What You Will Learn

This training allows you to understand what happens in the brain of an anxious child and why they react this way. You will discover how to establish safety rituals that provide predictability and control, and you will learn effective breathing and grounding techniques to help your child return to calm.

Through concrete explanations and immediately applicable strategies, you will know how to respond to anxious thoughts (“What if…”) and how to turn difficult moments into opportunities to strengthen your child’s confidence.

By the end of this training, you will be able to:

• Differentiate stress, anxiety, and anguish and understand when to intervene
• Identify the symptoms of anxiety: physical (stomach aches, headaches), behavioral (avoidance, requests for reassurance), and emotional (irritability, anger)
• Understand what happens in an anxious brain: the role of the amygdala and why you cannot “reason” with a child in crisis
• Identify the 5 typical anxiety situations: school, separation, homework, novelty, performance
• Establish a calming morning ritual: gentle awakening, stretching, positive phrase, visual checklist
• Manage transitions with the three announcements rule: 15 min, 5 min, transition moment
• Implement a protective evening ritual: tidying up, hygiene, quiet time, breathing, falling asleep
• Create an anxiety-friendly environment: predictability, visibility, simplicity
• Teach abdominal breathing (the balloon in the belly) and the 4-7-8 technique
• Practice the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique with the five senses to cut off anxious thoughts
• Use the inner weather to help the child identify their emotional state
• Respond appropriately to “What if…”: validate the emotion, gently question, limit reassurances
• Apply the little detective method to examine anxious thoughts
• Transform negative thoughts into softer and more realistic formulations
• Keep a journal of successes and courage to strengthen confidence
• Know when to consult a professional and whom to turn to