Beaverton mom and children's psychologist team up to write book to help kids tackle social anxiety and fear

By Ed Johnson

The Beaverton Valley Times, Sep 10, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Jaime Valdez / The Beaverton Valley Times

HERE TO HELP – Marjie Braun Knudsen and Dr. Jenne Henderson, a children’s psychologist, co-authored “BRAVE: Be Read and Victory’s Easy.”

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For many kids, the return to school in the fall can mean more than just the end to a summer — it can mean the beginning of uncontrollable stress and anxiety.

There’s new teachers, new friends, harder class work, increased expectations. It’s enough to make some kids beg not to go to school.

Beaverton mom Marjie Braun Knudsen knows this struggle all too well. Of her four children, two have dealt with issues related to social anxiety. That’s why she partnered with Dr. Jenne R. Henderson, a children’s psychologist, to write the book, “BRAVE: Be Ready and Victory’s Easy.”

The book follows a fictional fifth-grader named Danny as he deals with his own trials of social anxiety and models coping strategies to make life seem a lot less overwhelming.

Knudsen says she decided to write the book — which came out last year — because when her daughter was struggling with similar issues, she didn’t find any resources that met her needs. She thinks the fictional, simple chapter-book format is a better way to reach kids and help them confront their anxiety.

“Every time my kids came up with a problem, I would always try to find a book,” says Knudsen. “It always seemed to help.”

The primary tool that the book teaches kids is “Be Ready And Victory’s Easy,” an acronym that Knudsen came up with that illustrates the best way for children to deal with feelings of anxiety: basically, it means to prepare yourself for change.

In the book, Danny improves his ability to socialize by consistently reminding himself of the tenants of BRAVE, and figuring out what it means to be ready. (For example, instead of resigning a spelling test to failure because it seems too hard, Danny figures out that studying will make him feel better, because it assures success.)

After realizing that she wanted to write the book, Knudsen starting talking with Henderson, her children’s doctor, about co-authoring the story. They spent several months going through the draft, switching off writing duties almost sentence by sentence (luckily, they have similar writing voices). After the book was completed, they shopped it around to various publishers, who told them to change aspects of the completed book. The authors decided to go a different route.

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