The four primary anxiety disorders— panic, specific phobias, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety—control people by generating an absolute standard for certainty and comfort. They inject rules into consciousness, then use that set of rules to take over mental territory. Assigning various exercises and techniques is the least effective way to promote change. We need to go after these disorders at the metacognitive level to take on anxiety’s process and overall laws. Any directives we might offer clients should consistently be driven by a set of five therapeutic goals that can be expressed to the client as “attitudes.” Lynn and Reid will present each of these attitudes and demonstrate how they can be delivered to clients in a persuasive manner. You will learn ways your clients can employ these principles in specific threatening circumstances.
Attachment theory is an integrative theory that can be used as a cognitiveinterpersonal framework for understanding the development of depression, and anxiety. The development of attachment theory and neuroscience had offered ways of understanding how interpersonal experience affects neurobiological processes. It created much impact in psychotherapy allowing for new ways for treating issues like marital problems, relational trauma, depression, and anxiety. Our early relationships shape our neurophysiology, and how we relate to others and ourselves. This workshop will address the relational aspects of depression and anxiety, and ways to address them in psychotherapy.
Patients with relationship problems often complain about others, blaming them for the difficulties in their relationship. This nearly always creates intense barriers to effective treatment because if therapists try to "help,"they suddenly run into a wall of resistance. In this panel, two therapists will discuss research on therapeutic resistance as well as treatment techniques from the attachment and TEAM-CBT perspectives. Outcome Resistance and Process Resistance will be described, and therapeutic strategies will be discussed.
In the general consideration of Eating Disorders, anxiety symptoms have often been valued only as secondary aspects or even as a non-relevant issue. On the contrary, clinical experience and some recent findings demonstrate that anxiety plays an important role at various critical moments of the disorder and in its treatment process. The incidence of anxiety in ED patients is four times higher than in the general population. A higher anxiety level corresponds to greater severity of the illness. ED symptoms are more intense when accompanied by forms of anxiety. Greater anxiety contributes to poorer outcomes, and follow-up results are less positive. Particularly in BN and AN-B, the tendency toward impulsivity is stronger in accordance with higher levels of anxiety, and If the patient’s body dissatisfaction is high, there is a greater risk of self- injurious behavior and even of suicidal attempts.
Those suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are like worry-making machines who become anxious about topics that can concern any of us: money, work, family, our health. The noise of worry is like a boombox in their heads with no offswitch. You will learn how to shift clients’ relationship with their fears and override the responses that perpetuate them. You will explore paradoxical strategies to help clients transform their anxieties and worries from intimidating threats into challenges that they can meet and conquer. The goal is to persuade clients to adopt a self-help protocol to voluntarily, purposely and aggressively seek out the unneeded worries of GAD headon and dispatch with them rather than trying to avoid them.
Patients with relationship problems often complain about others, blaming them for the difficulties in their relationship. This nearly always creates intense barriers to effective treatment because if therapists try to "help,"they suddenly run into a wall of resistance. In this panel, two therapists will discuss research on therapeutic resistance as well as treatment techniques from the attachment and TEAM-CBT perspectives. Outcome Resistance and Process Resistance will be described, and therapeutic strategies will be discussed.
After decades of working with anxious families, schools, and mental health providers, Lynn is clear about two things: parents are a critical part of therapy with anxious kids and offering long lists of “coping skills” is not enough to interrupt anxiety’s powerful generational patterns. In this workshop, Lynn will describe 1) why plans often fail, 2) how to create process-based plans for families and schools that go after the demands of the anxiety disorder, and 3) how to shift away from the practice of creating certainty and comfort. Short-term elimination strategies and long- term accommodation plans that address the “content” of the worry are all too common, so let’s instead give parents and educators the information and “big picture” instruction they need!
Perfectionism (“I’m not good enough!”) is one of the most common beliefs that patients and therapists alike struggle with. It plays a key role in depression, inadequacy, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance abuse, relationship conflicts and more. In this exciting workshop, David Burns, MD and Jill Levitt PhD will present cutting edge techniques to deal with perfectionism. Join us and learn how to heal your patients—AND yourself! Workshop Goals In this workshop you will learn how to : Pinpoint the self-defeating beliefs associated with perfectionism Use Positive Reframing to reduce the perfectionist’s intense resistance to change Challenge perfectionistic thoughts with the Cost-Benefit Analysis, Externalization of Voices, Acceptance Paradox, Self-Disclosure, Feared Fantasy, and more.
Applying Hypnosis in the Treatment of Depression is a short workshop that will emphasize the importance of utilizing proactive and well-targeted interventions when treating depression. How therapists think about the nature of depression and answer fundamental questions - such as what causes depression - naturally determine what treatment approach they are most likely to take. Likewise, how therapists think about the nature of hypnosis and its potential merits in treatment will shape their use of hypnotically based approaches. As we will discuss and you will observe in a video case presentation, there are some very compelling reasons to want to include hypnosis in the treatment of depressed individuals, couples, and families. There are things that no amount of medication can possibly address, hence the emphasis here will be on skills, not pills.
Applying Hypnosis in the Treatment of Depression is a short workshop that will emphasize the importance of utilizing proactive and well-targeted interventions when treating depression. How therapists think about the nature of depression and answer fundamental questions - such as what causes depression - naturally determine what treatment approach they are most likely to take. Likewise, how therapists think about the nature of hypnosis and its potential merits in treatment will shape their use of hypnotically based approaches. As we will discuss and you will observe in a video case presentation, there are some very compelling reasons to want to include hypnosis in the treatment of depressed individuals, couples, and families. There are things that no amount of medication can possibly address, hence the emphasis here will be on skills, not pills.