Working with Parents of Anxious Children

Christopher McCurry, Ph.D. is a father, husband, and a clinical child psychologist in private practice in Seattle, Washington, where he specializes in the assessment and treatment of childhood anxiety, with an emphasis on parent-child interactions. He is also an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington. He received his M.A. in Developmental Psychology from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno.

"What loving parent would not want to end the suffering of their child? Yet anxiety will run roughshod over families, taking advantage of responses that, on the surface, seem so caring. By the time they arrive in treatment, parents feel helpless and exhausted, while the worried child has become dependent on reassurance and overprotection. McCurry expertly elucidates for readers the tactics of therapeutic change that will stabilize the family system, empower the parents, and foster resilience in the child." -- Reid Wilson, PhD, co-author Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: Seven Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous and Independent Children "Work with parents of anxious children is becoming richer and more nuanced as practitioners used to doing parent training, communication skills work, and traditional cognitive behavior therapy begin to use acceptance and mindfulness-based therapies as well. This wise and well-written volume will help provide that sense of nuance and balance. It is not a treatment protocol, nor is it dedicated to any one approach; it is a guidebook, helping you to use your existing skills in more sophisticated ways and to learn new skills and approaches without having to abandon what you already know. Highly recommended." -- Steven C. Hayes, PhD, Co-developer of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life "This book is an incredibly valuable resource for every clinician working with anxious children and their parents. McCurry expertly integrates evocative clinical vignettes with a sophisticated, yet easily understood, biopsychosocial model. He explains the negative parent-child interactions so common in the families of anxious youth and provides an elegant and effective therapeutic approach for enhancing family communication and resolving conflict. Drawing from the cognitive-behavioral, functional analytic, acceptance, and mindfulness literatures, this book provides clear guidance and an abundance of clinical "pearls" for teaching parents how to create a healthy and resilient home environment." -- John Piacentini, PhD, ABPP, President, Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, Director, Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program, UCLA Semel Institute