Lenore Skenazy

You know, stage fright, they're all part of everyday life in childhood and in adulthood.

And that doesn't mean you shouldn't face them and try them.

And if things turns out, so I have to tell you, so independence is being used, I tell you this already, there's independence therapy is a new thing.

which is giving kids, as you might think, some independence to do new things if they have a diagnosis of anxiety.

A professor named Camilo Ortiz at Long Island University did a pilot study where he had four families and he talked to each of the sets of parents first and found out what was bothering them most about their kids' behavior.

And one of them was they had a nine-year-old who wouldn't go upstairs or downstairs

in his own house without a parent.

And I thought that was the only family I'd ever heard of like that.

And I've heard of other families that said anyways, when the next week comes for therapy, the kid comes with the parents and

Camilo normally would do cognitive behavioral therapy.

I hear you're afraid to go upstairs.

How about tonight?

You go up for five minutes.

You know, I'll give you a watch.

You'll time it and then you'll see if it was bad or good.

And then we'll try it maybe seven minutes the next week.

He doesn't mention anything about the kid's deficit or the parents worry.

Instead, he says, you're nine.

I'll bet there's some things you're ready to do.

that you haven't tried yet.