My guest this week is Dr. Regine Galanti, a clinical psychologist and author of the recent book, When Harley Has Anxiety (affiliate link). (As you’ll hear in this episode, I somehow thought the name was “Harlan” instead of “Harley,” but we got that straightened out.) If you’re a parent of an anxious child, or you’re wondering if your child might need to see a therapist, or even if you’re dealing with anxiety yourself, there’s a lot to take from this discussion.

A central message in Regine’s work is that difficult emotions aren’t dangerous—and that bravery is a decision. So a lot of what CBT for anxiety is about is finding techniques that give us more leverage to act bravely. And when we do, we’ll find that difficult emotions either go away, or we get better at tolerating them. So this is a really key lesson to learn at any age. I’ll look forward to your feedback on this episode.

Topics we discussed included:

• The need for Regine’s most recent book
• How to tell when a young child’s fears are beyond “typical” anxiety
• Dealing with our own anxiety as parents when our kids are anxious
  • The book Regine recommended by Eli Lebowitz is Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD.
• The applicability of the techniques in When Harley Has Anxiety to all age groups
• The “Follow the Maze” exercise for coming into the present
• The many applications of mindful presence
• Common protective parent behaviors that actually maintain and reinforce children’s anxiety
  • Accommodation
  • Excessive reassurance
  • Modeling anxious behavior
  • Criticizing a child’s anxious behavior
• Balancing our children’s short- and long-term happiness
• The idea that it’s unsafe to be emotionally upset
• The impossibility of removing all negative emotion from life
• The ability to tolerate discomfort and act bravely even if we don’t feel brave
• Learning that difficult emotions either go away or we learn to tolerate them
• Using multi-sensory techniques as a gateway into talking about emotions with kids
• Constructive ways of helping children to name their emotions
• How young we can start teaching CBT to anxious kids
• Carrying over CBT skills from childhood to older ages

Regine Galanti, PhD, is a licensed psychologist who assesses and treats individuals with anxiety and OCD, and young children with behavior problems, anxiety, and co-occurring disorders. She specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT).

Regine founded a therapy practice in Nassau County in New York called Long Island Behavioral Psychology.

She’s the author of Anxiety Relief for Teens, and a sought-after speaker who’s been quoted in the Washington Post, Self Magazine, and Buzzfeed, among others.

Regine is also the Web editor for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), the Communications Chair for the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP), and a member of the Translating Science to Practice committee of the Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP).

Find Regine online at her website and on Twitter and Instagram, and be sure to check out her TikTok account.