Course | Recognizing and Managing Anxiety in the Classroom

Facilitator

John Piacentini, PhD
Dr. Piacentini is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist whose works focuses on the development and testing of effective treatments for childhood anxiety and related disorders. Dr. Piacentini has played a lead role in several major treatment studies for these disorders and has published over 240 research papers, many in leading medical journals, chapters and books. In addition to his role as the Director of the UCLA CARES Center, Dr. Piacentini is Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Director of the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders. He has a long history of child and family advocacy and serves on Boards for several organizations, including, nationally, the Anxiety Depression Association of America, the International OCD Foundation, the Tourette Syndrome Association Behavioral Sciences Consortium (Chair), the Trichotillomania Learning Center, the American Board of Professional Psychology, and, locally, the Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation (Vice-President). In addition, he is also current President of the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology.

Kate Sheehan, LCSW
Ms. Sheehan is a licensed clinical social worker and the Managing Director for the CARES Center. She is a Mindful Self Compassion trained teacher and is certified in Self Compassion in Psychotherapy. She is also a certified Daring Way facilitator, sharing the research and work of the Brené Brown Education and Research Group. She earned an MSW from Columbia University School of Social Work in Clinical Work with Children and Families. She also holds an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She graduated with highest honors from the Sorbonne. A granddaughter of a yoga pioneer, Kate is trained in Trauma-Informed Yoga and the Trauma Resiliency Model.

Monica Wu, PhD
Dr. Wu is a licensed psychologist (PSY31561) with over 10 years of experience in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) in youth. She has extensive training in the gold-standard, evidence-based practices for assessing and treating these disorders, and often conducts workshops to train mental health clinicians (nationally and internationally). She possesses expertise in exposure-based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and Habit Reversal Training (HRT).

Emily Ricketts, PhD
Dr. Emily Ricketts is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program within the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research centers on sleep and circadian disturbance and targeted interventions in Tourette’s disorder, obsessive-compulsive-spectrum disorders, and comorbid conditions (ADHD, anxiety). Her research incorporates multimodal assessment of sleep and circadian rhythms including subjective measures, actigraphy, and salivary melatonin assessment. She has received research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Tourette Association of America, TLC Foundation for Body Focused Repetitive Behaviors, and the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation.

Overview

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes
This course is designed to help educators navigate the nuances involved with recognizing and addressing anxiety and stress in K-12 students. John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP, Director, Center for Child Anxiety Resilience Education and Support (CARES) joins his colleagues, Monica Wu, PhD, Kate Sheehan, LCSW, and Emily Ricketts, PhD in discussing common manifestations of anxiety. Video vignettes engage the learner to better understand various ways in which anxiety may thwart a child’s academic, emotional, and social development. Practical strategies for individual and classroom use are offered for elementary through high school.

Learning Objectives

Differentiate between fear, stress, and anxiety
Identify warning signs of anxiety
Recognize students struggling with problematic anxiety
Apply effective strategies for reducing and managing anxiety at the individual and classroom levels
Utilize practical tools to partner with parents/caregivers and bridge home to school communication