Take Action Practitioner Guidebook

In these challenging times, disturbing reports of high levels of anxiety in our young school children reinforce the need for a time- and cost-effective intervention. The Take Action program was developed and refined during extensive research to create a standardised and reliable treatment tool. It is a user-friendly, flexible, robust, CBT-based 8- or 10-session treatment designed for both group and individual use with children aged 4-12 years.

This easy-to-follow and comprehensive guidebook contains six treatment modules, an assessment module with useful information on a range of assessments for those practitioners wanting to use pre- or post intervention outcome measures, a background and theory section, and 124 child and parent handouts which may be photocopied. The treatment modules can be used sequentially across eight or ten weeks to provide an individual or group intervention or the modules can be used as stand-alone guides to teach specific skills.

Children can be provided with a professional and permanent record of therapy via the handouts and worksheets from the guide being purchased separately. Optional child and parent workbooks are also available.

The program teaches children helpful ways to cope with and manage anxiety. It is an evidence-based intervention combining recent research on threat-based cognitive biases and maladaptive thinking styles in childhood anxiety disorders with the well-established principles of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT).

Designed for easy use by mental health and educational professionals trained in CBT, Take Action allows flexible delivery by practitioners to individuals and groups of children with anxiety. The word ACTION is a coping-oriented acronym used throughout the program. Children are encouraged to take action against their anxiety. This means children approach their fears and worries using strategies learnt during the program.