Child Anxiety Therapy
in St. George, Utah
Anxiety can make ordinary childhood experiences feel unsafe or overwhelming. Going to school, sleeping alone, speaking to others, trying something new, or separating from a parent may lead to intense fear, physical discomfort, avoidance, or emotional outbursts.
At Back In Charge Anxiety, we provide evidence-based child anxiety therapy in St. George, Utah for children and families throughout Southern Utah. Treatment helps children understand their anxiety, gradually face feared situations, reduce avoidance, and build confidence through practical experience.
Parents are also supported throughout the process. Caregivers learn how to respond to fear without allowing anxiety to control family routines or prevent the child from developing age-appropriate independence.
Services are available through in-person and telehealth appointments. Anxiety assessment and testing are also available when families need greater clarity about a child’s symptoms and treatment needs.
How Anxiety Can Appear In Children
Children do not always describe anxiety as worry. A child may complain of stomachaches, headaches, nausea, dizziness, or feeling tired. They may cry, become irritable, cling to a caregiver, refuse an activity, or become upset when a familiar routine changes.
Some children ask repeated questions about safety, illness, school, mistakes, or family members. Others avoid speaking, participating, sleeping independently, visiting friends, or entering unfamiliar places.
Anxiety can also appear as perfectionism. A child may erase work repeatedly, avoid difficult assignments, become distressed by mistakes, or refuse to try because failure feels intolerable.
These behaviors can be mistaken for stubbornness or defiance. In many cases, the child is attempting to escape a situation that feels threatening or uncertain.
Separation Anxiety
Children with separation anxiety experience intense distress when apart from a parent or caregiver. The child may worry that something bad will happen during the separation or fear that the parent will not return.
Separation anxiety may affect school attendance, bedtime, extracurricular activities, visits with relatives, or time with friends. A child may follow a parent around the house, sleep in the parent’s room, repeatedly call or text, or refuse to remain with another trusted adult.
Parents often feel like they need to stay close and change plans to manage their child’s distress. This may calm the child in the moment, but repeated avoidance can make future separations feel even harder.
Evidence-based therapy for child anxiety helps families create manageable opportunities for the child to practice separation. The goal is to build confidence gradually while helping parents communicate support and trust in the child’s ability to cope.
Specific Phobias
A specific phobia is an intense fear connected to a particular object or situation. Childhood phobias may involve animals, insects, needles, vomiting, storms, darkness, medical procedures, elevators, loud sounds, or other triggers.
A child may cry, freeze, run away, refuse to enter a location, or become distressed when they think the feared situation may occur. Families may begin changing plans to prevent the child from encountering the trigger.
Exposure-based treatment helps children approach the fear gradually. A child is not immediately placed in the most difficult situation. Therapy begins with manageable steps and progresses as the child gains experience.
Through repeated practice, children can learn that anxiety rises and falls and that they can remain in the situation without escaping.
Selective Mutism
Selective mutism involves a consistent difficulty speaking in certain social situations even though the child is able to speak comfortably in other settings.
A child may talk freely at home but remain silent at school, during activities, around unfamiliar adults, or in public places. The child is not choosing silence to be oppositional. Speaking may feel impossible because of intense anxiety or discomfort.
Selective mutism can interfere with learning, friendships, classroom participation, medical care, and the child’s ability to communicate needs.
Treatment may include gradual speaking practice, anxiety management, parent involvement, coordination with school staff, and carefully structured steps that reduce pressure. Back In Charge Anxiety also provides assessment and testing to help clarify selective mutism and related concerns.
School Refusal and School Anxiety
School refusal may develop when a child becomes highly anxious about separation, academic performance, social interactions, illness, or another school-related concern.
The child may complain of physical symptoms before school, cry during the morning routine, refuse to get dressed, or repeatedly ask to stay home. Symptoms may improve once the child is allowed to remain home, which can reinforce avoidance.
School anxiety treatment focuses on identifying what is driving the refusal and creating a structured return-to-school plan. Depending on the child’s needs, treatment may involve exposure-based practice, parent support, school communication, and strategies for managing distress during the school day.
The goal is to help the child return to regular participation while addressing the anxiety that made attendance difficult.
Excessive Worry and Reassurance-Seeking
Some children worry across many areas of life. They may fear illness, accidents, mistakes, family problems, school performance, or future events that are unlikely to occur.
Repeated reassurance may become part of the pattern. A child may ask the same question in different ways because no answer feels certain enough.
Parents may feel responsible for finding the perfect response. However, repeated reassurance often provides only short-term relief. Anxiety soon creates another question.
Therapy helps children practice allowing some uncertainty while helping parents provide supportive responses that do not continue the reassurance cycle.
Exposure-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Back In Charge Anxiety uses exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy to treat childhood anxiety, the leading evidence-based treatment approach.
Cognitive behavioral therapy helps children understand how thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and behavior influence each other. Exposure practice gives children opportunities to approach situations they have been avoiding.
A child with separation anxiety may practice staying apart from a parent for increasing periods. A child with a phobia may begin by discussing or viewing the feared object before approaching it more directly. A child with social anxiety or selective mutism may practice communication in gradually more challenging settings.
Exposure therapy is collaborative and developmentally appropriate. Children learn that they do not need to wait for anxiety to disappear before taking a step forward. Parents are a critical component of effective exposure therapy for children.
Skills Training for Children
Children may also learn skills that help them recognize anxiety and respond more effectively. Treatment may address emotional awareness, flexible thinking, communication, problem-solving, physical anxiety symptoms, and coping with mistakes.
These skills are not used to avoid every uncomfortable feeling. They help the child remain engaged while practicing difficult situations.
