Got a child who has become more anxious or facing into the tween years of big emotions and feelings?

Trine Jensen-Burke

More and more young children are suffering from anxiety.

And in our fast-paced, digital and perfectionist-minded world, this is almost not surprising.

But how do you are a parent or caregiver best help a child who has become more anxious or is suffering from anxiety? Learning just how better understand anxiety in children and how best to support and be present with your child or children when they are experiencing anxiety and its associated difficulties is so important.

Dr Julie Meehan, Clinical Psychologist, Life Coach & Mummy and Dr Jane McEvoy, Senior Clinical Psychologist will host a workshop in Dublin in November and it will be an amazing opportunity for parents and caregivers of primary-school age children (4-13) who suffer with anxiety to learn more about how to help and what to do.

This is what Meehan and McEvoy have to say about the event:

“The workshop offers parents a mix of practical and mindful ways to explore how they can best support their children when anxiety takes over and begins to act as the driver of most of their experiences. In the session, we will explore evidence-based approaches that have been shown to be effective in empowering parents to better understand anxiety in children and how best to support and be present with their children when they are experiencing anxiety and its associated difficulties. We will weave a mindfulness approach into each theme we explore.”

Themes and evidence-based approaches that will be explored includes:

A framework for how we can better understand anxiety and how it shows up in children

How knowing more about the dance between anxious feelings, thoughts and behaviours can help us to support our children

How best to work with Avoidance when it shows up for our children

Self-esteem and how best we can nourish this in our children

How we can support our children to approach common difficulties from a fresh, empowered place

Navigating big over-whelming emotions

Highly-Sensitive Children and Anxiety

Enlarging our ‘toolbox’ of strategies to best support our children and ourselves when anxiety takes over

About Dr Julie Meehan:

Julie is passionate about supporting parents to directly experience and apply their own wisdom and intuition to their relationships with their children, their whole families and themselves. She has over 18 years’ experience working with children, parents and families in different capacities. From 2006 to 2018 she has worked in the health service in Ireland in the area of clinical psychology and has worked with individuals at every life stage and from many cultures, supporting them with a wide range of difficulties and mental health issues. Since 2010 she has been working specifically with children, young people, parents and families providing individual psychological support as well as parenting groups and workshops. Julie provides support to parents regarding every aspect of parenting. She has a particular interest in supporting parents to support their children to successfully navigate anxiety as well as big, overwhelming emotions. Being highly sensitive herself, she is passionate about supporting parents of children who are highly sensitive so that they can navigate this often-overwhelming world, and ultimately learn to thrive.

After 11 years of service in the HSE, she now works in a private capacity offering individual parental support sessions, groups and workshops. Julie has two young children, whom she has come to realise are her ‘very greatest’ teachers. Following this great insight, she created a blog where she integrates her own personal and honest experiences of parenting with her experiences and learnings from her professional life – which all take place against the backdrop of learning to listen to her own intuition and wisdom when it comes to being a parent (-most of the time) and human being.

About Dr Jane McEvoy:

Jane has 25 years’ experience working as a Clinical Psychologist with children, young people and families. This has been in Primary Care and CAMHS services, both in the UK and Ireland. She regularly delivers seminars and workshops to parents, teachers and other professionals. Jane has also been Honorary Lecturer at the University of East London and Queens University Belfast. Jane offers a unique blend of rich clinical experience, compassion, practicality, humour and child-centeredness to all her workshops, which grounds the experience in a very real and validating way for those who attend.

Event: ‘How to Support Your Child When Anxiety Takes Over’

Venue: Psychological Society of Ireland, Grantham House, Grantham Street,
Dublin 8, D08 W8HD 9 ( just off Camden St.)

Date: Sunday 11th November 2018

Time: 10am to 5pm

Cost: Special introductory offer – €100 (plus booking fee)

Tickets: Online bookings only on Eventbrite