Dr David Coleman to give Limerick talk about anxiety in young people

A NEW nationwide tour by clinical psychologist David Coleman is coming to Limerick’s Lime Tree Theatre this October aims to reframe anxiety for children and teenagers as “a normal part of their lives that can be regulated rather than something to be eliminated”. 

David, who specialises in working with children, teenagers and their families in this area, will be visiting venues around the country to offer concrete and practical tips to adults on how to help children deal with the stresses and pressures in their lives.

David performed a sell-out show in the Siamsa Tíre Theatre in Kerry in September 2023, on the theme of helping children and teenagers to cope with anxiety. 

He has decided to take the show on the road, incorporating an hour long presentation and a 30 minute audience Q&A into the show. 

As well as his Limerick date, David will also head to Donegal, Galway, Westmeath, Sligo, Clare, Waterford, Cork, Louth, Kilkenny and Dublin before finishing up in Carlow in November.

David hopes this new tour will “help those living or working with children to understand ‘anxiety’ better, as a feeling rather than an illness or mental health issue”. 

“We all need to be able to get anxious to stay safe, but sometimes teenagers and children can get so anxious that it prevents them from doing regular things in their everyday lives.”

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From his years of experience working both in the HSE and in private practice, in addition to his TV shows, three parenting books and gaining over 130,000 followers on Instagram, David has combined his amassed knowledge to offer “a trustworthy, easy-to-digest session” to parents and adults working with this age group. 

The audience will also have the opportunity to ask David any questions in an open Q&A after the talk.

David said: “I've long realised that anxiety in this age-group is a problem that only ever seems to be growing. In recent years, though, anxiety seems to have become pathologised by kids and parents, as some kind of mental illness. Many teenagers who attend me in my private practice announce to me that they ‘have anxiety’ like they have Covid or the 'flu, or some other disease. This is never a helpful way to conceptualise anxiety since anxiety is always going to be a transitory feeling like happiness, sadness, anger and so on. You never hear anyone saying they have ‘happiness’ as a defining feature of their lives.”

“My goal in this tour, then, is to reframe anxiety as a normal, functional and important part of children's and teenagers' lives that needs to be regulated, not eliminated. There is plenty for kids to be anxious about with social media, school, bullying, perceptions of friends, self-consciousness and so on. But kids need to understand that being anxious about things is natural, not ‘a mental health issue’. The talk will help parents understand anxiety better and give them practical tools that they can use and share with their kids for coping with anxiety such that it doesn't block their kids from doing what they might want or need to do,” he continued.

David will be onstage in the Lime Tree Theatre this October 16. Tickets are available at limetreebelltable.ie.

Please note this show is pitched at adults and not to children or teens.