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Featuring: Lynne Siqueland, PhD
May 23, 2017 | 12 noon – 1:00 pm ET
Addressing Perfectionism Across Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Learning to Live by Values Instead of by Rules
Webinar Description:
Perfectionism is commonly exhibited by youth with anxiety disorders, especially those diagnosed with GAD, OCD, and social anxiety disorder. Although having high standards can be advantageous, extreme perfectionism causes significant impairment. Academic impairment is commonly seen in this population, including difficulties initiating school work, turning work in late, and spending excessive time on schoolwork. Perfectionism can also impact life outside of school. Perfectionistic youth typically over-enroll in extra-curricular activities and set such high standards that they end every practice with a personal “post-mortem”. Perfectionism can also interfere in social functioning, either due to worry about how they come across to others and/or holding others to such high standards that they alienate their peers.
Fortunately, CBT has much to offer perfectionistic youth. In this webinar, Dr. Lynne Siqueland (based on the Master Clinician workshop presented at Anxiety and Depression Conference 2017 with Dr. Deborah Ledley) will share strategies for working with this challenging population. Children and teens with very high standards and expectations for themselves often do not want or are fearful of challenging their thinking or changing their behavior. Furthermore, high standards tend to be positively reinforced by families, schools, and society. With this in mind, this webinar will discuss ways to build rapport and engage this challenging population in treatment.
The goal of CBT with perfectionistic youth is to reduce reliance on “have tos” and rules, in favor of living a life guided by values and meaning. Dr. Siqueland will review cognitive interventions including weighing the costs and benefits of maintaining the status quo versus adopting more relaxed standards; exploring feared consequences of lowering standards; and examining reluctance to enjoy leisure time. She will also discuss how to use exposures to challenge beliefs associated with lowering standards and possible differences across the anxiety disorders. Importantly, she will outline how it can involve schools and family members in treatment.
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Engage children and adolescents in motivation for treatment by understanding personal and societal pros and cons of perfectionism.
- Apply cognitive interventions, exposure exercises, and behavioral experiments to challenge beliefs about the value of perfectionistic standards with youth across a broad age-range.
- Identify the ways in which families and schools can become collaborators in addressing perfectionism
Presentation level: Intermediate/Advanced. Assume knowledge of basic CBT interventions for childhood anxiety disorders.
This webinar is eligible for 1 CE.
Presenter's Biography:
Lynne Siqueland, Ph.D.is a psychologist at the Children’s Center for OCD and Anxiety and has been specializing in treating anxiety disorders in children and adolescents for over 20 years. She has extensive experience working with children of all ages beginning in the preschool years with a special interest in transition into adolescence and young adulthood. She has a special interest in guiding parents and teens through the transition into young adulthood of maintaining connection and closeness while encouraging and building autonomy and competence. She also treats adults.
Dr. Siqueland received her Doctoral Degree from the Temple University Clinical Psychology Program under the direction of Dr. Philip Kendall. Dr. Siqueland was a full faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, and Center for Psychotherapy Research for 8 years before entering private practice full time. Dr. Siqueland's clinical work and research publications focus on integrating individual CBT approaches with family work. Dr. Siqueland has published on the role of family interactional styles that can maintain anxiety and what promotes competence.
