Navigating Student Anxious Behaviors: A Conversation Between School Staff and Therapists
Student anxiety, avoidance, and difficulty with peer relationships are among the most common challenges educators encounter in today's classrooms - and among the hardest to address without clinical training. This course bridges that gap, pairing the perspective of Carly Samach, a Clinical Mental Health Counselor specializing in OCD and anxiety treatment, with the day-to-day realities of school practice.
Across five modules, participants will explore the developmental and social roots of student anxiety and avoidance, examine the educator's role in supporting anxious learners, and build a working knowledge of the school and community resources available to students in need. The course closes with a practical application module in which participants design a concrete plan to implement one new strategy in their own classroom.
Delivered through Google Sites with an accompanying reflective learning journal, this 15 CTLE hour, asynchronous, facilitator-paced course allows educators to engage with the material on their own schedule while still benefiting from facilitator guidance throughout. School Staff will leave this course able to:
Describe the functions and presentations of anxious behavior and its developmental/social context
Identify avoidant behaviors and the barriers they create to peer connection
Apply evidence-based strategies to support anxious students
Navigate the network of in-school and community resources available to support student mental health
Implement a strategy of their own design to address anxious behavior in their classroom
Facilitator will contact participants one week before the course begins.
FORMAT: Asynchronous online learning
DATES: 10/14/26-11/12/26
FACILITATOR: Carly Samach, Clinical Mental Health Counselor specializing in OCD and anxiety treatment
GCRTC CONTACT: Liz Daley, NBCT, GCRTC Teacher Leadership Coach for Special Education
FEE: None. Registration is required.
CTLE HOURS: 15
REGISTRATION: https://tinyurl.com/4db8434a