Therapy may use games, role-playing, practice activities, and age-appropriate explanations. However, these are not “play therapy” – all activities are to facilitate engagement in an exposure-based cognitive-behavioral approach.
Parent Involvement in Child Anxiety Therapy
Parents play an important role in helping children practice new responses outside therapy. Caregivers may learn how to encourage exposure practice, reduce repeated reassurance, support school attendance, and respond calmly when anxiety increases.
Back In Charge Anxiety may use principles from Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions, commonly called SPACE. This parent-based approach helps caregivers reduce family accommodations while communicating confidence in the child’s ability to manage distress.
Parents are not expected to remove every accommodation immediately. Treatment focuses on realistic changes that support progress without turning anxiety into a conflict between the child and caregiver.
Anxiety Assessment and Testing
Anxiety symptoms can overlap with OCD, ADHD, depression, learning concerns, developmental differences, trauma-related symptoms, and medical conditions.
Assessment may include a review of symptoms, developmental history, family concerns, school functioning, avoidance patterns, and situations that trigger anxiety. Formal psychological testing may be recommended when additional diagnostic clarification is needed.
The goal is to understand the child’s needs and provide useful recommendations for treatment, parenting support, school services, or additional care.
Experienced Child Anxiety Care
Back In Charge Anxiety is led by Kat Green, Ph.D., ABPP, a licensed clinical psychologist with approximately 15 years of clinical experience.
Dr. Green completed residency training in clinical child and adolescent psychology, followed by a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in her specialty areas. She is board-certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology through the American Board of Professional Psychology.
This clinical background supports care informed by psychological science, child development, family relationships, and the environments in which children live and learn.
Help Your Child Feel Back in Charge
Anxiety may tell a child that avoiding fear is the only way to feel safe. Over time, avoidance can limit school participation, friendships, independence, and family activities.
Evidence-based therapy for child anxiety offers another path. Children can learn to face fears gradually, tolerate uncertainty, and discover that they are more capable than anxiety tells them.
Back In Charge Anxiety provides child anxiety therapy, assessment, and testing in St. George, Utah and throughout Southern Utah. In-person and telehealth services are available based on clinical needs and provider availability.
Call (435) 227-5155 to learn more about child anxiety therapy and parent support.
FAQs About Child Anxiety Therapy in St. George, Utah
When Should I Seek Help for My Child’s Anxiety?
Professional support may be helpful when anxiety causes significant distress, disrupts sleep or school attendance, limits age-appropriate independence, or prevents your child from participating in family, social, or extracurricular activities. Persistent reassurance-seeking, physical complaints, emotional outbursts, and avoidance may also indicate that anxiety is interfering with daily life.
What Types of Childhood Anxiety Do You Treat?
Back In Charge Anxiety provides child anxiety therapy for separation anxiety, specific phobias, selective mutism, excessive worry, school anxiety, school refusal, health-related fears, perfectionism, reassurance-seeking, and other anxiety-related concerns. Treatment is based on your child’s symptoms, developmental level, and individual needs.
Does My Child Need an Anxiety Diagnosis Before Starting Therapy?
No. Your child does not need a previous diagnosis to begin the evaluation process. An initial appointment can help clarify the symptoms, identify patterns of fear and avoidance, and determine whether anxiety therapy, assessment, formal testing, or another service may be appropriate.
What Happens During the First Child Anxiety Therapy Appointment?
The first appointment generally focuses on understanding your child’s symptoms, developmental history, daily functioning, and treatment needs. The clinician may ask about school, sleep, physical symptoms, avoidance, reassurance-seeking, family routines, and situations that trigger anxiety. Parents may also have an opportunity to discuss concerns separately when appropriate.
Are Parents Included in Child Anxiety Treatment?
Parents are an important part of effective therapy for child anxiety. Caregivers receive education about anxiety, guidance for supporting exposure practice, and strategies for reducing repeated reassurance and family accommodation. The level of parent involvement depends on the child’s age, symptoms, independence, and treatment goals.
Can Parents Receive Support Without Their Child Attending?
Yes. Parent-focused treatment may be helpful when a child is not ready to participate directly in therapy. SPACE-informed support can help parents change reassurance, avoidance, and accommodation patterns while communicating confidence in their child’s ability to manage anxiety.
Can You Help Children With Selective Mutism?
Yes. Back In Charge Anxiety provides treatment, assessment, and testing for selective mutism and related anxiety concerns. Treatment may include gradual communication practice, parent guidance, reduced speaking pressure, and coordination with school personnel or other adults when clinically appropriate.
Is Exposure Therapy Frightening for Children?
Exposure-based therapy is designed to be gradual, collaborative, and appropriate for the child’s age. Children begin with manageable situations and progress as their skills and confidence develop. The purpose is not to overwhelm the child but to help them discover that they can face anxiety without immediately escaping or avoiding the situation.
Can Therapy Help With School Refusal?
Yes. Therapy can help identify whether school refusal is connected to separation anxiety, social fears, academic pressure, panic symptoms, illness concerns, or another problem. Treatment may include exposure-based practice, parent guidance, a structured return-to-school plan, and coordination with school supports when appropriate.
How Long Does Therapy for Child Anxiety Take?
Treatment length varies based on the type and severity of anxiety, the amount of avoidance or family accommodation involved, and how consistently skills are practiced outside appointments. The clinician will review your child’s progress and adjust the treatment plan as needed.
Do You Provide Assessment and Testing for Child Anxiety?
Yes. Diagnostic evaluation is part of the therapy process, but more comprehensive assessment and testing may be recommended when additional clarification is needed. Childhood anxiety can overlap with OCD, ADHD, depression, learning concerns, developmental differences, trauma-related symptoms, and medical conditions. An evaluation can help guide treatment and other appropriate recommendations.