Helping Kids When the World Feels Like a Scary Place

This presentation was part of the 6th Annual Mobile Mental Health Crisis Response Summit.

For many children and adolescents the outside world can feel scary, with a 24/7 news cycle that focuses on negative events, political divisions and rancor, frightening climate events, and other concerns. Parents, who themselves may be anxious, often lack the tools to help their children. This session aims to help parents to help their children manage a scary world by using an everyday tool at everyone’s disposal: conversations. We will review the function of anxiety and worry, how parents can identify their own negative emotions, and how to help children navigate, respond to, and resolve scary events.

Learning Objectives: Participants will: Know the characteristics of effective emotion coaching Learn ways to respond effectively to children’s negative emotions  Be exposed to examples of conversations about scary events between children and parents

Content Level: Keynote: Of interest to all attendees. Content is especially motivational or thought-provoking.

Presenter: Abigail Gewirtz, PhD, Foundation Professor and Director of Reach Institute – Arizona State University/ Reach Institute and Department of Psychology

Bio: Dr. Abigail Gewirtz is a child psychologist, mother of four, leading expert on helping families cope with trauma and the author of When the World Feels Like a Scary Place: Essential Conversations for Anxious Parents and Worried Children (Workman, 2020). She is Foundation Professor in the Psychology Department and Director of the Reach Institute at Arizona State University, and the former Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Psychology. Dr. Gewirtz has developed award-winning parenting programs and is the author of more than 100 publications; she has consulted for national and international organizations including the U.S. Congress and UNICEF. A fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, Dr. Gewirtz has conducted research in the United States, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, and has been invited to speak widely, in the U.S. and across the world, on parenting in times of stress.