Glenbard parenting event on 9/15: Coping Strategies to Regulate Anxiety

The Glenbard Parent Series: (GPS) Navigating Healthy Families will present Coping Strategies to Regulate Anxiety: An Introduction to Distress Tolerance on Thursday, Sept. 15.

Some back to school jitters are common but for many students the anxiety lingers. Experts say rates for school anxiety are on the rise and often treatment may be necessary.

Licensed clinical psychologist Laura Koehler will discuss the common triggers of school stressors and their impact on students. Join us and discover how anxiety leads to emotional dysregulation, how accommodations in school can lead to continued avoidance of activities and school and how to introduce distress tolerance to help students manage anxiety.

Participants will learn how students change unhelpful behavior, move toward acceptance of difficult emotions and learn that aspects of life are out of our control. Learn how Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Exposure Therapy move students toward a fuller and more meaningful life. Instead of avoiding the discomfort, the goal is for youth to increase their ability to manage stress and overwhelming emotions.

This free GPS event will begin at noon Sept. 15 in the Community Consolidated School District 93 Administration Center at 230 Covington Drive in Bloomingdale.

Koehler, who is on staff at Linden Oaks Behavioral Health, works with adolescents and their families.

GPS is generously sponsored by the Cebrin Goodman Center, Cooperative Association for Special Education (CASE), College of DuPage, DuPage Medical Group, Emmy Gaffey Foundation and Trust Company of Illinois. Additional support for this event comes from Linden Oaks Behavioral Health.

For further information, visit glenbardgps.org or contact Gilda Ross, Glenbard District 87 student and community projects coordinator, at 942-7668 or gilda_ross