The post ‘Anxious to Brave’ – Strengthening Young People Against Anxiety. An online course for parents. appeared first on Hey Sigmund.

Research has shown that with the right support, information, and strategies, parents and carers have a profound capacity to move children and teens towards brave behaviour and strengthen them towards long-term courage, calm, and resilience. The move through anxiety isn’t an easy one, for children or the adults who love them, but it is absolutely possible. As part of this program, we will explore how.

This in-depth program will provide parents with research-backed information and strategies to strengthen children and teens against anxiety in the moment and for the long term. We will discuss the what and why of anxiety and how to open up a world for your child or teen where anxiety stops getting in their way, and brave behaviour becomes possible.

‘Anxious to Brave’ will also provide parents and carers with ways to support children and teens through big feelings (including anxiety, anger, meltdowns) and the range of behaviour that can be fuelled by those big feelings (including at school, bedtime, when faced with a challenge, or more generally). We will also discuss ways to empower children and teens with an understanding of their brain and body that helps make sense of feelings and behaviour, and opens up new ways to respond.

The ‘Anxious to Brave’ program consists of six online modules plus ‘mini videos’, totalling over 7 hours of content. Participants will receive workbooks which are included as part of the course. Access to the course will be available for 12 months from purchase. As part of the course, we will explore:

• Module 1:
  • Turning anxiety into an ally. How, and why it’s so important.
  • Using neuroscience to take the anxiety out of the anxiety.
  • The single worst thing for anxiety (that every loving parent has likely done at least one or hundreds of times!).
  • When anxiety fuels behaviour. How to respond, and why we need to rethink the old responses.
  • Why parents are key to strengthening young people against anxiety.
• Module 2:
  • How behaviours are built in the brain.
  • Why old responses die hard and why new ones take time.
  • Parents don’t cause anxiety, but here’s why you’re a powerful part of the solution.
  • The responses (that all loving parents will do) that will inadvertently increase anxiety – why, and what to do instead.
  • A proven way for parents to increase brave behaviour in children – making a step-by-step plan.
  • When their anxiety becomes yours.
• Module 3:
  • How the brain registers threat or safety – and what they need from you.
  • The house model of regulation – how our nervous systems influence each other, and how you can use yours to bring calm to theirs.
  • Practical strategies to build their capacity for calm, courage, and resilience.
  • How to respond in the moment when anxiety hits in a way that helps build calm, connection, and maximises your influence and their capacity for brave behaviour.
  • Co-regulation or co-dysregulation?
  • Dealing with anxiety fuelled behaviour – during the storm, after the storm.
  • Separation anxiety – practical examples and strategies to build brave.
  • School anxiety and how to build their attachment village.
• Module 4:
  • Anxiety – 4 Responses. Which one when.
  • Building their Toolbox. The practical strategies for young people that will build calm, courage, and resilience.
  • Making the move towards brave behaviour – the practical plan that won’t depend on their response or their willingness to engage;
• Module 5:
  • The different ways your child might respond when their anxiety is big, and how to respond.
  • Managing their reaction – the key strategies.
  • When their reaction is especially big.
  • The most important rule.
• Module 6:
  • Proven strategies to strengthen against anxiety in the long-term.
  • Practical strategies to reduce anxiety at bedtime and ensure a restful sleep – for everyone.
• ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’
  • This is a video for children and teens to watch on their own or with you. It will introduce the language and concepts we’ve been discussing to make sure they feel as ready as possible to make the move towards brave. This module includes 20-page workbook, ‘Calming Your Amygdala’. In this module, we will explore:
    • Why anxiety feels the way it does.
    • Why anxiety always comes with courage.
    • A way to think about anxiety that will help soften its impact.
    • How to feel braver, stronger, and more powerful when you need to.
    • How to calm anxiety.
    • The connection between anxiety and your ‘thinking brain’ – and how to switch your thinking brain on.
    • The things that will help anxiety in the moment and in the long term.

NOTE: This course includes ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’, a module specifically for young people to help them discover their own brave way through anxiety. A workbook is included. 

