Introducing skittish resident cat to new kitten?

My resident cat just turned a year old in May, and I could tell she was a bit bored/lonely, so a few months later I decided to adopt a kitten. She is quite small and young herself and the vet has told me that she seems interested in the other cats when they bring her to the back for her exams, so I thought ‘surely this will be an easy introduction’ but i’m about 3 days in and feeling that I was wrong in that assumption lol

Currently kitten is being kept separate in a room at the end of my hall on the second floor, resident cat lives out of my bedroom which is maybe 10 feet away from the kitten’s room. My resident cat has always been a bit jumpy, but now she is pretty much refusing to go upstairs unless I’m also home— which is tough because thats where her litter box, food, and water is and I work full time in person 5 days a week. She will sit and stare at the stairs from the first floor, but now typically needs to be coaxed up

I am trying to do the Jackson Galaxy method, but I’m having my doubts that it will work for her. She is not very food motivated so the “eating on opposite sides of the door” thing has pretty much been a non-starter. She does seem to do okay with the scent swapping though.

Just curious if anyone else has had a similar dynamic and what they did for introductions. Little guy is ready to bust out of his room (he’s quite the escape artist at this point lol. I’m getting worried they’re going to see each other just because he’s basically liquid at this point and great at squeezing between leg and doorframe) and I know he will do great with another cat, but my resident girl seems to have inherited my anxiety somehow