Therapy can be a hard thing to bring up with anyone, and it is especially daunting with your children. Luckily, there is a process that can help when you feel like you should say something.

When talking about therapy, make sure you follow these three steps:

Be specific. Don’t say “you have anxiety”… instead try, “I noticed you get anxious when you have a big homework assignment.”
Tell them there are professionals trained to help with this specific problem, which is different than reading about it online. Having a person who is an expert with this specific issue will be much more helpful than trying to solve it on their own.
Let them know this isn’t a lifelong commitment. If they truly want to feel better and do the work needed, they can have relief relatively quickly. An approach like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be as little as 12 weeks. There is even a lot of research stating that up to 80% of individuals can benefit from just a single session of therapy.

In sum, be specific, tell them there are experts around these specific issues, and remind them it doesn’t need to be a long commitment.