Holding on: how to help your child through the crisis

Richard Hogan, family psychotherapist, addresses a reader’s question about life during lockdown — how to help your child through the crisis and to enjoy life in spite of it

Q: My six–year–old child is refusing to leave the house, she cries and screams and seems very anxious. We have to stay in the house, she tells me, but doesn’t seem to be able to articulate why. I want her to go out in the garden and go for walks with me, but she refuses. I’m afraid I’ve passed on anxiety without meaning to.