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Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Growing Up Brave is a new book by Dr. Donna Pincus, PhD. Dr. Pincus is a recognized expert in childhood anxiety. This book is a wonderful resource for parents because it teaches how to identify, understand, and move through childhood anxiety.

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, anxiety disorders affect one in eight children. Dr. Pincus, one of the country’s preeminent childhood anxiety experts, founder of the Child Anxiety Network and director of the Child and Adolescent Fear and Anxiety Treatment Program at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University, has dedicated her life to developing — and employing — new and proven techniques to reduce, or in some cases eliminate completely, childhood anxiety.

In Growing UP Brave Pincus provides thought-provoking, easy-to-follow steps to help children and parents understand what anxiety is, how it physically manifests, why, biologically, our bodies respond to it in various and often upsetting ways, and how to take control of it.

She also delves into deeper layers that help parents identify which sorts of fears or anxieties are “normal” and which are not, how a parent’s own behaviors (anxious, controlling, critical, etc.) can inspire mirrored behaviors in their children, and daily activities and long-term strategies to help ward off anxiety and anxious behavior. She also lays out a step-by-step strategy (the “Bravery Ladder”) for a variety of some of the more common childhood anxiety issues including: school anxiety, social anxiety, sleep anxiety, fear of public speaking, and more.

Dr. Pincus also provides resources for finding specialists, tips on how to communicate with therapists, when (or when not) to use medications, and much more.

I found the book to be easy to read and am already planning to give my copy to a friend with an anxious daughter when I see her tomorrow. Oh yea, it’s that good.

To learn more, visit GrowingUpBrave.com or subscribe through Facebook or @DonnaPincus on Twitter.

Earnest Parenting: help for parents who want their children to grow through their anxiety.