
The mad countdown activity – 10,9,8,7,6…
The calming music loop for bedtime
The "Try a Different Thought" Game
Calm them down so they hear you!
You might like these
Peeps Into the Therapy Room
Curious to learn what goes on in play therapy? Take a peep into the therapy room here to learn more.
My Child's Anxious Brain: Can I Rewire it?
You can help rewire your child's anxious brain if you help them see what's normal human anxiety and use strategies for relieving symptoms of over-anxiety
More Strategies to Engage With Your Child
Engage with your child in another set of different and inspiring ways, ready to help them when they’re anxious
 |
Sign up for the Anxious Child Help newsletter
Don't miss the latest additions. My monthly digest newsletter will list them for you. [PS Check your junk folder afterwards for the activation email!]
ALWAYS:
Trust your instincts,
use your judgement, protect the spirit
of your child