Workshops for School Professionals

For over 25 years, Dr. Wagner has received consistently outstanding reviews at her workshops for school professionals.

NOW AVAILABLE ON-SITE OR VIA VIDEOCONFERENCING through Webex.

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in children and adolescents, affecting 13% or 6.5 million school-aged children, and far more common than ADHD, disruptive behavior, depression or substance abuse. Many anxious children experience serious problems at school. With early recognition and timely treatment, 80% of these children and teens can successfully overcome anxiety.

Dr. Aureen Wagner, an expert in childhood anxiety and OCD, will address the unique issues and challenges that school personnel face in identifying and managing anxiety or OCD in the classroom. Using examples, Dr. Wagner will discuss various manifestations of anxiety, developmental differences in presentation, co-morbidity, and differential diagnosis with conditions such as Tourette Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD. She will present effective treatments and discuss their relevance and application in school. Dr. Wagner will offer practical guidelines and feasible interventions for worry, perfectionism, school refusal, separation anxiety, social anxiety, panic, performance/test anxiety, obsessions and compulsions.

Dr. Wagner’s workshops are highly informative and combine scientifically-proven cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) with creative, user-friendly and practical innovations. She is known for her skill in tailoring workshops to specific needs or concerns identified by school personnel, and for presenting strategies that are highly applicable and relevant in the school setting. Topics may cover anxiety disorders as a group or specific disorders such as OCD. Participants are given detailed handouts to enable them to attend more fully to the presentation.

Topics covered include:

  • Normal fears across the life span
  • Normal vs. problem anxiety
  • Forms of anxiety in youngsters
  • What’s anxiety, what’s not?
  • How anxiety manifests in school
  • Red flags for anxiety in the classroom v Risk factors for anxiety
  • The fuel for anxiety: The Anxiety Triad v The Vicious Cycle of Avoidance
  • Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Child-friendly metaphors and analogies v Medications for anxiety
  • Effective child management strategies
  • What not to do: Strategies that don’t help
  • Contributions of school personnel v Working effectively with parents
  • Feasible interventions at school
  • Managing meltdowns and explosiveness

Two-hour workshops provide a comprehensive overview of anxiety and effective interventions. Topics include the signs and signals of anxiety in the classroom, differentiation from other complicated/co-morbid conditions (e.g., Tourette Syndrome, ADHD, Pervasive Developmental Disorders), description of CBT for anxiety, and practical management strategies in the school setting. Examples and case studies help participants relate the information to real-life situations. This workshop is ideal as an overview for a broad range of school staff, including mainstream and special education teachers, teacher’s aides, counselors, social workers, speech and occupational therapists, administrators and school psychologists.

Half-day workshops provide thorough coverage of early recognition of anxiety, differentiation from other complicated or co-morbid conditions, description of CBT for anxiety, and practical management strategies in the classroom setting. Case studies, question/answer and discussion are an integral part of the workshop. Participants are encouraged to bring real case examples for discussion. This workshop is ideal for all school staff seeking for Q and A and discussion about application of strategies to specific contexts.

Full-day workshops offer intensive training and consultation in managing anxiety or OCD. They are ideal for staff with more involvement in handling anxiety issues in children, such as school psychologists, counselors, social workers, nurses, and healthcare staff. This interactive workshop has a greater focus on case discussion. The morning session covers the same content as the half-day workshop described above. In the afternoon, participants may work on specific cases in small groups with the presenter’s guidance, followed by large group discussion of the pragmatics of implementing interventions within the constraints of a specific school or classroom setting. The format is tailored to the group’s needs, and includes addressing of specific questions or concerns of attendees.

Comments from Attendees at Dr. Wagner’s Workshops for School Professionals

  • Super, super, great workshop!
  • Very practical—I can use these ideas tomorrow.
  • Dr. Wagner was informative, funny and down to earth.
  • Excellent—thorough in a short amount of time—great practical strategies.
  • Very helpful because the speaker offered so many specific ideas.
  • It gave me new perspectives and insights, I found myself relating ideas to individuals in my life, my school and even myself.
  • Excellent. By far the best presentation I’ve attended at this conference.
  • Very insightful. Good use of examples and real-life scenarios.
  • Well organized, presenter very knowledgeable, well-spoken. Provided several useful, relevant anecdotes and examples of strategies.
  • Dr. Wagner is very approachable; answered everyone’s questions and very articulate, very experienced in her field.
  • One of the best workshops I’ve ever attended.
  • I do not as a rule, care for “workshops.” Today was exceptional! I hope Dr. Wagner will return to present to us again.
  • Excellent. I was constantly connecting this information to some of my students. Thank you!
  • My anxiety has been decreased by understanding how to work with anxious youngsters!
  • It was so engaging and interesting due to Dr. Wagner’s passion and expertise.
  • Excellent—one of the most valuable programs I have attended
  • What a privilege to have met you and know we have such a valuable resource locally.
  • This was excellent and has helped me look at students with a different perspective, along with practical ideas that are easy to implement.
  • 100% of this workshop was helpful to me!
Click here for Dr. Wagner's Past Workshops for School Professionals

School Professionals, Gloucester, VA

 

School Professionals, Toronto, Canada
Dr. Aureen Pinto Wagner presents a workshop to school professionals on anxiety disorders such as separation anxiety, generalized anxiety, school refusal, and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and the applications of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

School Professionals, Apex, NC
Anxiety at School Teacher Workshop Apex NC