CATES:
at the
Texas Child Study Center
Austin, TX
Child Anxiety Treatment Enhancement Study
Welcome to the
Child Anxiety Treatment Enchancement Study!
We are a specialty research clinic housed within the Texas Child Study Center, a collaboration between Dell Children's Medical Center and the College of Education of The University of Texas.
Whether you are a parent looking into treatment options for your child, a school counselor looking for community mental health resources to recommend, or a practitioner curious about the latest clinical research in anxiety, our clinic has something to offer you.
As a leading community resource in Central Austin, we provide assessment and evidence-based treatment for children age 7 - 17 who suffer from anxiety and related disorders at no-cost to the family.
Anxiety Assessment
Comprehensive diagnostic assessment of the presence and severity of anxiety disorders, including:
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Generalized Anxiety (GAD)
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Social Phobia (SoP)
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Separation Anxiety (SAD)
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and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Other related disorders are also assessed, such as:
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Mood Disorders
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Panic Disorder
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Agoraphobia
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Specific Phobias
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and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
The assessment process entails a 1-3 hour long clinical interview with parent and child, each completed separately by two trained researchers. The interview itself is a well-validated, highly reliable assessment tool that maps directly onto the diagnostic criteria for these disorders as defined by the DSM-IV.
The assessment process gives a rich profile of a child’s social-emotional functioning that can be used for treatment planning. Youth and parents often come out of the interview with greater insight into the child’s emotional experience at home and school.
Anxiety Treatment
As our clinic specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, our approach to treatment targets the intrusive negative thoughts and avoidance of feared situations that are hallmarks of anxiety.
The treatment itself is a manualized intervention called Coping Cat ™ whose strong evidence base and worldwide use has rendered it a ‘gold standard’ Anxiety treatment. Combining elements of psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, and behavioral exposure, Coping Cat ™ teaches youth and parents to recognize and understand anxious feelings and develop a variety of coping skills to manage them.
As a participant in our Anxiety study, the treatment entails 12-weekly sessions with youth plus two parent sessions. For participants who are randomized into our parent condition, treatment for the youth is the same, but the parent also receives 13-weekly sessions of Parent Training, aimed to teach them concrete strategies for “coaching” their child in managing his or her anxiety.
All sessions are 45-60 minutes long and take place at the Texas Child Study Center during business hours, and scheduled at times most convenient to busy family schedules.