This course is intended to offer meaningful and impactful support to parents of children with anxiety. It is not therapy, nor is it intended to replace any therapy you or your child might currently be involved in. If your child is currently working with a therapist, please feel free to discuss anything you learn here with the therapist to ensure consistency of pacing, approach, and goals and timing.

The post ‘Anxious to Brave’: Strengthening Children and Teens Against Anxiety – An in-depth online course for parents. appeared first on Hey Sigmund.

If you are a young person who has ever struggled with anxiety – a lot or a little, or if you have ever wanted to extend your reach towards brave, this is the course for you. Anxiety and courage always happen together, but so often, anxiety can get in the way of the important, meaningful things we need to do. Something we know for certain is that you will always have more courage in you than you think. You can feel anxious, and do brave. You are braver, stronger, and more powerful than you could ever know, and you will always be able to do more than you think you can. Now to show you how. In this video, we’ll explore:

• Why anxiety feels the way it does.
• Why anxiety always comes with courage, and how to access that courage when you need to.
• A way to think about anxiety that will help soften its impact.
• How to feel braver, stronger, and more powerful when you need to.
• How to calm anxiety in the moment to make way for the important things you need to do.
• The connection between anxiety and your ‘thinking brain’ – and how to switch your thinking brain on.
• The connection between anxiety, anger, sadness, and a new way to think about (and manage) big feelings.
• The powerful, proven strategies that will build courage and resilience, and strengthen against anxiety in the short and long term.

Let’s get anxiety out of your way – because the world needs you more than ever.

This course includes a video and a workbook. Access will be available for 3 months from the date of purchase. 

NOTE: This course is included in ‘Anxious to Brave’ – An Online Course for Parents.

Bulk purchase options for schools or organisations.

This course is a personal license for individual use only. If you would like to make the content available to the children, teens, or families in your school or organisation, we have licensing options to make that happen. Please see here for more information about multiple license discounts, and broadcast licenses.

This course is intended to offer meaningful support to young people to build courage and resilience in their day-to-day lives. It is not therapy, nor is it intended to replace any therapy your child might currently be involved in.

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Saying ‘goodbye’ can be tough! Not only for our children, but for us too – even the strongest and bravest of parenting hearts can feel the wrenching that can come at separation. Separation anxiety exists for a good reason. We want our children to feel loved and supported, and we also want to build their brave so anxiety doesn’t stand in the way of the important, growthful things they need to do.

Of course we’d rather our young ones never feel the tailwhip of separation anxiety, but so many young people (and the adults who love them) are going to experience anxiety at separation from a loved one. It’s part of being human, but it doesn’t have to hurt. As their important adult, you have a profound capacity to support them through separation anxiety and help them feel braver, stronger, and closer to you, even when you’re not beside them – at school, at bedtime – any time they are away from you. In this one-and-a-half-hour webinar, we will explore practical, powerful ways to do this.

This is information I wish every parent could have. I’ll be speaking to you from my professional experience, but more importantly, I’ll be speaking to you from my parenting heart. Something you might not know about me is that my own experience with my daughter’s separation anxiety when she was a little person is what led me to this work. (She’s now one of the bravest women I know!

I know we can get kids through separation anxiety. I know the heartache. I know the feelings of helplessness. And I know we can get them through. 

If you can’t make the ‘live’ online event, that’s no problem at all. A recording of the webinar will be made available to all registered participants for 30 days.

We will explore:

• why separation anxiety happens, and the important job it’s there to do;
• the thing all loving adults will do (we’ll all do them!) that can inadvertently make their anxiety worse, and what to do instead;
• why their anxiety will fuel yours;
• what adults can do to soften the impact of separation;
• how to respond in the midst of anxiety – strategies for children, parents and carers (including teachers and other important adults);
• practical ways to support your child through separation anxiety;
• specific strategies for bedtime anxiety;
• the toolbox for young people – how to help all children feel bigger at separation;
• the connection between anxiety and aggression, and how to respond to big behaviour in the moment;
• the connection between anxiety, behaviour and learning, and how to work with this;
• a road map for supporting your child through anxiety – before, during, and after;
• why relationships matter, and how to facilitate relationships between children and their important adults (teachers, other important adults) in ways that will build brave behaviour.

