Smart but Stuck: Parenting Tips for Navigating Anxiety and Executive Function Challenges

As a Special Educator and Assistive Technology Specialist, Lindsey has seen how executive functioning challenges can impact students’ self-confidence and self-esteem. She’s also witnessed the powerful transformation that the right strategies and coaching can bring. In addition to her expertise in Assistive Technology, Lindsey is trained in Dyslexia Strategies, Applied Behavioral Analysis, and Verbal Behavior. Her clinical work with students on the autism spectrum and those with emotional and behavioral disabilities has equipped her to help all students build personalized strategies for improved performance and confidence. Lindsey developed The StudyPro’s executive function curriculum and leads coach training. She also designs and delivers The StudyPro’s Executive Function Training for Professionals, which has reached hundreds of educators and school teams.

Lindsey’s mission—bringing each student centerstage in their own growth—is embedded in every aspect of The StudyPro’s coaching and curriculum.

The StudyPro represents a “2nd calling” for Debbie who spent the last 30 years balancing her high-paced career in technology and raising her two children. As a mother of a child with ADHD, she has worked tirelessly to navigate the challenges of raising a son who learns differently. After experiencing the struggles for students with “under-developed” executive functioning skills and seeing the positive effects of teaching explicit executive function strategies to her son, her personal passion became a professional one. Debbie’s wide-ranging management experience coupled with her desire to build a community of families with shared experiences, has guided our efforts in bringing together parents, schools and professionals to share and exchange strategies that help make raising our students just a little bit easier.

BS, University of Delaware  //  MSS, MLSP, Bryn Mawr College

For over two decades, Rebecca Berman has treated adolescents and adults with anxiety-related issues and eating disorders in outpatient, intensive outpatient, day treatment, residential, and inpatient settings. Rebecca earned a dual Master’s Degree in Social Service / Law and Social Policy from Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research. Rebecca joins Anxiety Institute after fourteen years with the prestigious Renfrew Center where she served most recently as a Clinical Training Specialist. In that role, Rebecca was responsible for supervision, training, treatment, program development, and led Renfrew’s Trauma Informed Care initiative. Rebecca co-authored the groundbreaking treatment manual The Renfrew Unified Treatment for Eating Disorders and Comorbidity – An Adaptation of the Unified Protocol, published by Oxford University Press in 2021. Rebecca specializes in anxiety, trauma, eating disorders, and neurodiversity and has a special interest in working with the transgender population. Rebecca is a nationally recognized speaker in Trauma, Eating Disorders, Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), Self-Injury, Neurodivergence, and Transdiagnostic Treatments.

In recent years, Rebecca has witnessed first-hand the overlap of anxiety, trauma and eating disorders in the adolescent, young adult, and adult populations. She is passionate about treating multiple disorders at once by understanding their maintaining mechanisms and the role of experiential avoidance. Rebecca has been motivated to research, develop, and implement cutting-edge transdiagnostic treatment practices using the unified protocol and cognitive processing therapy.

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