CAMHS Coping & Anxieties and Worries

Counselling Directory offers a wide range of free resources to help anxious children: https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/blog/2017/09/28/new-free-resources-to-help-anxious-children.

These include:“Worry Tree” colouring activity: https://cdn.memiah.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/counsellingdirectory.org.uk/2017/09/Colouring_WorryTree_CounsellingDirectory_HappifulKids.pdf

Health for Kids! Provides young children with simple tips on how to stop feeling worried: https://www.healthforkids.co.uk/feelings/feeling-worried/

Kids Health:

Teen Health:

  • Information sheets and advice about anxiety. You can find them here

Anxiety Disorders

https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/anxiety.html?WT.ac=ctg#catmental-health

GoZen!

  • Informational programs (ages 5-15) to teach you some research-based coping, resilience and happiness skills! They have a range of programs for Anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and many more
  • https://gozen.com/allprograms/

Action for happiness

Memiah:

Barnardo’s

Stem 4 is a charity that supports teenagers in their mental health.

The Mental Health Foundation

Anxiety Canada:

GoZen!

  • Creates informational programs (ages 5-15) to teach you some research-based coping, resilience and happiness skills! They have a range of programs for Anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and many more.

Young Minds has information on various disorders including Anxiety.

Every Mind Matters offers information on various mental health problems

Mind had information and support about various anxiety and panic disorders including their symptoms, treatments and useful contacts

Royal College of Psychiatrists offers information about worries and anxiety in young people

NHS offers self-help guides for various Anxiety difficulties which contain general information on causes and symptoms of anxiety, as well as topics for managing the anxiety and treatment paths.

Good Thinking provides digital mental health support for London.

  • Includes NHS approved apps, guides, workbooks, podcasts and blogs
  • Relating to different mental health difficulties such as low mood, anxiety, sleep, and stress
  • https://www.good-thinking.uk/

Up and Down the Worry Hill: A Children’s Book about Obsessive- Compulsive Disorder and Its Treatment (ages 7-10) by Aureen Punto Wagner –Recommended by Child Mind Institute

  • Describes Behavior Therapy for OCD in a manner than children can comprehend.

Have No Fear! By Nicole C Kear –Recommended by ChildMind for ages 7-10

  • What is it about? Seven-Year-Old Veronica wants to help her classmate Maya conquer her fear of bugs.

How Big Are Your Worries Little Bear? By Jauneen Sanders – Recommended by ChildMind for ages 6-10

  • What is it about? Anxious about school, soccer practice, and monsters under his bed, baby bear worried day and night but with the help of his mom he learns to draw out his worries

I Bet I Won’t Fret: A Workbook to Help Children with Generalized Anxiety Disorder by Timothy A. Sisemore—recommended by the Depression and Anxiety Association of America

  • With fun and engaging exercises to help relieve anxiety and worry.

MORE: Therapeutic stories on Anxiety recommended by Little Parachutes: https://www.littleparachutes.com/category/feelings/anxiety/

Starving the Anxiety Gremlin: A Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Workbook on Anxiety Management for Young People (Gremlin and Thief CBT Workbooks) by Kate Collins-Donnelly

  • What is it about? Aims to help young people understand different types of anxiety and how to manage them

Conquer Negative Thinking for Teens: A Workbook to Break the Thought Habits That Are Holding You Back by Mary Karapetian Alvord and Anne McGrath—Recommended by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America

  • What is it about? Written by licensed psychologists, this book offers a simple and effective cognitive-behavioral approach to deal with the negative thoughts that result from feeling sad, worried, angry and stressed

USEFUL VIDEOS

Conquer your fears and phobias for Teens: How to build courage and stop fear from holding you back—Recommended by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America

  • What is it about? Written by licensed psychologists, this book offers a proven-effective approach to help teens overcome fears/phobias through CBT

Rewire your Anxious Brain for Teens: Using CBT, Neuroscience, and Mindfulness to Help you End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry by Debra Kissen, Ashley Kendall, Michelle Lozano, and Micah Ioffe—Anxiety and Depression Association of America

