Help! My Child's Anxious

Are today’s children really a “snowflake generation”, or are they dealing with levels of anxiety that previous generations simply didn’t face? Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss unpack the growing mental health crisis among children and young people, following Professor Peter Fonagy’s argument that today’s young people are not “snowflakes” and that it has genuinely become harder to be young.

Saskia explains why the pandemic may have left a lasting imprint on children’s anxiety, how prolonged emotional states can influence the way we respond to the world, and why parents should listen before immediately trying to fix an anxious child’s problem.

They also answer a difficult question from a parent whose seven-year-old has started calling herself “fat” and restricting her food, discussing body image, self-esteem and what parents can do when children begin criticising their bodies. Plus, Vanessa discovers that sometimes the best childhood memories cost absolutely nothing… provided you have an enormous marrow.

Subscribe for more honest conversations about childhood, parenting and anxiety.

Produced and distributed by 11-29 Media.

Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss look at the explosion of mental-health content online, why some children are identifying strongly with diagnostic labels, and how parents can take their concerns seriously without accepting everything an algorithm tells them.

They discuss misleading ADHD content on TikTok, why symptoms can look different between children, what teachers can help parents spot, when a professional assessment may be useful and why children can often receive helpful support even before a diagnosis.

Plus, Saskia answers a parent's question about mysterious stomach aches before school and explains how anxiety can produce very real physical symptoms.

Help My Child's Anxious with Vanessa Feltz and Saskia Joss. This podcast provides general information and discussion. It is not a substitute for individual medical or mental-health advice.

Watch this episode on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/HQyo0clazko

Back-to-school anxiety can appear at the school gates, after the school day, around exams or in the way a child suddenly talks about themselves. In this episode of Help! My Child’s Anxious, Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss answer real questions from parents struggling with the return to school. What should you do when your child cries and refuses to go into school? Why can a child behave brilliantly all day, then completely fall apart the moment they get home? How do you help a teenager who has lost confidence after disappointing exam results? And when should you let your child quit an after-school activity? Vanessa and Saskia discuss: • School refusal, separation anxiety and difficult drop-offs • Why settling into a new school year can take several weeks • Exam anxiety, motivation and avoiding shame • “After-school restraint collapse” and why children melt down at home • Low-demand evenings after overwhelming school days • Helping children rebuild confidence and self-esteem • What parents can do when a child says they are “the worst” in their class • When children should stick with an activity and when it may be time to stop Plus, Vanessa reveals how a trip to Cadbury World became a memorable attempt to motivate Saskia at school. Help! My Child’s Anxious is hosted by broadcaster Vanessa Feltz and her daughter, child therapist Saskia Joss. Subscribe for practical, compassionate conversations about childhood anxiety, parenting and emotional wellbeing.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VanessaandSaskia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helpmychildsanxiouspod/

#ChildAnxiety #Parenting #SchoolAnxiety #BackToSchool #VanessaFeltz

What if the answer to an increasingly connected, anxious childhood is to go backwards?

Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss explore the growing “90s summer” trend, where parents are swapping packed schedules, constant screen time and endless online stimulation for bikes, books, boredom, playing outside and a little more freedom.

But can you really take the phones away without making summer feel like a punishment?

Vanessa and Saskia discuss what children may have lost as childhood has become more connected, why real life can struggle to compete with the intensity of screens, and how parents can recreate the best parts of their own childhood without pretending the 1990s were perfect.

Plus, they answer a listener whose eight-year-old daughter's friend has started her period. How early should parents talk to children about puberty, periods and their changing bodies?

Help! My Child's Anxious is hosted by broadcaster Vanessa Feltz and her daughter, child therapist Saskia Joss, offering practical advice for parents navigating childhood anxiety, emotions and everyday family life.

Watch this episode on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/LyXkogjdxT8

In this episode of Help! My Child’s Anxious, hosts Vanessa Feltz and Saskia Joss are joined by child, family, and adult psychotherapist Zara Kadir (from The Therapy Shed) to explore how anxiety and neurodiversity intersect in children.

Zara shares insights from both her professional practice and her personal journey parenting a son with ADHD. The conversation dives into the common ways anxiety manifests—from school avoidance and separation anxiety to phobias and rejection sensitivity dysphoria (RSD)—and offers practical strategies for parents.

Topics covered include:

• Understanding Accommodation vs. Support: Why removing every anxiety trigger can accidentally make fears bigger, and how parents can "outsource confidence" and stay grounded instead.
• Scaffolding for Neurodivergent Kids: Practical tips for building routines, using executive-function tools (like dementia alarm clocks), and setting up intentional morning systems.
• Managing Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD): How to reduce shame, believe your child’s lived experience, and sit with their big emotions without rushing to fix them.
• The Impact on Siblings: Addressing the "tyranny of the weak" dynamics, balancing attention, and ensuring siblings of neurodivergent children aren't forgotten or forced into premature responsibility.
• Practical Co-Parenting: Simple team strategies for partners, including burn-out code words and avoiding post-bedtime debrief fatigue.

A seven-minute walk was taking Shakira Akabusi three and a half hours. From the outside, nobody had a clue.

In this episode of Help! My Child is Anxious, Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss sit down with women's health expert and StrongLikeMum founder Shakira Akabusi to talk about body anxiety, OCD, and what happened when pregnancy pulled the floor out from under her.

