For most of our episodes I research a topic and discuss it with Susie. We covered anxiety some time ago in that format, and it's continued to be one of our most popular downloads. So, when I was given the opportunity to interview a specialist in the area, I jumped at the chance. In this interview, Renee Mill talks about the model she uses to treat patients, called the Ebb Flow model. We also covered:
How important it is to avoid labelling ourselves and how just talking about anxiety, and understanding why you have it, won't necessarily fix it.
How important it is to treat symptoms of anxiety as soon as possible, to unwire the track of thinking before it becomes entrenched.
How our belief about an event will be one of the key reasons why we react the way we do.
How to prepare our kids for their transition to a new school, and why it's so important to calm our own nerves about it and tune into the individual child and what they might need.
How 'collaborative parenting', being a calm container, can really help our teens.
How important it is to be clear about our values and beliefs with our teens.
How important it is to be authentic with our kids.
How choose to do things that aren't really important to us, but are things others are doing, set us up for failure.
How articulating feelings can be very challenging for teens, and having a 'feelings' vocabulary can really support them.
I loved Renee's point about having a list of emotions, and found this worksheet that we parents can use to try and identify our feelings, and those of our teens. https://www.therapistaid.com/worksheets/list-of-emotions
You can find our previous discussion about anxiety here:
https://www.teenagersuntangled.com/parenting-tips-14-how-to-help-your-teen-with-anxiety-and-how-to-set-rules-that-your-teens-will-follow/
If you would like to read more about Renee Mill, and the services she offers, here's the link: https://anxietysolutionscbt.com/about/renee-mill/