Christmas break tends to be a very busy time of year in our practice. In particular, kids with anxiety tend to have a difficult time coping with the Christmas season. It seemed to be a good time to feature the interview Katie Wetherbee conducted with Rhonda Martin for the 2011 Inclusion Fusion Web Summit.

In this interview, Rhonda discusses the unique spiritual needs of children who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Social Phobia and Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder. Katie and Rhonda cover identification, accommodations and unique spiritual issues for each manifestation of anxiety from the church nursery to the high school youth group.

Rhonda is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor who works in private practice with preschoolers, children, adolescents and adults at Akron Family Institute in Green, Ohio, specializing in work with children who have OCD and other anxiety disorders. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Key Ministry, and serves as a volunteer trainer for the ministry.

Rhonda is the author of Stuck, a best-selling children’s book describing the life of Cinnamon, a young girl with OCD, as well as OCD in Kids…a website developed for children with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), their parents and and treating professionals. as a companion to the book.

Here’s the interview with Rhonda and Katie…

Our blog series examining the impact of anxiety upon spiritual development in kids, along with additional resources to better understand the impact of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents may be accessed here.

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Our Key Ministry website is a resource through which church staff, volunteers, family members and caregivers can register for upcoming training events, request access to our library of downloadable ministry resources, contact our staff with training or consultation requests, access the content of our official ministry blog, or contribute their time, talent and treasure to the expansion of God’s Kingdom through the work of Key Ministry. In addition to our downloadable resources, those who register for our resource kit can view any presentation from our Inclusion Fusion Disability Ministry Web Summits “on-demand”. All of these resources are made available free of charge. Check out our website today!