Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

My child is under 6 years of age. Would Turnaround be appropriate for this age?

We recommend the program for 6 to12 year olds. Four or five years old is pretty young to grasp the concepts, and we are not able to predict confidently that the program would be clear enough to help. That said, the program is animated and kid friendly. We have had a few very young children try it with mixed outcomes, several of them positive.

If you would like to try it with a child that age, you as a parent would need to listen along and help explain when needed. The program is made up of 10 parts, each about 20 to 25 minutes long. However, the many breaks and transitions mean that your child could easily listen to shorter segments and still keep the overall flow. We can see your child benefiting from listening to the program each year for the next several years as she matures in her understanding.

We also have some extended samples that you could play for your child here. If your child responds positively, then it is possible the entire program would be okay. Remember, you can always return the program within 90 days if it just doesn’t work out.

Your program sounds wonderful, but the upper age limit for treatment is twelve. My child is an early teen. Is that too old for the program?

The type of treatment we use in the program is effective for all ages. What is unique about Turnaround is its delivery. Therefore some parts may seem childish to your teenager. I have worked with adolescents who found it helpful because they could ignore the child-focused delivery. You could try it to see if it will reach your teen in a way that other options have not. Often we must try many different things in order to find that one thing that “clicks”. If you purchase it, make sure to talk it up to your teen and they may have to overlook some aspects of the delivery. Tell them this is different and that kids all over the world have been helped by it. By modeling confidence and belief in the program, you will help set the best possible stage for the program to take hold.

We have some extended samples that you could play for your teen here. If the delivery feels childish or insulting to them, then the program won’t help. However, if they are able to overlook that and grasp the underlying principles, then the entire program will be fine. Remember, if it doesn’t fit, you may always return it within 90 days.

The journal is at a level which I feel is above my child’s skills, and may increase his feelings of inadequacy. How critical is the journal for in this treatment program? Is it as effective if an adult gives assistance?

The journal is a support to the audio and is thus more optional. If some segments feel too advanced, they may be skipped without major impact. However, with adult assistance he should be able to do all of it. We did our best to make it fun and to “sneak” in the therapy. With younger children, parents will need to participate in the process to keep things going and occasionally clarify. A huge benefit of a parent listening along is a shared language which will make anxiety—and overcoming it!—much easier to talk about.

We have found in our clinical work that too much pressure or high expectations can backfire with an anxious child, so it is very insightful for you to catch that. We went out of our way to address the tendency of an anxious child to feel like a failure if recovery doesn’t happen just right or quickly. You may have to address this from time to time to keep your child’s expectations at a reasonable level.

 Are family dynamics incorporated into the program? Is it helpful for siblings to participate?

Usually, it works wonderfully for siblings to participate. There are some exceptions. For example, if there is teasing or complaints that make the anxious child feel like more of a problem than they already might feel then it would be best to not include siblings. Siblings may also be impatient for change. In the best cases, the program increases everyone’s understanding and decreases siblings’ frustration, but you must keep an eye on that. We address family issues directly in the parent CDs and occasionally in the child program. However, the focus of Turnaround is on an individual child with anxiety.

The Turnaround program takes place over 10 days. Will it work if I break it up and review it less frequently?

You can absolutely break up the program over time. The treatment is embedded in a story that unfolds over 10 days. We refer to each of the 10 program CDs as Day One, Day Two, etc. That is part of the plot in the story and NOT directions for using the program. You may use the program over a much longer time at home. In fact, we recommend not going any faster than one CD per day, but you can certainly take longer. We designed it to be flexible so you can adjust it to your situation. You may also break up each CD over time. The many breaks and transitions in each CD mean that your child could easily listen to shorter segments and still keep the overall flow.

What types of anxiety are addressed in Turnaround? Is there any type of anxiety that Turnaround does not treat?

We designed Turnaround to work with generalized anxiety disorder, panic attacks, social anxiety, separation anxiety, phobias and OCD. We cover the fundamentals of all types of anxiety. The only specific anxiety that we do not recommend with Turnaround is PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). You need the oversight of a therapist before using Turnaround with PTSD. We also recommend that your pediatrician be informed and involved with the treatment of any anxiety disorder.

My child is already loaded with work and stress and seems to be on edge as it is.  I know from personal experience that dealing with your fears at first can be intensely stressful.  Given the stress, is there a chance she could get worse and reach a tipping point before the program starts to help?  Should we wait for low stress time to start?

Think of life's stress like filling a bucket. There is limited capacity in a bucket. At some point, if there is enough stress it overflows. That is when you get the strong symptoms. Any stress will add to the bucket. So the question is, “Should you start anything right now when there is a lot of stress from life's circumstances?” You probably have to trust your mom or dad instinct on that. If she can continue to do what she needs to do, you might wait until there is less stress. If the symptoms are just too strong then you may have to start anyway.

If you decide to start, you could try a very soft/indirect approach like listening in the car or framing it with no expectations like, "Let's just see what it is about and not work on anxiety yet". You could just listen to brief parts and see how she does. In the beginning of the program we just try to help kids make sense of what is going on. We don't ask much, just for them to give the program a try. On the third CD we want kids to start learning to breathe differently and practice relaxing. That is really the first major thing we ask. However, understanding anxiety can really take a lot of the fear of fear out of it. On the other hand, if she reacts to it because she is overwhelmed then stop and say let's do this when things settle down.

