Are you aware that 55% of adults who suffer from agoraphobia and other severe anxiety conditions experienced childhood anxiety conditions. Thirty-one percent of these began before age 10.

Fortunately, the CHAANGE Family of Therapeutic Tools has an effective way to treat children suffering from severe anxiety: The LifeSkills Program, materials designed for application by the parent(s), the CHAANGE therapist, or both.

This program was designed through the joint efforts of professionals from education, social work, family therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. It provides age appropriate materials for children from 6-15 years of age.

LifeSkills teaches new information that explains anxiety, helps the child form more positive attitudes and beliefs, instructs the family in ways to be constructive, and assists in the initiation and practice of new ways of behaving in order to overcome feared situations.

The following is a message we recently received from a person who as a 12 year-old girl suffering from severe anxiety, followed the LifeSkills program and is now a confident, anxiety free 21 year-old:

"Thank you so much for giving me the life skills I needed to survive through anxiety at the age I am. So many issues I never knew had to do with anxiety that had been holding me back. Although they are still with me and they make me who I am, I know how to deal with them. Thank you for being there!" -- H.M.

As we all know, life can be stressful not only for adults, but is particularly problematic for children. The breakdown of the nuclear family, violence in everyday life and in entertainment, terrorism, and both economic and professional pressures on parent figures combine to create fertile ground for severe anxiety in children.

As Dr. Paul Foxman points out in his book , Dancing With Fear, while there were no reported suicides in children fifty years ago, now a child attempts suicide every 78 seconds. Children as young as three years of age have tried to kill themselves. The year 1999 will always be remembered for the alarming incidence of school violence and death that occurred in that twelve-month time. Areas of life once taken for granted as safe and secure have been shattered, and new zones of calm and peace are hard to find.

As can be seen in the written contributions of past CHAANGE participants in Dr. John R. Pullen's book, Transcending Anxiety & Achieving Inner Peace: Firsthand accounts of success by men and women over fearful feelings , it is clear that severe anxiety is a condition that not only has its roots in childhood, its symptoms frequently appear during childhood and go untreated.

One reason why childhood anxiety conditions go unrecognized and untreated is that there are normal fears that all children experience. The normal newborn exhibits fear when feeling a loss of physical support or hearing loud noises. From age one on until school age, children fear separation from parenting figures. Most people remember being afraid of the dark or monsters in the closet or under the bed. Children are commonly afraid of thunder, lightening, and "bad people". The list goes on and on.  

Adolescence brings with it more  fears: fear of rejection, fear of failure -- socially, academically, economically -- fear of natural and political cataclysms. The empathic parent recognizes these fears as normal, and learning to deal with them as necessary to maturation.

Sometimes, a child or adolescent may have a genetic endowment that makes them sensitive , particularly if their life experience has also included more than average disruption and uncertainty. Anxiety symptoms may appear that go beyond routine, normal childhood fears. Professional help is needed in order to prevent the child from growing into an adult crippled by severe anxiety.

Even kind and loving parents sometimes find that their child exhibiting problem behaviors , such as, refusing to go to school, doesn't want to go to summer camp with friends, frequently feels ill, and seems to require constant reassurance. These children may avoid eye contact, be irritable, and avoid performance situations or any new experience. Any of these symptoms that  endure over time is a signal that more than good parenting is called for.

There is Help:  A Sound Approach

Remediating anxiety in children is possible.   In fact, this population is extremely amenable to help because of their general compliance and the extent of their pain and embarrassment.

The LifeSkills Team was a group of professionals who came together from the various disciplines of education, social work, family-therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy.  This team designed a program using empirically-based and clinically tested methods to help children deal with anxiety quickly and efficiently so that they may get on with their lives again.

The program is conceptualized in four parts:

I.   Education assistance - New information that de-myths anxiety.
II.  Cognitive assistance - Identifying and changing fearful, negative self talk.
III. Family systems assistance - Working with the family system and seeing the child's symptoms in context.
IV. Behavioral assistance - Teaching and encouraging new ways of behaving, including in vivo desensitization.A Timely Solution: The LifeSkills Program

Our process teaches basic mental health skills and allows children to work their way out of anxiety to lead normal productive lives.   It's called the LifeSkills  Program, and it gets results.  The program consists of twelve audio tapes, a SkillbuilderT workbook and a Parent/Professional manual.  Ten of the tapes focus on lessons about stress, anger, mind/boy connection, relaxation theory, assertiveness, self-talk, imagery, risk taking, self esteem building and other skills.  These tapes are weekly session tapes that are to be used in sequence as a therapy process.  The other two tapes are relaxation tapes which differ slightly giving the child a choice of method and gender on the tapes.

The Lifeskills Program can be used nearly anywhere.   It is effective whether it is used in the home, the classroom, guidance office, or as reinforcement to the therapy given by a professional counselor or therapist.  There is also a Therapist's Supplement available for the clinician who wishes to have assessment tools, interview questions, more precise differential diagnosis information, a model of the biochemical, learning and stress components in the etiology of childhood anxiety disorder and more.

The Lifeskills Team is dedicated to bringing relief to the anxious child in his environment with minimal cost and disruption and maximum effect and efficiency.  There are millions of children who are suffering right and their families are suffering along with them.

LifeSkills - An Overview

The LifeSkills program is an audio taped learning process designed for the anxious young person, aged 6 to 15.  LifeSkills can be used by a professional therapist or can be used in the home or classroom, monitored by a parent, teacher or youth worker.  LifeSkills is fun and it works in two ways:  (1)  It gives the young person mental health skills that will prevent adult problems (2) It remedies anxiety.

LifeSkills consists of 12 tapes.  Two are relaxation tapes for the young person to use daily through the program and beyond.  The other 10 tapes are narrative of each session covered in the SkillbuilderT workbook.

Session I:         Relaxation - The systematic method of teaching oneself the opposite of anxiety.

Session II:        Stress -The norm for young people in our society who have a perceived lack of control over events in their lives.

Session III:       Body Sensations & Emotions - The anxious child lacks an understanding of the connection between the mind and the body and therefore experience fear of the body's response to anxiety.

Session IV:       Worry - A learned habit of thought and behavior that generates and sustains anxiety.

Session V:        Self Esteem - The personality characteristics common to anxious children often reduce self-esteem.

Session VI:       Self-Talk - The popular phrase for an important new approach to changing ones feelings.

Session VII:      Positive Movie Making - The skills of imagery desensitization is one that integrates relaxation and self-talk with visual cues.

Session VIII:     Anger - A universal human emotion that, properly handled, can aid in a productive life.

Session IX:       Assertive Living - A skill to change the young person's assumptions about power and self-worth relative to other individuals.

Session X:        Living Fearlessly - To become free of anxiety, worry, anticipation and distress, one must take risks in new situation using carefully applied techniques.

Order this affordable and powerful program now!