The Anxiety Project is the solution.
Project Structure
Whole-School Community Culture Shift
The Anxiety Project is built on the premise that while 30% of anxiety may be genetic, 70% is learned—and can therefore be unlearned. We move schools away from "unhelpful accommodations" (such as allowing avoidance behaviors) toward a culture of resilience and engagement – adopting a “Have A Go” philosophy.
Our Approach
Our curriculum utilises Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) techniques, the gold standard for treating anxiety. We train teachers and parents in "serve and return" conversational strategies—coaching children through "hot" emotional moments and helping them reframe difficulties during "cold" rational moments. This helps students develop an internal locus of control (associated with higher academic performance and lower anxiety) and become emotional problem-solvers.
This is a comprehensive two-year commitment designed to embed lasting change by training all significant adults in a child’s life:
For Staff: Professional learning to build a "common language" regarding anxiety. Schools appoint specialist Implementation Coaches (ICs) who receive training and release time to support their peers and become in school experts.
For Parents and Carers: Access to the "Anxiety Coach" program (in-person or online), ensuring that strategies used at home mirror those used in the classroom.
For Students: Delivery of stage-aligned lessons, fully integrated with the PDHPE syllabus, teaching "return-to-calm" skills and resilient thinking skills.
Research-Driven Implementation
We don't just guess; we measure. The project includes rigorous data collection at three intervals (Baseline T0, 6-months T1, 12-months T2) using tools like the Macquarie University School Anxiety Scale and the Family Accommodation Scale.
Current Reach: The project currently spans 142 schools, involving school leaders, teachers, and parents, ultimately benefiting over 50,000 students.
Our Mission
Anxiety
Reduce anxiety, and build resilience in young Australians.
Schools
Provide school leaders, teachers, and school staff with the skills, and knowledge to respond to individual child anxiety issues.
Support
Child
Improve child mental health to improve learning and life outcomes.
Skill parents in how to support their child in the growth of emotional management skills, rather than solving the problem for them.
How We Are Different
OTHER
PROJECTS
Holistic Approach
We are not just a ‘fix-the-child’ solution. We focus on changing adult to child interactions intervening as a community, empowering staff and parents to make the needed impact.
Often non-intervention based and impractical needing more psychologists than are availible or affordably trainable.
Retooling Schools
By training one Implementation Coach that then trains teachers, principals, and parents to adjust already ongoing support without delays to teaching. We help teachers and parents who are already helping kids, do so more effectively
Other interventions often take up school time and require large-scale and expensive training sessions with the entire staff. They often also struggle to run these training sessions at scale with a small team as there is more support needed.
Parents
This project puts parents in the driver’s seat, coaching parents via onloine cafes to feel confident with material and tools to support their kids at home. This ensures the intervention is holistic not just at school.
Sustainability
Most wellbeing programs stop at the school gate. Parents, the adults children spend the most time with, are usually not included in their wellbeing inititaives, putting alot of oneros responsicibility on children and teachers.
To ensure the project can run itself once it is set up in the first place we empower staff at schools to teach the broader community new methods that address anxiety at a fundamental level.
Once programs are established it becomes difficult to maintain them year on year, and a lack of data collection at all schools can make it difficult to see if an impact is taking place.