On Friday, March 14, 2025, Jacqueline Sperling, Ph.D. presented a free webinar, “Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents and How to Treat It”. Dr. Sperling provided an overview of social anxiety disorder and the factors that are associated with its development. She also explained how social anxiety can manifest in different settings, and review treatment. Lastly, she discussed what role caregivers can play in supporting the treatment. This webinar was offered free to the public by the Alan Hu Foundation and was funded by the City of Pleasanton Youth Grant program. Co-Founder and President, Xiaofang Chen, was pleased to announce that live webinars would now feature simultaneous Spanish interpretation in addition to simultaneous Chinese interpretation to make mental health knowledge accessible to more people.
4:26 Agenda
5:00 What is Social Anxiety
7:31 How Does It Show Up?
10:46 Predisposing factors
19:43 Treatment for social anxiety
34:25 Role of Parents
47:34 Reminders
49:51 Q&A
Jacqueline Sperling, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School, and the Co-Founder and Co-Program Director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital. She is also the author of the young adult nonfiction book, Find Your Fierce: How to Put Social Anxiety in Its Place, and a contributor to Harvard Health Publishing. Dr. Sperling specializes in implementing cognitive behavioral therapy with exposure and response prevention and working with youth who present with anxiety disorders and/or obsessive-compulsive disorder. She also focuses on caregiver guidance by using treatments such as behavioral parent training to help families address children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
In addition, Dr. Sperling is passionate about disseminating evidence-based information to the community and frequently speaks on the impact of social media use on mental health. Moreover, Dr. Sperling is committed to increasing access to care and participates in advocacy at state and federal levels.
The free webinar was held on Friday, March 14, 2025, from 12:00 – 1:00 pm PT via Zoom. It included 15 minutes for questions and answers following Dr. Sperling’s presentation. The Mental Health Association for Chinese Communities at https://www.mhacc-usa.org provided simultaneous Chinese interpretation, and a certified Spanish interpreter provided simultaneous Spanish interpretation.
We were honored and privileged that Dr. Sperling shared her knowledge and experience on the topic of “Social Anxiety in Children and Adolescents and How to Treat It”. We were grateful to our audience for tuning in across United States as well as from Canada, China, France, Georgia, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. Thank you, MHACC Founder and President Elaine Peng. Thank you, Ida Shaw, for simultaneous Chinese interpretation. Thank you, Nancy Lopez, for simultaneous Spanish interpretation.