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What readers and reviewers are saying about Parent-Child Guide to Coping with Anxiety:“Aimed at children between the ages of 8 and 12, Dessy Marinova’s manual provides valuable insights into emotional wellness for preadolescents. . . Presenting illustrations and insights by the author’s young daughter, Lora Marinova, the guide thoughtfully balances science and accessibility. . . Filled with fun activities, this manual will help readers of all ages deal with anxiety.”—Kirkus Reviews
“The guidebook is both accessible to parents and child-friendly. . . This is a true parent-child workbook. . . The book includes clear directions for which exercises should be done together, which are best done by parents first, and which children can handle on their own. It also models a spirit of true partnership, understanding, and mutual respect: Marinova’s eleven-year-old daughter contributes to portions of the book, including illustrations and insights that identify the sources of childhood anxiety. . .
For adults, the book explains how to model effective behaviors for children and shares coaching techniques for supporting children’s social-emotional development. . ." —Foreword Clarion Reviews "This book is a gem because it's created jointly by Dr. Dessy and her daughter, Lora. It provides a real-life toolkit that helps parents and children together tackle a complex and frustrating issue on coping with emotions and anxiety in manageable steps using easy-to-use joint worksheets. Together parents and children learn, reflect, and build new ways of thinking and coping with their difficult emotions. . . Children will particularly like the real-life relatable examples from Lora and be drawn to the illustrations to explain abstract concepts and strategies.
As a child psychologist, I found this is an accessible, engaging, and practical book that offers a new integrated way of thinking and parenting a sensitive or anxious child. It is a first of its kind where the parents also need to slow down and look deeply at themselves and mutually participate in understanding and coping with their own adult feelings along with their child's. It shows parents and children how to be curious about their own minds, develop a new relationship to their difficult thoughts and emotions and build small daily practices in their lives so they can say to themselves, 'I can cope.'" —Dr. Melody Ashworth, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at The Willow Centre, Canada "Dr. Dessy and her daughter, Lora, obviously put a lot of intelligent thought and colorful creativity into this workbook for parents and children. The parent-child guide to coping with anxiety has a lot to offer people. It goes well beyond anxiety management. I think of it as more of a holistic guide to life. . . I was impressed by the active learning components for parents and children throughout the book. Dr. Dessy pulls it all together by calling the reader to task, prompting them to fill in the blanks. Parent-Child Guide to Coping with Anxiety: Helping our Brains Learn to Manage Strong Emotions is not just a book about anxiety management. It's a book about life." —Dr. Glendon Rayworth, Psy.D., clinical psychologist at The Cognitive and Interpersonal Therapy Centre, Canada "Parent-Child Guide to Coping with Anxiety" is packed with concrete tools and strategies to empower parents to create long-term, positive shifts in a child's life. Lora's narrative creates a unique thread throughout the book- making it easily relatable for children. The book is fun, vibrant, and full of ideas. A life-changer!”
—Tania Johnson, Psychologist Co-Founder of the Institute of Child Psychology “The Parent-Child Guide to Coping with Anxiety workbook has significant takeaways for parents of elementary and middle school children with child-friendly, accessible language that children can relate to, remember, and use in their everyday life. Young ones doing activities in the book with the parent
will give them a mutual opportunity to bond with each other, help parents develop personal awareness and understanding of their child’s inner life. In addition, engaging examples and creative illustrations to demonstrate abstract psychological concepts will stick with young children. It is time to bring these essential ideas to young children when anxiety is commonplace, like headaches.” —Dr. Afroze Anjum, Psy.D., Psychologist, Co-author of the Strengths-Based Resilience Program, Canada "The inner child of the adult author resonates clearly with the inner child of her co-author – daughter. Similarly, the author's command of scientific knowledge resonates with the clear portrayal of this to the reader – be it a child, a parent, or a therapist.
Rx: read it, learn it, live it, own it, and use it." —Dr. Sol Goldstein, MD, child psychiatrist "Dr. Dessy's and Lora's guide is a gift for families who want to learn how to better manage anxiety and other strong emotions. Parents will appreciate the friendly, patient, and reassuring tone. Children will love the cheerful illustrations and true-to-life examples.
Offering a refreshing perspective, Dr. Dessy emphasizes that we can learn to understand, accept, and even befriend our intense feelings. With skillful integration of techniques from Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, as well as mindfulness, Dr. Dessy delivers a range of valuable, practical strategies. I especially appreciated the emphasis on parental reflection, practice, and modeling of the skills we want our children to learn." —Dr. Lana Zinck, Ph.D., school and clinical child psychologist, Canada This informative workbook is essentially a toolkit that in part takes the reader through the authors own journey in successfully managing child anxiety and related challenges, but it is much more than that. The authors do an excellent job at explaining, in scientific, lay and child-terms, evidence-based research from the neurosciences and from the state of the art approaches to managing anxiety, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and its more recent adjuncts; Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I was glad to see themes and examples of the ever-important Attachment theory weaved throughout the book, guiding parents in developing and strengthening the parent-child bond which is so vital for healthy relationships and functioning throughout life, and for the management of anxiety. The authors' support and guidance to parents to slow down, step back, reflect and develop a deeper, more helpful understanding and approach to helping their child, rather than rushing in to try to fix things is another vital inclusion. Parents and children will receive tremendous knowledge, support and guidance in this book.
"The Parent-Child Guide to Coping with Anxiety" is chock-full of concrete, applicable evidence-based tools, exercises and other strategies for helping children aged eight to twelve years old. I also appreciated how Dessy and Lora model all the above for the reader and explain evidence-based scientific information through child-friendly language, illustrations, worksheets, and other easy-to-understand and use materials. It is clear that the warmth and healthy attachment between Dessy and Lora shine through as great examples and mentorship for the reader. —Steven Singerman, M.Ed, MSW, RSW, Clinical Social Worker in private practice, Canada. "We had a lot of fun reading the workbook. Aimie, Brightie, and Dooie characters are a very clever and neat way to help kids visualize their emotions. . . The kids really identify with the child's examples and illustrations in the book."
—Alice Popova, parent |