You can work with your child to create a ‘worry log’. This be done during a dedicated ‘worry time’ during the day.
Having a dedicated worry time can be helpful if your child struggles with anxious thoughts throughout the day or when they are trying to sleep.
This way, rather than spending all day worrying about it, they can be encouraged to ‘postpone the worry’ until a specific time when you can both sit together and talk.
This worry time can be between 10-15 minutes, or longer if they would like. You can ask things like:
The prompts in the worksheet can encourage exploration of these thoughts, and you can work with your child to also think of some strategies they can use when they feel these worries coming on (e.g., relaxation techniques, affirmations, journalling).
This can also be paired with activity two which guides you in rethinking these unhelpful thoughts.
You can also use this for yourself, if you are having any unhelpful thoughts yourself.
Please click on the image below to download the worksheet.