When a child becomes anxious or emotionally overwhelmed, many parents instinctively try to fix the situation or make the anxiety disappear as quickly as possible. While this response comes from love and concern, one of the most effective ways to support an anxious child is often much simpler: remaining calm, emotionally present, and connected.
When a child struggles with anxiety, one of the first questions many parents quietly ask themselves is: “Did I do something wrong?”
For many mothers and fathers, a child’s anxiety can feel deeply personal. Parents often carry guilt, shame, or fear that they somehow caused their child’s emotional struggles.
Childhood anxiety is becoming increasingly common, yet many parents still struggle to recognise what anxiety actually looks like in children. Unlike adults, children often do not have the emotional vocabulary to explain their worries clearly. Instead, anxiety often presents through behaviour, physical complaints, emotional outbursts, or changes in functioning at home and school.
Anxiety is a normal, biologically built-in protective mechanism that plays a critical role in a child’s development.
Anxiety is a normal part of being human. It forms part of the body’s natural “alarm system” that helps us stay safe. When something feels threatening, this system prepares the body to respond. According to Lang’s three-systems model of anxiety, anxiety shows itself in three main ways: through emotions, physical reactions in the body, and behaviour.
Group therapy offers children a powerful space to grow, connect, and learn. When children come together in a supportive group, they often realise they are not alone in their struggles.
In child therapy, psychologists often use playful “co-therapists” such as puppets or characters to help children feel safe and at ease. Play is the natural language of children, and it is often through play that children express their experiences, thoughts, and feelings (Virginia Axline, 1947). A character can help to
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