Do you work with kids and teens with complex ADHD who struggle with making and keeping friends, speaking in front of others, or joining group activities?

It’s common for many of these folks to receive significant negative feedback and criticism from others about being different that intensifies social anxiety. Concerned about rejection, embarrassment and exclusion, they often feel misunderstood and lonely. Sometimes, they have been the victims of bullying or played a role as a perpetrator or bystander. Social interactions complicate their lives at school, home and work. The maturing ADHD brain, with its typical challenges of missing social cues, impulsively saying the wrong thing or having big emotional reactions, intensifies these issues. Register Here>>

In this dynamic webinar, Sharon Saline, Psy.D. will illustrate how to assist these outside-the-box thinkers in learning how to participate more fully in social situations with greater confidence and less self-criticism. After examining the physiology and psychology of anxiety, she will discuss how to change an individual’s relationship to worry, reduce negative thinking, and uncover the core limited beliefs that fuel persistent social anxiety, perfectionism and rejection sensitivity dysphoria. Participants will learn how to help kids and adolescents evaluate their strengths, try new behaviors, reduce harmful comparisons and develop self-soothing techniques. Using cognitive behavioral, insight-oriented and mindfulness interventions, Saline will share practical, evidence-based strategies for enhancing self-regulation, improving conversational skills and fostering resilience.

Target Audience: 

Social workers and other social service providers.

Course Delivery Method, Format and Instructor Interaction:

Live interactive webinar with discussion and small group activities. Instructor will use live on-camera chat and discussions for Q and A as well as break out rooms. Login information will be emailed immediately after registration to the email address entered during registration. Attendees are visible to one another in Zoom Meeting and are encouraged to be active participants with their camera and/or microphone in order take part in discussion.

System Requirements:

Attendees will need access to a computer with working camera and microphone. All courses are offered using Zoom conferencing software.

Registration Fees and Deadlines:

Early registration by January 15, 2022

Regular registration by March 7, 2022

CEs: 3 CEs

This course has limited enrollment and may sell out. Registration will be on a first come first served basis.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe how anxiety works in the brain and body
2. Explain the role of executive functioning skills in managing anxiety
3. Recognize why social anxiety is a common issue for people with complex ADHD.
4. Develop effective tools for helping clients build conversational skills, develop friendships and speak in public.
5. Identify the meaning and effect of limiting core beliefs in perpetuating anxiety
6. List strength-based strategies for reducing rejection sensitivity and increasing self-confidence and resilience.

Outline- 3 hours

1 – 2:30 p.m. ET

• Overview of anxiety and ADHD in children and teens
• Interventions for reframing and changing the relationship with anxiety
• Description of social anxiety, perfectionism, rejection sensitivity dysphoria in youth with ADHD
• Uncovering negative core beliefs that fuel social anxiety

2:30 – 2:40 p.m. ET Break

2:40 – 4:15 p.m. ET

• Role of shame and obsessive thinking in social anxiety
• Interventions for social anxiety, perfectionism and rejection sensitivity dysphoria in children and teens
• Explanation of tools for engaging in conversations and developing friendships
• Break-out activity
• Questions