  • Contains tips and tools to use every day to rewire your anxious brain
    • Available in Redbridge Libraries: https://llc.ent.sirsidynix.net.uk/client/en_GB/redbridge/search/detailnonm odal/ent:$002f$002fERC_2092_680$002f0$002fERC_2092_680:OVERDRIVE:8b5ebe48-dbdf-4a40-b310- 8964b8b4aa78/one?qu=Rewire+your+Anxious+Brain+for+Teens%3A+Using+CBT%2C+Neuroscience%2C+and+Mindfulness+to+Help+you+End+Anxiety%2C+Panic%2C+and+Worry&lm=REDBRIDGE

Anxiety management for kids by ZingPinMe (for younger children) :

Anxious | The Feels: A Story About You and Your Feelings | Kids Learn Emotions | UniLand Kids (for younger children):

Anxiety Canada has a webpage with video resources covering anxiety through workshops, presentations, informative clips on nightmares, fear, phobias, OCD and more (for children and adolescents)

Managing Worry and Anxiety for Kids: explains what it means to worry and provides relaxations strategies for managing worried feelings in rapping.

What you can do for anxiety – a video by Every Mind Matters with Professor Paul Salkovskis, Consultant Clinical Psychologist from University of Oxford

Managing stress — a video by the BBC

Sesame Street: Relax (Word on the Street Podcast) (for younger children):

Peace Out Guided Relaxation for Kids, a series of guided relaxations and visualizations for kids, written and voiced by Jaime from Cosmic Kids.:

Be the pond | Cosmic Kids Zen Den: Mindfulness for kids by Cosmic Kids:

  • Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf5K3pP2IUQ&app=desktopSesame Street: the Count teaches Cookie Monster a calming breathing exercise.
  • Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6ju2-IjWhs
  • is intended to teach children ages 2-5 years skills including problem solving, self-control, planning, and task persistence.
    • It also includes a “Breathe with the Monster” activity to help children practice taking deep breaths to calm down.
    • This is free and available to download on Apple App Store and Google Play.
    • Available in English and Spanish.
  • Healthy Young Minds by the NHS has a list of phone applications that are good for anxiety and are free to use
  • The Cyber Smile Foundation have a gaming help centre which provides advise about gaming safely including issues like cyberbullying, abuse, and toxic comments from other gamers:
  • ‘Clear Fear’ is a free app which is designed to help children and young people manage symptoms of anxiety.
  • Calm: award winning meditation app to help with sleep, increasing confidence, reducing stress and anxiety
  • Contains guided meditations, breathing exercises, relaxing music, sleep stories, masterclasses and many more
  • Some features are free but full access costs 7.99/month

Headspace: mindfulness/meditation app which helps you train your mind to experience less stress, better sleep, focus and improved relationships

  • Have a “medidate with kids” section that is divided into different age groups (5 and under, 6-8, and 9-12)
  • Also contains 3-min “cool-off” meditations
  • Free 2 week trial and then costs

DreamyKid: meditation app for kids with guided visualizations and affirmations

  • Everyday meditations, healing activities, guided journeys, affirmations, issue-based meditations
  • Free to download
  • Stop, Breath, and Think Kids offers children a fun and easy way to identify and process their emotions
    • Contains counting breaths, friendly wishes, frog jumps
    • Free to download
  • Breathing Bubbles : app that helps kids practice releasing worries and helps them focus on good feelings
    • You can choose the emotion you are feeling and how strongly you are feeling it
    • Manny the Manatee walks them through deep breathing and visualization
    • Free to download
  • Smiling Mind: designed to help people with the pressures, stress, and challenges of daily life
    • Contains sections on Mindfulness for kids aged 7-18
    • Free to download
  • Chill Outz: collection of fun animated stories teaching children mindfulness techniques to stay relaxed
    • Contains 5 individual stories
    • Costs 4.99 to download
  • MindShift: CBT app to relieve anxiety
    • Free app for adolescents to gain insight into and basic skills to manage their anxiety symptoms
    • Offers active coping strategies tailored to different types of anxiety disorders
    • Tools include breathing exercises, mental imagery, mindfulness strategies in text and audio formats
  • Breathe2Relax: simple, intuitive, app designed by the National Centre for Telehealth and Technology to teach breathing techniques to manage stress
    • Can be personalized to a pace that is relaxing for you
    • Includes videos, reading materials, and charts to map personal progress
    • Free
  • Live OCD Free : interactive app designed to guide users through the evidence-based treatment, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for COD
    • Provides a cognitive toolkit, ERP reminders an guide
    • Free
  • Panic Relief: targeted to help individuals with panic disorder
    • Provides empirically supported coping tools to manage and move through panic attacks (Free but you can upgrade for a small price)