Talking, thinking and working on anxiety usually causes it to rise. But for a child to engage you have to keep it from hitting that red zone. You may have to give your child a bit of a push but do your best to keep it manageable.

What do I do? My child is resisting listening to the program? He won’t even stay in the room.

The catch-22 with anxiety is that anything (treatment, talking about, image, etc.) that might be about anxiety will often cause an increase in anxiety. Anxiety gives the feeling of a complete loss of control. If possible, give your son some sense of control. For example, suggest that he doesn't have to do a single thing about his anxiety at first, just listen. Suggest he can "sort of" listen. Play it while in the car or he is busy doing something else. Play it real quiet so he can ignore it if he wants. Give him control every 5 minutes if he wants to turn it off. Listen to only a few minutes each time. Play it in the background of something else, even other music. Give him the choice to play it when he is ready. (the deal is that he will play it). Have someone else listen first and he can see how they do with it. Keep offering choices (except the choice of doing nothing) until you find one he will consider. Ask him for options. Give as many choices as you can and some sense of control. It is okay to do very very gradual exposure. Take off some pressure but not all the pressure. Gradually get him used to it.

My child has suddenly become very anxious.  Would he get further ideas of what and how to be more anxious by hearing more anxious related information?  I am nervous as to how much to make this all real, almost like if I don’t discuss the details it may make the problem smaller, if I disclose all and what others go through, it may make him worse.

Yes, it is possible that he might get some ideas. What would be very important is that if you start this, you continue it. He will get those ideas anyway most likely from other sources. It is how anxiety works. Once anxious, the mind goes looking for danger. So, although it might initially cause an increase in anxiety (which happens frequently with any treatment) as he continues to listen and work through the program the anxiety should dissipate. You could wait a bit and see if it settles down on its own but I wouldn’t give it too much time. It tends to build steam. If you play it for him, give him the option to stop listening if he wants to. Also, if you listen first you can give him an idea of what to expect so there are no surprises. If he says no at first or seems anxious when he listens, turn it off but suggest a day or so later to try again and see if he would be willing. Sometimes after the initial anxiety (when there is some) kids settle down and can listen. Timing is a big deal with anxiety and you have to see if this is the right time or not. I know this is scary but it is just anxiety. It is treatable. There is nothing unusual about his anxiety and how it presents itself. It is just the regular stuff of anxiety. I know how it can hijack a family. It will get better.

Can the program work without medication?

Yes, we have had a lot of success without medication. What medication does is settle things down relatively quickly and sometimes that is crucial. Counseling and/or our program takes a bit more time usually but the change is more likely to last. Even with medication, you still have to solve the problem. Medication just makes it a bit easier (assuming it is the right medication, relatively free of side effects and works like one hopes).

Does your program work for hoarding?

Hoarding is usually a symptom of OCD or related in some ways to OCD. In our program one of the kids has OCD and also one of the “mentor” kids. There are a lot of variations of OCD so we could only feature a limited selection of symptoms. We didn’t feature hoarding. However, that really won’t matter because we cover the underlying features and treatment steps that apply no matter what the specific symptoms. It won’t be hard for him to feel understood and make the connections to his specific symptoms. We have had really good response with OCD. The specific treatment that is very effective for OCD is called response or ritual prevention. It is a type of exposure. We call it postponing and that is usually part of the treatment with hoarding. We explain and lay that out in detail. OCD and anxiety can be really tricky and seemingly stubborn so I don’t want it to sound like I’m suggesting it will be easy or that Turnaround always works. Nothing always works. However, starting to help early makes treatment easier and more likely to be effective.

There is a fabulous book for kids on OCD.  It is “What to do when your brain gets stuck” by Dawn Heubner. It explains it really well.

Note from a mom whose child has PANDAS

My daughter has a condition called PANDAS/PITAND, which is an autoimmune disorder which can be triggered by strep or other infections. Antibodies attack the basal ganglia of her brain and cause OCD/Tourettes- like symptoms along with rage, separation anxiety, fears... and other symptoms. This disorder is grossly under researched and is finally gaining some momentum albeit not fast enough for us families suffering from the devastation. It is very sudden, drastic, and hard to treat. it IS ACTUALLY a brain injury/ inflammation taking place. So all rationality goes out the window. Please, if you are not familiar with PANDAS (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder after streptococcal infection)  or PITAND (post infection triggered autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder) PLEASE take the time to learn more. thepandasnetwork.org has some good information. NIMH has acknowledged it just this past August (BIG STEP) and there are countless links if you Google the term. So thank you for your program, I do feel it is somewhat helpful, and if this was just OCD, we may have had an even greater benefit from it. Thank you so much.

If I'm not satisfied, will I be able to return the program for a full refund?

Absolutely. Feel free to learn about our 90-day return policy here.

Is it possible to order more workbooks at a later date now that I have ordered the product?

Yes, you can order additional journals on our order page.

I was wondering if you had this program in other languages?

At the present time we only offer the program in English.