6 CEU’s Offered
Course Description:
What if I embarrass myself? What if that person hates me? What if something bad happens? What if I sent the wrong person an email? What if I cause a car accident? What-if questions are an indicator of anxiety. When thinking of all the things a person doesn’t want to happen, the brain and body react accordingly: as if a hypothetical threat is real danger. This is why anxiety feels so potent to sufferers!
No one is immune to the effects of anxiety, and anxiety itself is not all bad! Anxiety is a human response to many experiences in life. So when does it turn from typical to disorder, from adaptive to maladaptive? This workshop provides an in-depth look at anxiety disorders and OCD, the research, the assessments, the evidence based treatments, and more!
Why don’t people with anxiety consider more realistic or positive questions like “What if it all works out?” or “What if I handle the situation even if it’s uncomfortable?” Depending on the individual’s symptoms and diagnosis, the answer and subsequent treatment could be really different! It can take an average of 17 years for individuals with OCD to receive therapy treatment from the onset of symptoms (Ziegler et al. 2021). It is vital that more clinicians in the community become skilled at identifying anxiety and related disorders, so there is no delay to a person’s recovery.
When people come to therapy for anxiety disorders it’s often because they are experiencing the unwanted physical sensations that occur during anxiety, they are experiencing emotional dysregulation about the content of their worries, or are in distress about the feared consequences of their doubts. Understanding the presentation, diagnostic criteria, and most efficient treatment methods is essential as regular talk therapy methods will likely not yield positive treatment outcomes. Clinicians leaving this training will gain a solid understanding of the differences between Generalized Anxiety, Health Anxiety, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Panic, and Specific Phobias.
This workshops is drawing on the writings, research and knowledge of: Edna Foa, Frederick Aardema, Karen Lynn Cassiday, Christopher Germer, Jonathan Grayson, Michael Greenberg, Russ Harris, Mike Heady, Jon Hershfield, Eli Liebowitz, Marsha Linehan, Kirstin Neff, Kieron O’Connor, Kimberley Quinlan, Carl Robbins, Michael Twohig, Chad Wetterneck, Sally Winston, and more!