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This two-day intensive workshop will help participants to better understand anxiety in young people and provide a broad range of knowledge, skills, and practical techniques to respond appropriately within their own professional context, becoming effective allies for children in overcoming anxiety. Maintaining a practical and experiential focus, while drawing on a number of highly respected therapeutic models and the latest understandings from neuroscience.

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The purchase of ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’ provides a personal license for individual use only. If you would like to have the content made available to children and teens in your school or organisation, we can certainly make that happen. Depending on your specific needs, there are two options:

Option 1: A Broadcast License

To access the content from within your school or organisation, any time.

Who is a broadcast license best for?

A broadcast licence is best for schools, organisations, or clinicians (such as psychologists, counsellors, school counsellors, therapists) who would like to make the content available to all young people within their school or organisation, or with individual students or clients as part of their sessions. A broadcast license is for viewing and access on your premises exclusively.

Is there a limit on the number of people who can access the content?

There’s no limit at all, as long as they are enrolled in your school or organisation and watch the material on your premises.

Does our whole school need to watch it at the same time? I mean, we like each other but sometimes we like to do our own thing.

You certainly don’t need to watch it all together. The content will be available for 12 months, so individuals, groups, classes, or year levels can view the material at their own pace, as many times as they want.

If our students would like to watch the content from home, say, with a parent or carer, will the broadcast license include this?

No, a broadcast license allows you to make the content available to anyone within your organisation, but the content must be accessed from within your school or organisation. If you would like to make the content viewable outside your school or organisation for the young people enrolled with you, we have another option that would be perfect. Take a look at the multiple license option (Option 2) below. This will be the one for you.

How long can the content be accessed for?

The content will be accessible for 12 months from when your license is activated. During that time, the content can be accessed as many times as you like, provided it is viewed on your premises.

Can each student have their own workbook?

Yes, absolutely. The license provides for you to download the workbook and copy it as many times as you need for the children or teens in your school or organisation.

Okay. This is the one. How do we purchase a broadcast license?

• First, we’ll need some details from you. Please email karen@heysigmund.com with:
  • the name of your school or organisation;
  • a billing email;
  • the number of students in your school or organisation.
• We will then issue an invoice and when payment is made, we’ll send through access details.

What does a broadcast license include?

Each license will provide access to:

• ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’ course video (42 minutes).
• ‘Calming Your Amygdala’ downloadable workbook. Once this has been downloaded, you can copy this as many times as needed for each student viewing the course to have their own individual copy.

Let’s talk cost. How much?

The cost for a broadcast license is AUD $2000.

Okay. This is the one. How do I purchase a broadcast license?

• First, we’ll need some details from you. Please email karen@heysigmund.com with:
  • the name of your school or organisation;
  • a billing email;
  • the number of students in your school or organisation.
• We will then issue an invoice and when payment is made, we’ll send through access details.

Option 2: Multiple License Bundle

To access the content from anywhere, any time.

Who is this best for?

This option is best if you would like the content available to individual students or families from your school or organisation, for access outside your premises. This option will allow children, teens, or their immediate families to access the material from home. This will make way for parents to view the content alongside their children or teens and have meaningful conversations within the family about courage and resilience, and ways through anxiety.

How is this different to the broadcast license?

The broadcast license is for one license that allows you to show it to the people within your school or organisation, from within your premises only. Multiple licenses are separate licenses that allow the course to be accessed by individual children, teens, or families from within their own homes. A broadcast license allows the content to be accessed from one location, whereas multiple licenses allow the content to be accessed from multiple separate locations, and by different families.

How long will the course content be accessible for?

The course content will be available for 3 months from the date of activation of a license. For example, if you purchase a bundle of 25 licenses, each license will allow for three months of access from the date of activation of that particular license.

What’s included?

Each license includes:

• ‘Stronger Than Anxiety’ video (42-minutes).
• ‘Calming Your Amygdala’ downloadable workbook.

Is there a discount if I purchase multiple licenses?

