Coping Cat treatment: what it is and how it is applied to children with anxiety

The Coping Cat program is an effective form of psychological intervention for children.

Over the last few years, the number of cases of anxiety has increased considerably, especially in the wake of the pandemic triggered by covid-19. And there is another pandemic which is that of mental health, with anxiety disorder being one of the most prevalent, affecting both adults and children.

In order to treat anxiety in children there is the Coping Cat treatment, a psychological treatment for anxiety, framed within the cognitive-behavioral model, which uses a language adapted for children so that they can understand what anxiety is and how they can cope with it.

In this article we will see what the Coping Cat treatment is and how it should be used. and how it should be used.

What does the Coping Cat treatment consist of?

The Coping Cat treatment (the brave cat), created by Dr. Phillip Kendall in the 90's, consists in a psychological intervention program that is framed within the cognitive-behavioral model for the treatment of a series of diverse anxiety problems in children between 7 and 13 years of age. This program is developed over 16 sessions through which the child must manage to understand their anxiety and also develop a series of skills and strategies to cope with that anxiety.

This treatment is used to address various anxiety disorders with children (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder).

It should be noted that the Coping Cat treatment has a manual that explains in detail how to carry out this program step by step, based on the premise that the psychologist must use a language that is adapted to children, especially with the youngest, since as we have said, it can be applied from 7 years of age.

Main objectives of the Coping Cat program

The following is a brief explanation of the main objectives of the Coping Cat treatment when dealing with various anxiety problems suffered by children.

The first objective is to to help the child being treated to be able to recognize his or her anxiety symptoms from different points of view, such as the sensations in his or her body. from different points such as the sensations in the body, the emotions felt and the thoughts that arise in his mind when he feels anxious.

Secondly, the child should be helped to identify the situations that provoke anxiety. identify the situations that provoke the anxiety that causes him/her so much discomfort, so that he/she is also aware of the way he/she normally acts in those situations.In the second place, the psychologist should help the child to identify the situations that provoke anxiety, so that he/she can also be aware of how he/she normally acts in those situations and thus be able to evaluate if the way he/she normally behaves helps to cope with the anxiety or if it actually harms him/her even more.

Once this has been achieved, the psychologist should help the child to develop and train a series of strategies that will enable him/her to be able to cope with and manage the anxiety he/she suffers.

Finally, another of the fundamental objectives of the Coping Cat treatment would be to to help the child to learn to evaluate his own way of behaving in situations that cause him anxiety. and also to teach him to reinforce itself to him of some form when its behavior is appropriate and allows him to face the situations that caused him anxiety with the purpose of which that form to face it is maintained in the long term.

How is the Coping Cat treatment applied?

For the application of the Coping Cat treatment a booklet is used in which the story of a cat is told. On the first page, the main character of the story appears introducing himself before telling his story.

To summarize, the psychologist should tell the story of the cat to the patient explaining that the cat had been adopted and that when it arrived at the new home with its new family it was very afraid of being in an unfamiliar place, so it used to hide under the sofa; however, the cat eventually learned to handle this fear.

As we can see, this story serves as an example for the child to see that if the cat managed to cope and manage the fear he felt living in a new home, he can also manage his anxiety and deal with the situations that trigger it effectively.

The manual that is used for the Coping Cat treatment is structured into two main partsThe first part is the psychoeducation part, which is oriented to the training of the skills to be learned by the child during the sessions in a therapeutic context; while the second part, the exposure part, is focused on the practice of those skills in a real context.

As we can see, the Coping Cat treatment is a way to address anxiety disorders. a way of approaching anxiety disorders in children in a way that can be fun and effective.The objective is that at the end of the treatment the child will have the necessary skills and the sufficient confidence to be able to put into action when needed.

Main techniques used in the Coping Cat treatment

In the manual of the Coping Cat treatment several cognitive-behavioral techniques are exposed that have a high scientific evidence to treat anxiety problems. Let us see below what are the main techniques used in this treatment.

1. Modeling

Modeling is one of the fundamental techniques of the Coping Cat treatment, since it is the psychologist who must be in charge of showing the child how to put into practice the skills he/she has been acquiring throughout the anxiety treatment program.

Therefore, the therapist must previously act as a model in order to show the child how he/she should behave in the situation he/she fears.This is a way of learning by observation that has proven to be quite effective.

Relaxation techniques

In the Coping Cat treatment, relaxation techniques are used with the aim of teaching the child to control anxiety levels and also to be able to reduce them, as it is essential for him/her to be in a state of relaxation. it is essential to be in a state of calmness when facing feared situations..

For that reason, the relaxation techniques will facilitate that the child learns to manage his own levels of activation and to achieve that they descend when they are too elevated by the anxiety suffered in certain moments.

3. Role-playing

Role-playing is another technique used during the Coping Cat treatment program that should be used to rehearse effective coping with feared situations before facing them in real life, and is a safe way to train those skills so that the child is prepared to face those situations in a real-life context. a safe way to train these skills so that the child is prepared to face these situations in a real life context..

4. Exposure techniques

During the Coping Cat treatment program it is important that exposure techniques are used so that the child can gradually face the situations that generate anxiety. Therefore, as the child acquires the tools to control the discomfort and to know how to act before the feared situations, he/she is gradually exposed to those feared situations.

The way this technique is carried out, being gradual, is that the child can move on to the following situation (one that generates a little more anxiety) when you have managed to stay in a situation having significantly decreased anxiety levels with respect to the initial levels, so that now the situation does not generate discomfort, getting to do this every time in a situation that generated higher levels of anxiety.

5. Self-instruction training

Self-instruction training serves to teach the child to direct him/herself through messages that instill motivation and support, leading the child in the right direction when confronted with the situation that generates the anxiety..

6. Reinforcement

Finally, another of the most common techniques used during the Coping Cat treatment for anxiety in children is reinforcement, which serves to reinforce each step the child takes in the right direction that allows him to overcome his fears. Therefore, each advance that the child achieves must be reinforced.