Anxiety Disorder Treatment Team (ADTT)

We treat children and young people with generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, panic disorder, agoraphobia, selective mutism, specific phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), and Tic disorders.

We’re based at the University of Reading but have clinics across all our Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) bases in Berkshire.

You can also visit our Managing Feelings pages for more advice.

An overview

When our team receives a referral for your child, we’ll invite you to attend an online workshop called ‘Parents: What you need to know’.

These workshops are designed to help families understand the difficulties they’re facing, consider the types of support available, and understand what to expect from CAMHS treatment.

We will also usually send you information at the outset about resources that you and your child or young person will find helpful, as well as invite you to join ‘SHaRON’, an online resources, moderated peer support network.

Our team offers an online group for parents /carers called ‘Understanding Neurodiversity and Anxiety’ as well as a group for young people called ‘Taking Charge of Anxiety.’ We also offer treatment groups for social anxiety disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and an online psychoeducation group about Tics for children, young people and parents.

Depending on your child’s needs, our team may offer an individualised assessment, individual therapy, family therapy and /or medication. We do not offer medication as a standalone treatment. We liaise with other professionals working with your child, sharing a psychological understanding of your child.

Sometimes our team isn't the best team to help with the types of difficulties your child may be experiencing and if this is the case we will work with you to identify who is best to support you moving forwards.

How we can help

Cognitive Behaviour therapy (CBT) is the core treatment offered for anxiety disorders and OCD, though it’s delivered in a variety of ways.

Our current treatments include:

Individual cognitive behaviour therapy for anxiety disorders
Individual cognitive behaviour therapy (including exposure and response prevention) for OCD and BDD
Group anxiety management for children and young people entitled: ‘Taking Charge of Anxiety.’
Group CBT for adolescents with social anxiety disorder and OCD
Online support and information group for parents entitled ‘Understanding Neurodiversity and Anxiety’
Online psychoeducation group for children, young people and parents/ carers about Tics
Habit Reversal Therapy for Tics
Comprehensive Behavioural Intervention for Tics

For a small number of young people, we also offer adjunctive treatments, including psychiatric management (eg medication) and family therapy.

We do not offer medication as a standalone treatment.

Treatment generally takes place for an hour a week for three to six months, sometimes longer.

We work in collaboration with young people and their families in all our treatments. We use a goals-based approach, and monitor progress every session to track outcome, plan care and receive feedback.

How to access support

If your child has moderate to severe anxiety, OCD or tics, where symptoms are having a significant impact on their daily life, you can refer to CAMHS. Please read our Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service referral criteria carefully before you complete our referral form, as it has lots of information about what to include.

If you have not already accessed support from CAMHS previously, it may be more appropriate to access CAMHS Getting Help and Mental Health Support Teams in the first instance.

If you feel it is urgent, please visit our Urgent help information page to find out who it is best to contact.

For further help, visit your local area's 'Local Offer', detailing all the services, charities and organisations that offer information advice and support. You can also visit our Managing Feelings pages for more advice.