Of course! The discount will depend on the number of licences you purchase. The more licenses, the higher the discount:

• 10-25 licenses – 30% discount
  • To calculate: [number of licenses] x [cost of course] x 0.7 = what you pay
• 26-50 licenses – 40% discount
  • To calculate: [number of licenses] x [cost of course] x 0.6 = what you pay
• 51-100 licenses – 50% discount
  • To calculate: [number of licenses] x [cost of course] x 0.5 = what you pay
• 101-200 licenses – 60% discount.
  • To calculate: [number of licenses] x [cost of course] x 0.4 = what you pay.
• More than 200 licenses – Please get in touch.

How can I purchase multiple licenses, and how does the process work from there?

• First, we will need a few details from you. Please email karen@heysigmund.com with:
  • the name of your school or organisation;
  • a billing email address;
  • the number of individual licenses you would like to purchase.
• We will then issue an invoice, and when payment is made, access will be provided in one of two ways (you choose):
  • Option 1:
    • We will provide one code that will be valid for as many uses as the number of licenses purchased.
    • You can then share this code with as many families in your school or organisation as you have purchased licenses for. The code will provide each family or individual with a 100% discount for the purchase of the course.
    • The code will be valid for as many uses as the number of licenses as you have purchased. For example, if you purchase 25 licenses, the code can be used 25 times for a 100% discount each time.
    • When the course is purchased (with the 100% discount code), this will provide access to the course content will be provided for 3 months.
  • Option 2:
    • We will provide different codes, for as many licenses as you have purchased. For example, if you purchase 25 licenses, we will provide you with 25 different codes. Each of those 25 codes can be used once for a 100% discount off the purchase price.
    • A code can then be provided to each child or family a license has been purchased for.
    • When the course is purchased (with the 100% discount code), this will provide access to the course content for 3 months.

To order or for more information.

If you have any questions at all or if you would like to order, please get in touch at karen@heysigmund.com.

For a downloadable information sheet, please click on the link below.

The post Expanded License Options appeared first on Hey Sigmund.

The research is so clear – and there’s plenty of it. Students who genuinely feel cared for by their teachers do better at school. When children feel safe, cared for, and valued, the learning part of the brain opens wide up. Learning and engagement increase, anxiety is reduced, and critical incidents of big behaviour decrease. On the other hand, without felt relational safety, the brain will focus on getting ‘safe’ rather than learning.

Why relationship matters.

The part of the brain that is in charge of learning, self-regulation, making deliberate (good) decisions, thinking through consequences, and connecting can only open up when physical safety and relational safety are fully felt. This isn’t about what is actually safe or not safe, but about what the brain perceives. It’s about felt safety.

How children do, will always come from how they feel. Children and teens are no different to adults in that way. The reason we want to be with certain people, or be in certain places, often isn’t as much about the intrinsic nature of those people or places, but about how we feel when we are with those people or in those places.

But what about academics?

Of course academics matter, but relational safety has to come first. It’s a condition for doing well academically. Children don’t feel good at school because they do well. They do well because they feel good. Rather than prioritising the outcome – grades – we have to prioritise building the strong foundations all kides need to be the best they can be.

When we prioritise academics over relationship, it’s like building the walls before fortifying the foundations.

This is why too many kids are falling down at school – not because they aren’t capable, but because the necessary foundations for them to do well haven’t yet been laid.

Rather than focusing on what kids are doing,

‘How do we get better results?’

‘How do we make them behave better?’

‘How do we make them engage more?’,

we need to shift the focus to how they are feeling,

‘Exactly what can we do to make sure each child feels welcome, cared for, wanting, important?’

How to build relationship. What teachers can do.

Here are some small things that can make a big difference.

