# Episode 68 | Teenage Anxiety: Supporting Caregivers in Navigating Growing Pains versus Clinical Anxiety with Sophia Vale Galano, LCSW Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030/episode-68-teenage-anxiety-supporting-caregivers-in-navigating-growing-pains-versus-clinical-anxiety-with-sophia-vale-galano-lcsw Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030/episode-68-teenage-anxiety-supporting-caregivers-in-navigating-growing-pains-versus-clinical-anxiety-with-sophia-vale-galano-lcsw.md Podcast: [The Affirming Minds Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030) Published: 2026-02-24T07:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://shaina-siber-sanderowitz.mykajabi.com/podcasts/the-affirming-minds-podcast/episodes/2149169187 Audio file: https://app.kajabi.com/podcasts/medias/2149169187.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030/episodes/episode-68-teenage-anxiety-supporting-caregivers-in-navigating-growing-pains-versus-clinical-anxiety-with-sophia-vale-galano-lcsw Duration seconds: 3326 ## Resource   Course Information: https://www.canva.com/design/DAHCJ9CKZKI/Ad1sHDONsRUAfzKnZndnYw/view?utm_content=DAHCJ9CKZKI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h08e753f0a7 --- Episode Summary: Are today’s teens truly more anxious — or are we simply seeing anxiety more clearly? In this episode, we unpack the narrative of “the anxious generation” and explore what current research actually shows about adolescent anxiety. We discuss adolescent brain development and expected shifts in mood, sleep, and emotional intensity, and how to distinguish developmentally expectable distress from clinically impairing anxiety. We also explore how contextual factors — COVID-19 disruption, social media and parasocial relationships, and expanded access to telehealth — shape our understanding of youth anxiety reporting without assuming pathology. Finally, we delve into a critical relational factor: how caregiver anxiety and over-accommodation can unintentionally reinforce avoidance — and what  differentiation  looks like in practice when supporting teens. Joining me is Sophia Vale Guarino, LCSW, author of  Calming Teenage Anxiety  — a practical guide for caregivers who want to support teens with clarity and steadiness. Get her book here: https://a.co/d/005IWBFj --- About Our Guest: Sophia was born in Los Angeles, raised in London, and holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from New York University. She has been providing therapy since 2015 and has over a decade of experience working with adults and adolescents. Sophia has treated individuals and families in her private practice while also providing therapy in medical, educational, residential and outpatient settings. She is an expert at treating teenage anxiety, an… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030/episodes/episode-68-teenage-anxiety-supporting-caregivers-in-navigating-growing-pains-versus-clinical-anxiety-with-sophia-vale-galano-lcsw/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-affirming-minds-podcast-7020030/episode-68-teenage-anxiety-supporting-caregivers-in-navigating-growing-pains-versus-clinical-anxiety-with-sophia-vale-galano-lcsw.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.