Tamar Chansky, PhD - Expert

I am a licensed psychologist, Founder of the Children's and Adult Center for OCD and Anxiety in Plymouth Meeting, PA, and Creator of the educational website: Worrywisekids. For over two decades it has been my great privilege to be immersed in the world of anxiety treatment—listening to the sounds of worry from patients of all ages from young kids to grandparents and everywhere in between and teaching each person to take charge of their fear by learning how it works, cultivating their own anxiety cure, and moving far beyond the limits anxiety can impose in life.

I love what I do and have learned so much from the thousands of patients I have worked with over the years. In my therapy sessions and in my books, I have developed creative metaphors and powerful strategies to help all of us change our relationship with worry and fear. And yes, we all do experience anxiety. We are all afraid that our thoughts aren’t normal, and then we start about that! But worry thoughts—whether they’re the default soundtrack of our lives or they make more of an occasional appearance—are normal. It’s our survival wiring firing us up like we are in an emergency when we are not. It’s what we do next with those thoughts that determines whether we live under anxiety’s grip, or we are free.

What is tricky is that when we are feeling uncertain fear shows up first to interpret the risk of that sitatuion. It speaks with such authority that we often trust our worry, more than ourselves. Our first reactions to uncertainty are often negative and catastrophic and focused on threat and failure. What’s the alternative? Fact check that anxious soundtrack. Edit those predictions of dread and embarrassment, test rather than trust the conclusions that your worry is quickly drawing, and then generate alternatives that are based not on the worst case scenario, but the much more manageable most likely scenario. We all get to choose to reinforce the version of our life which is most accurate and most fulfilling. Worry may have the first word, but we don’t have to let it have the last.

I frequently conduct trainings for professionals, and the general public about creative ways to change one’s relationship to anxiety. I love to extend my reach beyond the office and am the author of numerous books on the treatment of anxiety including the popular Freeing Yourself from Anxiety Series: Freeing Your Child From Anxiety, Freeing Your Child from Negative Thinking, and Freeing Your Child From Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Freeing Yourself from Anxiety: The 4-Step Plan to Overcome Worry and Create the Life You Want for anyone suffering from everyday worry, an anxiety disorder or depression. My books have been translated into many languages including Dutch, Chinese, French, Korean and Turkish.

I earned my Ph.D. from Temple University and completed my internship training at The Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital. I received a Master's in Education from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College.

I am frequently interviewed in the press about anxiety and related issues including The New York Times, Real Simple, Refinery29, eHarmony, Redbook, Forbes, O the Oprah Magazine, Parents, NPR, BBC, and CNN. I am a member of the American Psychological Association. I blog regularly on my website as well as at Psychology Today

I truly believe that when each of us works on quieting the noise that worry creates in our heads, that we can better attend to ourselves and each other in a more effective and meaningful way. Together, we can do this. Here’s to less worry all around!