A brilliant way to beat social anxiety in children!

Social anxiety

The aim of the Thrive Programme is to create good self esteem - when we feel good about ourselves, we feel confident around other people. However, when we lack self belief, this often leads to anxiety, shyness and embarrassment around people - this is known as Social Anxiety.

Social anxiety can often lead to avoidance of social situations. This may include situations such as public speaking, dating, interviews, using public toilets, parties and other social events. Social anxiety often rears its head in childhood. Children may be fearful of, and want to avoid situations such as sleepovers, answering questions in class, buying goods in shops, and just generally speaking up for themselves in everyday situations.

The Thrive Programme helps clients to understand how their thinking has created their social anxiety and gives them the tools to change it. An essential component of the programme is helping clients to recognise and process their positive achievements - something that people with poor self esteem are not very good at doing!

One of my young clients, a 14 year old girl, has created a fantastic way of recording and processing her achievements in challenging her social anxiety. Using a dry-wipe board, she created a brick wall, and filled in each brick with a positive achievement. This serves as a great reminder to her of all the things she has recently achieved....and makes it much easier for her to believe she can continue to feel confident and challenge herself.

She has also created a social-anxiety to-do list, to help keep her focused on the other areas she would like to continue working on. She is now at the end of the programme, and the effort she has put in has really paid off. A big well done to her, and her mum for her help too!