TPP 265: Help for Childhood Anxiety and OCD with Dr. Eli Lebowitz
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
41 min
1 speaker
4 chapters
transcribed 13 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the core concept of childhood anxiety and why does it involve both the child and the parent?
Child anxiety is inherently at its core. It's really not just like a one-person phenomenon, just the child, in the way that, you know, your child might have a fever, that's them, or they might have a toothache, that's it them. When they're anxious, it's not just them. It's actually you, the parent, and them, because that's how they respond to fear. And what it means for parents of children with anxiety. It means that You are almost inevitably going to find yourself. entangled in your child's anxiety symptoms.
Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber. I have a great conversation for you today. My guest is Dr. Ellie Liebowitz, a clinical psychologist, researcher, and the director of the program for anxiety disorders at the Yale Child Study Center. One of my favorite things about making this podcast is getting to talk with people who are top experts in their field, doing work that has the potential to deeply impact families in this community, including my own. Today is one of those conversations and I can't wait to share it with you. Ellie and I are talking about his new book called Breaking Free of Childhood Anxiety and OCD, a scientifically proven program for parents, which I had the opportunity to read and cannot recommend highly enough.
The book is based on the treatment program Ellie developed, Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, or Space for short. What I find so empowering about this book and the Space program is the focus on what parents and caregivers can do to support a child dealing with anxiety, as well as providing a solid understanding of childhood anxiety, how it impacts family systems. And why accommodating your child's anxiety may be more harmful than helpful. This is such a powerful and compassionate approach to childhood anxiety, and one that I think parents and caregivers of all children, diagnosis or not, can get a lot out of. Here is our conversation. Hello, Dr. Liebowitz. Welcome to the podcast.
Hi, thanks for having me.
Well, I'm really excited about this conversation. I enjoyed your book. thoroughly and just felt like it was such a fresh voice in the conversation around kids' anxiety and OCD. So I'm excited to share that with our listeners. But could you take a few minutes at the head of this conversation to just share a little bit about kind of what's at the heart of the work that you do in the world?
At the heart of the work that I do is helping children with anxiety and related disorders and their family. That is what my work is really about. At the Child Study Center at uh Yale, I oversee a program for anxiety disorders, and that is really the mission that I'm devoted to.
And I'm just curious how you came to that specialty. Was it personal for you or how did you find your way there?
Well Yeah, like many others, I certainly have a good amount of personal direct experience coping with anxiety, including child anxiety. Um, as a child, as a parent, I also have some experience coping with child anxiety, but it's really an area that I've been interested in a l for a long time. Anxiety disorders and also related disorders like obsessive, compulsive disorder or OCD have really been a focus of mine for many, many years at this point.
Well, so you're the perfect expert to talk about these things with us today. And just so we can have a baseline for our conversation, I know many listeners have experience with anxiety, but can you just take a moment to explain what is happening in a child's brain and body when they are experiencing anxiety?
Sure. It it's kind of like a deceptive question because it sounds relatively simple, but it's actually a little bit more complex. Um we all experience anxiety some of the time. And and that's a healthy normal part of life, right? We know that we have an anxiety system and we're supposed to have it in order to keep us safe and help us identify what might be dangerous to us and help us stay out of trouble and away from harm.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the core concept of childhood anxiety and why does it involve both the child and the parent?
0:00–8:27
2
How does Dr. Eli Lebowitz’s new book introduce the SPACE program for parents?
8:27–22:20
3
What happens in a child’s brain and body when they experience anxiety?
22:20–40:17
4
Which subtle signs indicate that a child may be struggling with anxiety or OCD?
40:17–41:35
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
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TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
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TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids