Bridget Flynn Walker PhD

Dr. Bridget Walker is goal-oriented person who appreciates how important it is to enjoy life. After finishing her doctorate in clinical psychology and practicing general talk therapy for several years, she found herself wondering if and how she was helping her patients. Like many mental health professionals, she was trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy which concerns itself with uncovering unconscious wishes, fears, impulses, etc. and posits that childhood experiences and relationships with parents shape a person’s being and any psychopathology from which they suffer.

A pragmatist at heart, she didn’t see results in her patients that she had hoped for. She especially felt completely unable to help the many anxious patients who presented for treatment. Given that most children and adults come to therapy for anxiety problems, this was an unacceptable predicament. She sometimes felt like she was a paid source of support, rather than a professional who could truly help people overcome their anxiety.

Everything changed in Dr. Walker’s career when she learned about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. She completed extensive re-training in CBT with a focus on anxiety disorders. For the past 15 years she has helped hundreds of children and adults overcome distressing and debilitating anxiety disorders with CBT. CBT is the most researched psychotherapy modality in existence and is now backed by thousands of clinical trails proving its efficacy in treating individuals of all ages.

This pragmatist with a Ph.D. now felt that she could deliver powerfully effective treatment strategies to those who needed it. Years of practice helping anxious children and their family’s regain their lives have been gratifying beyond measure. The problem she now faced was a sense of responsibility to help the many children who receive no or inappropriate treatment for their anxiety problems.

Dr. Walker prides herself in staying abreast of the many advances in CBT that are achieved each year. Thousands of brilliant researchers work hard to enable CBT therapists to improve on what is already the gold standard of effective treatment of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety Relief for Kids teaches parents and children how to conquer anxiety using the most up-to-date evidence-based strategies of CBT available in a friendly, accessible manner.

When Dr. Walker isn’t helping anxious children and adults or writing about it, she focuses on raising her sons, trying to be a good partner to her husband of 27 years, being a good friend and riding dressage competitively at the upper levels. Riding her horse, Ari and being in the company of her two dogs, Nico and Pippa is her therapy-keeps her happy, fit and satisfies her love of animals.