Using stories to Prevent Anxiety Disorders in Youth: Clinical Rationale and Summary of a Program
Research has shown that learning cognitive behavior skills to cope with anxiety is effective, including the use of techniques such as detecting the physiological signs of anxiety, challenging dysfunctional beliefs, problem solving and gradual exposure. However, teaching those skills to children is not easy. The program Dominique’s Handy Tricks was developed to provide a different approach to learn and master the techniques addressed in other primary prevention program such as Friends, Coping Cat or Super l’Écureuil. The program is based on realistic stories describing preadolescent characters facing various stressors that can be experienced at this age. The storybooks illustrate how the characters are applying effective and ineffective coping strategies and normalize the emotional reactions to these stressors. Based on the stories, the children learn and practice coping skills, first applying them to the characters in the storybooks, and then to their own personal daily stressors. In this article, the authors first document the need for primary prevention interventions delivered in school and community settings and the theoretical bases of the program. Second, they describe the content of the program. Finally, the assets and challenges faced when implementing the program are discussed. This article focuses on clinical issues relevant for professionals and complements the presentation of the outcome results in another publication (Bouchard, Gervais & Gagné, in press).