Coaching practices for The Anxiety Toolkit for My Teenager

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Anxiety Toolkit for My Teenager, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

  • I’ve got all these little things I do to get through anxious moments
  • I’ve got all these little rules that keep me okay
  • I can only handle the scary situation if I’ve got my little crutch
  • My child can tell me they’re upset but then has no idea what to actually do about it
  • I only ever try a new way to handle this once I’m already deep in a full-blown wave, and by then I’m too far gone to think

Practices that may help

  1. The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
    A practical anxiety toolkit pulls together a handful of evidence-informed skills — grounding, breathing, interoceptive awareness, behavioral experiments, and balanced self-talk — so you have the right tool for the moment instead of one move for every situation. Several of these rest on solid clinical and experimental support. They are self-help skills for everyday stress and anxiety; for severe or persistent anxiety, use them alongside professional care.
  2. Map your safety-behavior inventory
    List every action you take to prevent feared outcomes in anxiety-provoking situations.
    Safety Behavior Fading, Made Practical
  3. Drop the safety behaviors
    Let go of the small avoidances and crutches you use to feel "safe" from anxiety.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  4. Gradually drop safety behaviors
    Safety behaviors (a phone, a companion, a pill) reduce distress in the moment but prevent the learning that exposure is meant to produce.
    The Fear Ladder: Graded Exposure Made Practical
  5. Build each child’s personalized regulation toolbox
    Each child needs their own set of tools matched to each zone.
    Zones of Regulation (Leah Kuypers)
  6. Rehearse the response before you need it
    Learn and practice the four steps in low-stakes moments so they are available under pressure.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  7. Balanced, compassionate self-talk
    Talk to yourself as you would to a friend — accurate and kind, not harsh or falsely cheery.
    The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
  8. The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique
    Name five things you see, four you hear, three you feel, two you smell, one you taste.
    The Anxiety Toolkit, Made Practical
  9. Run toward the feeling
    Actively invite more of the anxiety rather than waiting nervously for it to pass.
    The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
  10. The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
    The DARE response, popularized by Barry McDonagh, is an acceptance-based way to meet anxiety and panic: Defuse the scary thought, Allow the sensations without resisting, Run toward (rather than away from) the feeling, and Engage with life again. Its logic lines up with what exposure- and acceptance-based approaches do — you stop reinforcing fear by fighting or fleeing it. These are self-help skills for everyday anxiety; for severe or persistent panic, work alongside a qualified professional.

Related concerns

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.

Practice this with IX Coach

Try this practice