Shakira grew up in a sporting family with an Olympian father, and still ended up with obsessive-compulsive disorder so severe it cancelled a family holiday at the airport check-in desk. She talks openly about the compulsions, the isolation of new motherhood, and how she recovered through hypnotherapy, talk therapy and movement, without medication.

Then the conversation turns practical. Saskia explains why compulsions are really an attempt to control something uncontrollable, and why pregnancy so often brings buried fears to the surface. Shakira shares what actually works for families: the after-dinner walk, the indoor obstacle course, the kitchen dance, and why the word "workout" puts most parents off before they start.

If you are the parent holding everything together and quietly running on empty, this one is for you. Anxiety does not only live in the head. It lives in the body too, and that is often the easier door to open.

Watch this episode on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/dJKxakAG5F0

Your child holds it together all day at school, then falls apart the moment they get home. If that is your house, this episode is for you.

Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss are joined by Lisa Lloyd, autism advocate and author of Unmasking Mum, for one of the most honest conversations we have had on this podcast.

Lisa is mum to two autistic children, and she was only diagnosed autistic herself at 41. Her son took four years to get a diagnosis because he masked so well at school that nobody could see what was happening at home. Her daughter has a PDA profile, which means being asked to do almost anything can trigger an anxiety response. Lisa talks about the mornings that swallow two hours over a pair of shoes, the meltdowns in public that stop looking acceptable once your child is over six foot, and the friendships that quietly disappeared because she kept having to say no.

Saskia explains why anxiety is the most common condition to travel alongside autism, what a meltdown actually is, and how masking works. She describes it as walking around with a pin stuck in your side and telling nobody.

If you are somewhere in the assessment queue, or you have a diagnosis and no support, or you are simply exhausted and starting to wonder whether it is you, this one will make you feel less alone.

In this episode:

• Why the child who masks is often the one suffering most

• What PDA (pathological demand avoidance) really is, and why it is anxiety-driven

• Which demands you have to hold, and which you can safely let go

• Why a diagnosis does not automatically bring any support • Children who fall between mainstream school and specialist provision

• Why anxiety and autism so often turn up together

• What actually helps: structure, ear defenders, getting ahead of change

• Meltdowns in public when your child is bigger than you

• The loneliness, the lost friendships, and the fear of who will be there when you are gone

• Building independence in very small steps

• What autism parenting does to a marriage, and how Lisa and her husband protect theirs

• What Lisa wishes neurotypical parents knew, including one simple thing that changes everything

We want to hear from you. Which part of this landed hardest? Tell us in the comments. If your child masks at school and unravels at home, say so. There will be a parent reading who thought they were the only one. Subscribe to Help! My Child is Anxious for new episodes every week. Warm, practical, honest conversations for parents raising anxious children in a world that rarely slows down.

Buy Lisa's latest book:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/312673/lisa-lloyd

Welcome to Help My Child's Anxious, hosted by broadcaster Vanessa Feltz and her daughter, child therapist Saskia Joss. In this episode, Vanessa and Saskia welcome special guest Laura Amies (known as Nanny Amies), a former nanny turned parenting expert and mother.

Laura opens up about her personal journey after her daughter Elizabeth was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). She candidly shares how dealing with a rare genetic condition impacted her mental health—bringing on her first clinical panic attack—and how she finds positivity and strength through daily routines.

Later in the show, the team tackles listener questions from Instagram:

• Potty Training: How to manage parental anxiety, introduce low-pressure routines, and handle stubborn toddler resistance.
• Nursery Drop-Offs: Tips for managing drop-off distress and separation anxiety.
• Bedtime Struggles: How to help a child who hates being left alone at night using the "checking method".
• Fears & Phobias: Simple ways to desensitize children to loud noises like hand dryers and animals like dogs.

They wrap up with their favorite segment, "Never Felt So Good," sharing budget-friendly ways to bring instant joy and connection into family life

It's our one-year anniversary! Vanessa Feltz and her daugther child therapist Saskia Joss look back on twelve months of Help! My Child's Anxious — from topping podcast charts in 47 countries (yes, including the Solomon Islands) to what a year of talking about anxiety has taught them both.

This week they tackle a headline-grabbing claim from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson: are anxious, "helicopter" parents raising a generation of children who can't cope? Saskia unpacks what "overparenting" actually means, why doing too much for your child can backfire, and where the line is between helping and hindering.

Plus, don't miss this week's Never Felt So Good — a ridiculously simple (and soaking wet) summer activity using nothing but a clothes airer, magnetic tiles and a water gun, guaranteed to buy you an hour of peace.

And a first look ahead: this summer, Help! My Child's Anxious is bringing you back-to-back guest episodes with some of their favourite parenting experts and mums. Don't miss it.

Get in touch: Instagram @helpmychildanxiouspod or [email protected]

If you are currently trying to figure out how to help an anxious child while facing an absolute crisis in youth healthcare access, you are not alone. In this episode of Help! My Child's Anxious, veteran broadcaster Vanessa Feltz and child therapist Saskia Joss confront the reality of the 2-year CAMHS waiting list and explain how parents can step in to build a safe psychological sanctuary at home right now.

We dissect the staggering new statistics showing over 1 million UK children referred for mental health care and answer critical reader questions about why modern children are masking anxiety, how high-altitude sociological stressors change our kids' brains, and how to tell the difference between malicious lies and anxiety-fueled childhood coping mechanisms.

Watch this episode on the Youtube Channel Now:

https://www.youtube.com/@VanessaandSaskia