Managing Anxiety & Building Confidence

for Teens

HAERT =

Happiness, self-Awareness & Emotional Resilience Training

What if Life Seems too Hard?

High school is a stressful, demanding time.

Many teens struggle to feel accepted, appreciated, and confident in growing and developing their abilities. This impacts both personal and academic life - lasting through college and beyond.

Social anxiety and expectations, as well as coping with stress and strong emotions are common complaints that many young adults experience. More and more, young people report they suffer from lack of motivation, purpose and hope.

Recent events have magnified the stressors and interrupted the human interactions and opportunities that teens need to develop confidence and skills for the future.

Anxiety can develop from a variety of factors and can contribute to:

  • Chronic stress symptoms due to poor awareness or management of our physical state

  • Burnout due to perfectionism and imposter syndrome - when we work hard vs working smart

  • Overwhelming emotions due to unhealthy boundaries or energy management issues

  • Self-limiting thinking habits and beliefs - such as all-or-nothing thinking, catastrophizing, over-personalizing - that contribute to feelings of frustration, worry and uncertainty 

  • Ineffective interpersonal communication leading to dissatisfaction and isolation

More than College Prep. It’s Life Prep.

HAERT teaches a set of 50+ life enhancing skills - based on decades of clinical research and business experience - starting with a foundation in self-awareness, stress management, emotional resilience, interpersonal effectiveness and growth mindset.

These are the skills needed to thrive in high school, college and beyond. People who regularly use these skills are less likely to be limited by anxiety or slide into depression.

We coach students to apply these skills intentionally and mindfully to their unique situations.

Common Challenges that Become Possible with Skills.

 

Homework, tests, and my schedule are all so overwhelming. I feel like it’s just a big treadmill. I’m afraid it’ll be worse in college.

Fatigue, low energy. I’m worn out and losing my motivation for school and the things I’m supposed to do. My sports are probably suffering also.

College admissions are daunting. What if I choose the wrong college, what if I can’t get in, how will I get all the work done?

Presenting in front of class makes me anxious! I get sweaty, worry I’ll forget the words, and I can’t look up at the audience. I’ve heard the audiences are bigger in college.

Meeting new people. I’m sad about going away to school and missing my friends. Why is it so hard for me to meet new people? I get so nervous that I can’t think of what to say.

Getting a job sounds great but where do I start? I want to work outside my parent’s business.

Parental expectations. My parents have a plan for me that I didn’t choose and don’t want. Is it possible to work out a compromise?

Relationships. My friends are amazing! Until they’re not. It feels like people don’t listen to me and when we disagree it’s always a huge blowout.

 

The Foundation for Our Foundation.

 

Research-based, Clinically & Business Proven

HAERT is based on proven life enhancements that focus on skills, habits, strategies, and tools to help people thrive.

The HAERT curriculum draws on Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Neuroscience, Sensory Integration, Health Psychology, Positive Psychology and other clinical interventions currently used in award winning mental health settings.

What you’ll learn

LEVEL 1 - Managing yourself

Put your own oxygen mask on first

  • Why anxiety happens and how to manage your physical response

  • Stress physio 101 and the importance of stress

  • Reading our bodies signs: Five+ skills for improving self-awareness

  • Grounding techniques and other skills for managing our stress response

  • Strategies for strengthening our overall resilience

  • How to effectively recharge and build sustainable and personalized routines

  • Five key strategies for managing anxiety and boosting confidence

  • Regaining control and our perspectives on uncertainty

LEVEL 2 - Interacting with others

Get what you want and what you need

  • Improving your social experience

  • How to manage and learn from your emotions

  • Reading our emotional dashboard

  • Understanding the purpose of our behaviors

  • What to do when it feels like your emotions get the best of you

  • How our brain chemistry affects our emotional response

  • Six strategies for supporting healthy brain chemistry

  • How your emotional state affects how you interact with others and what to do about it

  • Four effective skills for self-advocating and maintaining healthy boundaries

  • Curiosity and questions - how to be interested and interesting

  • How to feel in control of your thoughts, feelings and actions

  • Learning how your thoughts, feelings and actions are connected and how to leverage and repair connections

  • Emotion regulation and awareness

  • Self advocacy and setting boundaries

LEVEL 3 - Leveling up your beliefs

You are more than a candle in the wind

  • Internal locus of control

  • Problem solving and the trap of perfectionizing

  • Techniques for controlling unhelpful thinking and for flipping the script to confidence

  • Strategies for recognizing where you have control and how to take advantage of it 

  • Learning more skills and extending your problem solving skills

  • 5 responses to a situation

  • Skills for radical acceptance

  • Building confidence

  • Taking advantage of your stress response

  • Positive psychology

  • Thinking habits that may be getting in your way

  • How to reframe negative thoughts

  • Self forgiveness

  • Overcoming self limiting beliefs

How it works.

 

All Levels include:

  • online video instruction

  • synchronous Zoom group instruction sessions

  • asynchronous individual coaching

  • SMS-based habit training and support

Disclaimer: The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or psychiatric advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician, therapist or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychiatric condition.

“Tough things happen in life and people who have the skills to manage their lives, including their moods and behavior, do better than those who don’t.”

— Dr. Michael Yapko, Clinical Psychologist & Marriage and Family Therapist