In Module 6, we talked about how to process thoughts with your child after practicing a step. Make sure to continue to engage your child in this process as you continue to progress throughout LUNA. Helpful questions to ask after practicing a step or doing an exposure include:
Questions to help reflect after practicing a mission plan step (PDF version)
- What about that step went better than you expected?
- What did you learn about your worry/fear?
- What was hard about that step?
- Did your anxiety feelings change from before to after practicing the mission plan step? How so?
- Did the step get easier when you kept going?
- Did [insert what feared outcome your child was expecting] happen? You might have thought [insert fear here] was going to happen but you were able to do it anyways!
- Were there any good/fun things that happened because you did this mission plan step?
Helping your child process their thoughts may be especially useful as you work on multiple mission plans with your child. Answering these questions may help your child understand that it is natural for multiple mission plans to come with stress and difficulties, but hopefully that they are worth the hard work.
Furthermore, it may be hard for your child to feel like they are making progress, especially if they are working on tasks that are more difficult than they expected. Helping them self-reflect may help them learn from their experiences and take these lessons with them to other fears. It is also important to cheer your child on and let them know how proud you are of them when they have accomplished steps of their mission plan!
