Dealing with big feelings.

By Stephanie Cordingley – Provisional Psychologist.

For many reasons a child may feel anxious, usually described as ‘worries’. A useful tool which provides an outlet for the anxiety is to get the child to name the ‘worries’. A name creates distance between the child and the problem; therefore, the child does not feel that they are the ‘worries’ or the problem. To expand on externalising the problem ‘worries’, the child can draw what the worry looks like. This leads to compassionate responding to the child’s anxious questions, e.g. “That sounds like another question from The Worry Bee, The Worry Bee just doesn’t stop, how annoying is that?”