Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) is a type of severe anxiety where young people regularly feel unable to attend or stay at school, and it can be extremely disruptive for the whole family.

I have some personal experience of EBSA, which affected two of my own children.

I have also worked professionally with many young people who have had mild to severe difficulties with being in school, for a variety of different reasons.

Through these experiences, I have learned that there is a right way and a wrong way to deal with issues around school anxiety and disrupted attendance, and the right way starts with listening to the child or young person, and finding ways to reduce their anxiety.

99% of the time, EBSA has very little to do with the child or young person being defiant or stubborn, which is why I don’t use the term ‘school refusal’. Usually, it isn’t that they won’t go to school, but that they can’t go, because something about school feels unsafe for them.

The reasons that they feel unsafe are different for each young person going through this, and their EBSA could be simple to remedy, for example arranging a slightly later start time, or a Time-Out pass. But it may be a complex bundle of problems, made up of worrying situations or systems in school, academic ability, relationships with other students and/or staff, personality traits, low self-esteem, high expectations, sensory issues, overwhelm, SEND and Neurodivergence … and this may take longer to untangle.

I can offer practical support, which begins with identifying the young person’s specific issues with school/college, then devising immediate strategies to tackle these. I offer guidance on how to work with school/college to implement measures which reduce the young person’s anxiety. We will look at how EBSA is affecting life at home for the whole family, then find ways to reduce stress and put predictable routines in place. Ultimately the goal is that the young person is able to return to education in a way that feels safe and comfortable for them, and manageable for parents.