Description
Tired of Teen Anxiety is a step-by step guide for teenagers on how to do the things that matter to them despite anxiety. The guide is based on principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and uses evidence-based clinical techniques and describes them in accessible ways. It gives teenagers a toolkit to work through anxiety over the long term. By acknowledging that difficult thoughts and feelings are a normal part of being human, rather than something to try to squash, the authors normalise the everyday struggles of anxious young people so that teens can learn positive ways of dealing with anxiety and get on with living their best lives!
Authors
LISA COYNE is the Founder and Senior Clinical Consultant of the McLean OCD Institute for Children and Adolescents at McLean Hospital, Massachusetts, and an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the New England Center for OCD and Anxiety, a Past President of the Association of Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), and the author of several books.
SARAH CASSIDY is an educational, child and adolescent psychologist who specialises in the assessment and treatment of learning and emotional/behavioural difficulties. She is the Founder and Director of the Smithsfield Clinic, a private practice for young people and their families using largely ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and RFT (Relational Frame Theory) treatment methods. She lectures in Psychology at Maynooth University and trains ACT therapists throughout Ireland.
Details
Publisher: Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
Publication Date: January 2024
Pages: 160
ISBN: 9781803882758
Content
Table of Contents
Introduction – Let’s talk
1. Getting to know your anxiety
2. Our brains as threat detectors
3. More on mindfulness
4. Control and avoidance
5. Values and what you care about
6. Building a better compass
7. Letting go of the fight with anxiety
8. Getting to know your travelling companion
9. Taming the voice of your travelling companion
10. Your thoughts do not define you
11. Breaking out of the anxiety cage
12. Saying yes and meaning it
13. Nobody’s perfect – practising self-kindness
Aureen P. Wagner, PhD., Director, The Anxiety Wellness Center and author of Up and Down the Worry Hill and What to Do When Your Child has OCD –
Appealing and accessible, this book exudes hope and optimism for young people. With practical skills grounded in scientific research and the authors’ years of clinical expertise, it equips youth for embracing anxiety as a normal and healthy emotion, and for seeking and enjoying what brings fulfilment. I recommend it whole-heartedly.
Regine Galanti, PhD, Clinical Psychologist and Director of Long Island Behavioural Psychology, Author of Parenting Anxious Kids –
Tired of Teen Anxiety has that wonderful quality of a book that talks to teenagers without talking down to teenagers. Drs Coyne and Cassidy do a masterful job of speaking in an accessible and open way about highly effective skills, while meeting teens where they are. They distill evidence-based treatment techniques from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into easy to understand language and wonderful metaphors and exercises.
As a child psychologist, what I love most about this book is that, while it’s grounded in research, it lays out skills in a collaborative and playful tone. Rather than hitting teens over the head with their message, and becoming just another adult telling teens how to live their lives, Drs Lisa and Sarah encourage the reader to be curious and open while making the argument that anxiety is something to live with, not fight against, to become their best self. This is a must-read for any anxious teen – and their parents, and I can’t wait to share it with my patients!
Duncan Gillard, HCPC registered Educational Psychologist Hon. Senior Lecturer at Bangor University Founding Partner at ConnectEd –
This is without doubt one of the best and most helpful books on anxiety in adolescence I have ever read! It’s written for adolescents themselves, in a playful, engaging, accessible, genuine and unassuming manner and style, yet so much of its content is also of huge relevance for parents, carers and professionals working with anxious teens. Rarely have I seen a book translate complex principles and processes of evidence-based mental health care in such a beautiful and articulate way. It’s absolutely packed with brilliant, powerful and simple exercises that have the potential to radically transform the way adolescents understand their experience and relate to their anxiety.
And critically, it challenges those well-intended, yet much mistaken, messages that adolescents repeatedly receive from the cultural zeitgeist that if you experience anxiety as a teenager, there is something wrong with you, and that you need to get rid of your anxiety to start living a good life. When teenagers buy into that narrative too literally, they are trapped – they can never start living fully! Because living fully – which means doing stuff you care about – often means making room for the worry, fear and anxiety that things may not go exactly as you might hope. So many of the wonderful exercises in this book help adolescents not just tolerate their anxiety, but rather to bring genuine interest and curiosity to it, because so often inside our anxiety is what we most care about. So by helping adolescents bring genuine curiosity to their anxiety, this book also helps them to get in touch with what matters most to them, at this point in their lives.
If you are a teenager experiencing a lot of anxiety, this book is for you. If you are a parent/carer of a teenager experiencing anxiety, this book is for you, and for your young person. And if you are a professional working with adolescents experiencing anxiety… again this book is for you! A brilliant and heart-felt contribution to the literature!
Louise Hayes, PhD, Clinical Psychologist. Founder DNA-V and author of best-selling books – What Makes You Stronger, Get Out of Your Mind and into Your Life for Teens, Your Life Your Way, and The Thriving Adolescent –
Engage your curiosity, become skilled in living your best life and be your best self – we would all benefit from that! For young people living with anxiety, this book shows them step-by-step how to create their life. In these anxious times, this book gives science-backed strategies to build hope and growth. It has fabulous artwork and ideas shared by young people, too. If you know a young person who is anxious, or you work in any professional capacity with young people, this book is a fantastic asset. Get it on your shelf, share it in class, give it to your own kids.
Professor Louise McHugh, University College Dublin. Peer reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Trainer –
“Tired of Teen Anxiety” is a remarkable self-help guide tailored specifically for teenagers struggling with anxiety. Drawing from the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), this book offers a comprehensive approach to managing anxiety that is both insightful and highly accessible.
One of the standout features of this book is its interactive exercises, thoughtfully integrated throughout the chapters. These exercises provide teens with practical tools to understand, accept, and navigate their anxiety. They encourage self-reflection and empower readers to develop personalized strategies for managing their anxious thoughts and feelings.
The book’s language is clear, relatable, and jargon-free, making it easy for teenagers to connect with the material. The authors strike a delicate balance between empathy and guidance, acknowledging the challenges teens face while providing practical advice on how to overcome them.
Moreover, “Tired of Teen Anxiety” delves into the importance of values and mindfulness, emphasizing that a meaningful life is achievable even in the presence of anxiety. By aligning actions with values and practicing mindfulness techniques, teens can gradually build resilience and reduce the impact of anxiety on their lives.
The authors, Coyne and Cassidy are leading experts in the field and have developed a valuable resource for adolescents seeking to understand and manage their anxiety. It combines the wisdom of ACT with engaging exercises, making it an excellent companion on the journey to a happier and more fulfilling life, even in the face of anxiety. Teenagers and their caregivers will find this book to be a compassionate and essential guide.