• Exactly what happens to make students feel welcome when they walk into school/ the classroom? Of course all students are welcome, but exactly what little things are done to let them know that?
• What is their role in the classroom? Research shows that, according to students, one of the things that helps them feel cared for is when teachers give them jobs to do.
• Are they invited to share their opinions?
• Are they given opportunities to make decisions that affect them?
• Do they feel like the adult in the room believes in them and wants them to be there?
• Name similarities, ‘We both have a dog. Can I see pictures of your dog?’ ‘We both wear glasses.’ ‘Yeah. I feel anxious sometimes too, especially when I’m doing something new. It’s okay to feel anxious.’
• Ask them, ‘What are the things that adults do that help you feel cared for?’
• Let them know, ‘It’s my job to help you do well this year. What does ‘doing well’ look like for you? What might make that easier? What might get in the way?’
• Ask them to finish this sentence, ‘I want my teacher to know …’
• Let the parent know you like their child, or let them know anything positive that happens involving their child. Parents will pass this message on to their children. It’s always lovely to hear that someone has said something nice about us to the people we care about. Sometimes it can land harder than telling a child directly. 

So much of my work is about supporting schools to implement practices and procedures that build felt relational safety in students, increase engagement and learning, and reduce critical incidents of behaviour. I see the difference this makes.

What parents can do.

What a parent decides a child will follow. One of the best things parents can do is to let kids know they (the parent) trusts the teacher to care for the child and like the child. It’s okay not to feel this straight away – trust takes time – but until you feel it, your child won’t either. 

If you trust your child’s teacher, let your child know: ‘I really like Ms Smith. You’ve got a goodie there. I’ve heard such great things about her. I know she’s going to love you,’ or, ‘I’m excited to get to know Mr Jones. I’ve heard good things about him.’

When your child’s teacher says anything positive about your child, let your child know. If you haven’t heard anything positive, ask the teacher to let you know something your child has been doing well or is improving on. If the teacher can’t name anything, your child might not feel as ‘seen’ as they need to. That’s okay – teachers are managing so many things and they don’t want your child to feel unnoticed either. A gentle conversation can just help channel attention towards helping your child feel more seen and cared for. 

If you aren’t sure about the teacher yet, that’s okay, but if you aren’t sure, what has to happen to help you feel more certain that your child is in strong, loving hands? Do you need a conversation with the teacher? An email occasionally? Anything you can do to support your child’s teacher is going to add to building a strong, beautiful foundation for your child.

And when the resources already feel stretched too far …

We are asking way too much of our teachers and our schools at the moment. We have been for too long. The truth of it though, is that for learning to happen and for engagement to increase, we have to focus on relationship first. It can’t be any other way.

Schools and teachers are spending the time and resources anyway, on managing behaviour and trying to increase learning and engagement. If we can channel those resources towards building relational safety, so young people feel more seen, valued, and cared for, rather than less capable or less clever, there will be less need to spend those precious resources managing big behaviour, disengagement, and reduced capacity to learn.

First though, we need to value the relationships and the way kids feel at school, even more than how they do at school. All kids are capable of their own versions of greatness, but unless they feel safe and cared for at school, we just won’t see what they are capable of, and neither will they.

I’ve seen the difference this makes. Teachers are superheroes. The ones who value the need for relational safety, and who do what they can to build in practices or micromoments to build relationship change lives. They really do.

Our teachers need relational safety too.

Of course, this isn’t just about students. When adults don’t feel safe, valued, or cared for, those adults will also be more likely to act from a survival state. This isn’t about personality or character. It’s about being human. No human can be the best version of themselves, and no human can keep giving when they are feeling depleted, unsupported, or as though what they are doing doesn’t matter.

The time teachers put into building relationship matters. It matters so much. It matters more than academics or grades because they are building the strong, beautiful foundations needed for those academics and grades.

The effects of relationship building won’t always be visible straight away, but it will always make a critical difference. It’s like drops in a bucket. Sometimes we don’t see the drops until the bucket is overflowing. Some children have bigger buckets than others. Some have smaller buckets but those buckets are running dry. This might be because of their particular needs (and we all have things we need, but we don’t always need the same things in the same way), their history, their circumstances today, this week, this year. This means it might take longer to see that bucket fill – but know that however slow that bucket is filling, those drops matter – every single one.

We need to make sure our teachers feel seen, safe, cared for, valued. Our kids can’t be the best they can be without them.

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‘Hey Awesome’ can be shipped worldwide.

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