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‘Confident and curious: How to help anxious, neurodivergent children and teens reduce worrying and gain confidence to handle challenges of daily living’

In this session, Dr. Saline, author of What your ADHD child wishes you knew: Working together to empower kids in school and life and The ADHD Solution Deck, discusses how anxiety works and what professionals and caring adults can do to assist neurodivergent children, teens and emerging adults in reducing their worries and improving their resiliency. After examining the physiology and psychology of anxiety, she will discuss how to change an individual’s relationship to worry, reduce negative thinking, and uncover the core limited beliefs that fuel persistent social anxiety, perfectionism and procrastination. Participants will learn how to help kids and young adults evaluate their strengths, try new behaviors, reduce harmful comparisons and develop self-soothing techniques in both familiar and novel situations. Using cognitive behavioral, insight-oriented and mindfulness interventions, Dr. Saline will share practical, research-based strategies for enhancing self-regulation, social confidence and self-compassion in anxious kids and teens with ADHD, LD, ASD and 2e. Armed with these tools, these young people will develop the confidence and coping skills they need to move forward bravely in today’s unpredictable world. 


Sharon Saline
, Psy.D., a licensed clinical psychologist with more than 30 years’ experience, is a top expert on ADHD, anxiety, learning differences and mental health challenges and their impact on school and family dynamics.

Her unique perspective, a sibling of a child who wrestled with untreated ADHD, combined with decades of academic excellence and clinical experience, assists her in guiding families as they navigate from the confusing maze of diagnoses and conflict to successful interventions and connections.

Dr. Saline funnels this expertise into her new book, What Your ADHD Child Wishes You Knew: Working Together to Empower Kids for Success in School and Life and The ADHD Solution Deck: 50 strategies to help kids learn, reduce stress and improve family connections.

Heralded as an invaluable resource, her book is the recipient of two highly-acclaimed awards: Best Book Awards winner by American Book Fest and the Gold Medal from Moms Choice Awards. Dr. Saline is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and a member of ADDitude Magazine’s ADHD Specialist Panel.

As an internationally sought-after lecturer and workshop facilitator, she combines psychology with her love of theatre to animatedly present on a variety of topics such as understanding ADHD, executive functioning, teen brains and different learners.

A magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, she received her master’s degree in psychology from New College of California and her doctorate in psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant University. Dr. Saline’s is a regular contributor to ADDitude magazine and psychology today, a part-time lecturer at the Smith School for Social Work and lives with her family in Northampton, MA.

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