Anxiety is often present for children and adolescents experiencing learning and attention problems. Understanding the roots of anxiety helps us to make sense of the child’s experience and informs how we respond as parents and caregivers.
From a developmental perspective, the dynamics of alarm and attachment are inherent to anxiety and its related challenges. The body’s alarm system can get stuck early on in a child’s life, leading to high levels of anxiety, numbing of emotions, and a host of complications (sleep problems, learning difficulties, attention deficits, aggression, depression - to name a few). At the same time, attachment needs play a vital role in a child’s experience of feeling safe and secure; without this sense of security, the child becomes alarmed and defended against anything that is too overwhelming.
Once we have a better understanding of these dynamics, we have a better vision for how to get our child unstuck - how to free them up to learn, to grow, to quiet the alarm and find rest.
Tamara Strijack is a Registered Clinical Counsellor working on Vancouver Island. She has worked with children and adolescents in various roles over the last sixteen years - as mentor, counsellor, youth leader, program director, group facilitator - and is herself a mother of two young girls.
She also works as a parent and teacher consultant, helping adults make sense of the children in their care. Connection, relationship and attachment continue to be central themes in all of her roles, both personally and professionally. Tamara Strijack is also a faculty member of the Neufeld Institute.
As Dr. Gordon Neufeld’s daughter, Tamara offers a unique inside view - bringing together her own experience and insight with her father’s theoretical material.
