What Progress Actually Looks Like for Kids with Anxiety or OCD
AT Parenting Survival | Raising Kids with OCD & Anxiety
Natasha Daniels: Child Therapist, Child Anxiety and OCD Expert, Parenting Coach and Parent
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 13 January 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When you’re raising a child with anxiety or OCD, progress can feel confusing, inconsistent, or even invisible at times. In this episode, we explore how your mindset around progress directly impacts the energy, pressure, and expectations your child feels as they navigate their struggles.
We start by unpacking our relationship with the idea of progress and how common, well-intended beliefs can actually make things harder — like rigid goalposts, unrealistic end goals, artificial timelines, or the belief that anxiety or OCD must be permanently “fixed” to count as success.
Then we shift into a more supportive and sustainable way of viewing progress. One that includes flexible goals, small daily or weekly wins, and an understanding that your child’s mental health journey is fluid, not linear. When we remove external pressure and let go of unrealistic timelines, we create space for real growth, resilience, and trust.
This episode will help you recalibrate how you define progress so you can show up calmer, steadier, and more grounded for your child.
How we show up to our child’s struggles makes a huge impact. Want to learn how to be a steady anchor for your child’s anxiety and OCD?
🧡 Register for my FREE Anchor Series for Parents at atparentingsurvivalseries.com. The series is running from January 8th through January 16th, so you can still catch it!
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This podcast episode is sponsored by NOCD. NOCD provides online OCD therapy in the US, UK, Australia and Canada. To schedule your free 15 minute consultation to see if NOCD is a right fit for you and your child, go to
https://go.treatmyocd.com/at_parenting
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used to replace the guidance of a qualified professional.
Parents, do you need more support?
🌸 Here’s are resources I offer parents 👇🏻❤️
Online classes for parents raising kids with anxiety and OCD:
https://atparentingsurvivalschool.com
Join the AT Parenting Community (A membership designed to support parents raising kids with anxiety or OCD):
https://atparentingcommunity.com
Take one of my FREE webinars:
www.Natashadaniels.com/webinars
Check out my books:
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http://www.facebook.com/ATparentingSurvival
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http://www.twitter.com/Parentingsurvival
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you jump into today's episode, I want to talk to you about overwhelm. Do you get overwhelmed |
| 0:06.4 | when your child's anxiety or OCD starts to spiral? I know that I have. Is your child's fear or |
| 0:12.7 | discomfort contagious? It can be. And one of the biggest gifts we can give our child is the skill |
| 0:19.6 | to anchor ourselves. When we learn how to shift |
| 0:23.3 | our mindset out of fear and panic, when we learn how to ground ourselves and calm our nervous system, |
| 0:31.6 | when we learn how to spot our own triggers and we learn how to address them. We become an incredibly effective anchor |
| 0:39.7 | for our kids and their struggles. And honestly, it's not as hard as you might think. I had to |
| 0:46.1 | learn how to navigate incredible life stress, like the sudden passing of my husband a couple |
| 0:50.9 | years ago, along with raising three kids with anxiety, OCD, pots, ADHD, |
| 0:57.2 | RFID, we've got alphabet soup over here. But this has become a daily practice for me. And because of it, |
| 1:04.4 | not only have I felt more calm, I feel healthier, my kids are noticing the remarkable shift as well. And now I'm going to teach |
| 1:13.5 | you these skills. Join me in my free series, how to be an effective anchor for your child with |
| 1:19.2 | anxiety or OCD. You can register at atyparenting survival series.com. All these videos are on demand so you can watch the videos and |
| 1:29.3 | the replay on your schedule while the series is running, which will be January 8th through |
| 1:35.2 | January 16th. I hope to see you over there. Now back to the show. |
| 1:43.3 | Welcome to the AT Parenting Survival Podcast, where you get help and guidance through the chaos of parenting a child with anxiety or OCD. |
| 1:52.3 | This show is for educational purposes and is not intended to replace the guidance of a qualified professional. |
| 1:58.8 | Here's your host, child therapist, Natasha Daniels. |
| 2:03.1 | Well, hello there, and welcome to another episode of the AT Parenting Survival Podcast. |
| 2:08.3 | Today, I want to talk to you about something I think is really important, which is how you view |
| 2:13.4 | progress. |
| 2:15.2 | Now, this may seem like a no-brainer, but actually these are the things that can |
... |
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