Kids today are more anxious than ever - and they have every right to be! But as a parent, it can be hard to watch your child struggle. Thankfully, there's a lot you can do to help. Raising Calm Kids in a World of Worry introduces clinically informed, easy-to-implement strategies to help your child overcome their biggest worries and develop into joyful, emotionally resilient humans. After working with thousands of parents and children struggling with anxiety, psychotherapist and parent coach team Ashley Graber and Maria Evans identified five key practices that consistently reduce worry - both in the moment and over the long run. Together, these form the basis of SAFER Parenting: Set the Tone, Accept Feelings to Guide Behaviours, Form Identity, Engage Like a Pro, and Role Model. Walking readers through each practice, Graber and Evans reveal what parents are missing when it comes to spotting their child's signs of anxiety, and show how you can use your own sense of calm to: manage big feelings and guide your child toward productive coping tools; have difficult and emotionally-charged conversations without losing your cool; learn to foster open conversation through therapist-approved techniques; nurture your child's confidence and independence, and create psychological safety in the home to increase calm and lower anxiety. Meeting parents where they are, Raising Calm Kids In a World of Worry shows how despite having plenty of reasons to worry, your child can find their safe harbour in you.
Ashley Graber and Maria Evans are nationally recognized parent coaches, child and family psychotherapists, and speakers based in Los Angeles, CA.
Ashley and Maria empower parents to navigate the intricate journey of raising children, offering knowledge and a supportive network that spans across continents. The duo run ongoing parenting groups in which parents around the globe can discover a wealth of strategies and practical insights for better parenting, making these groups a nurturing space for honing parenting skills while embracing the diverse perspectives of fellow caretakers.
In addition, Ashley and Maria have trained over 8,000 psychotherapists, psychologists, counselors, and parent coaches to support children with anxiety, as well as teach mindfulness tools for anxiety and work-life integration training for parents at corporate events around the world. They teach empirically-backed psychotherapeutic exercises and tools that are effective and easy to implement at home with children or in psychotherapy offices.
The pair's teachings combine the wisdom of child and family psychology and their understanding of trauma, bridging Maria's background in researching the effects of the 9/11 attacks on young children at Columbia University, with Ashley's expertise in meditation and mindfulness to show the impact of anxiety on the family and help parents and children find calm in a world of worry.