Stem 4 are a charity supporting teenagers with their mental health.

Child Mind Institute provide a helpful guide teaching parents how to learn the signs and symptoms of different anxiety disorders, and how they are treated

Royal College of Psychiatrists

Webpage that describes the different types of anxiety that children can experience, and some of the reasons behind these: https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/mental-health/parents-and-young-people/information-for-parents-and-carers/worries-and-anxieties---helping-children-to-cope-for-parents-and-carers

NHS informs

Kids Health

YoungMinds provide mental health support and help young people to develop resilience to overcome life’s difficulties.

Action for Children

FutureLearn | University of Reading

  • A free and informative course specifically designed for parents of children and young people experiencing anxiety due to COVID-19
  • Topics include: anxiety and its causes, importance of support, spotting symptoms and guidance for parents.
  • Course lasts 2 weeks and is available through the following link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/youth-mental-health-during-covid-19

Anxiety Canada offers an anxiety management program based on CBT called “My Anxiety Plan (MAP)”

  • MAP helps parents and carers coach anxious children or teens using practical strategies and tools to manage anxiety and includes 6 units with 46 lessons.
  • It is a free program and you just need to sign up and make an account.
  • For more information please visit https://maps.anxietycanada.com/courses/child-map/
  • A booklet published by the Mental Health Foundation for parents and carers wanting to know more about anxiety in children and young people: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/sites/default/files/anxious_child.pdf
  • Kids Have Stress Too!: Ideas, Tips and Strategies for Parents of Preschoolers, published by

The Psychology Foundation of Canada:

Anxiety UK:

Successfully Managing Anxiety: Information for parents and carers, published by South Gloucestershire Council:

Link to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America recommended booklist:

https://adaa.org/adaa-books/children-teens

Videos:

Podcasts:

  • In Conversation…Anxiety: The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Professor Cathy Creswell, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, discusses anxiety and ‘Emerging Minds’ – action for child mental health, with freelance journalist Jo Carlowe. She discusses some of the issues surrounding anxiety in children, the latest research and developments, and the different treatments available.Link: https://soundcloud.com/user-664361280/in-conversation-anxiety

Stem 4 is a charity that supports teenagers in their mental health.

Mentally Healthy Schools

These include:

MindEd is a free educational e-learning resource for professionals on children and young people’s mental health. The following sessions are intended to help teachers and schools better understand how anxiety affects children:

PSHE Association

18 lesson plans and resources on Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing for key stages 1 to 4, designed to be used in conjunction with the Teacher Guidance

Kids Health

  • Factsheet about what teachers should know and what they can do to support students with anxiety: https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/anxiety-factsheet.html
  • Accessibility & language: You can listen to the information and increase the size of the text on the page. Information sheets can be printed. Also available in Spanish.

South Gloucestershire Council offer a wide range of worksheets, activities, and other classroom resources for teachers to use

All available for download here: https://www.southglos.gov.uk/documents/Classroom-Resources.pdf.

Child Mind Institute provide a useful guide for teachers in which they outline common types of anxiety in children, and explain what symptoms of anxiety might look like in the classroom: https://childmind.org/guide/a-teachers-guide-to-anxiety-in-the-classroom/