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Deconstructing Anxiety: An In-Depth Exploration of a Powerful New Approach to Anxiety Disorders

CE Hours 6

About this course

This workshop will provide a deep dive into treatment-resistant anxiety, helping to uncover the root causes of anxiety in even your most challenging clients. You will learn techniques for releasing the resistances that keep the anxiety alive, getting at their source and transforming them into a sense of high purpose and meaning, yielding powerful change and lasting results. With the understanding that anxiety (fear) is at the root of all suffering, you will gain insight into the five core fears--“universal themes of loss”--we all share, including: • abandonment (loss of love), • loss of identity, • loss of meaning, • loss of purpose (the chance to express oneself) and • fear of death (including fear of sickness and pain) We develop our primary defenses, usually early in childhood or at times of trauma, as our best attempt to protect ourselves from these fears, but always at a great cost. This leaves us constantly holding vigil, on the lookout for the resurfacing of the fear. We build our entire personality upon this fear-defense dynamic. When our fear-defense dynamic spins out of control, an anxiety disorder can develop. The theory and techniques offered in this workshop will teach you how to uncover the core fear and chief defense quickly and reliably. Armed with this knowledge, new strategies for “doing the opposite” of the chief defense and its secondary defenses have proven extremely successful in even the most anxious clients. Incorporating psychodynamics, mindfulness, Gestalt, CBT and transpersonal psychology, participants will undergo the actual techniques being presented, making for a rich and highly experiential presentation. Come prepared for an exciting adventure into the deepest regions of the unconscious, where the hidden fears at the source of our difficulties live, to bring them out into consciousness, available for rapid and lasting transformation.

Learning Objectives

  • Describe the core fear/chief defense model of anxiety.
  • Analyze the five core fears and the primary and secondary defenses we develop in response to them.
  • Demonstrate how to identify a client’s unique core fear and chief defense.
  • Explain the principle of “Doing the Opposite” of the chief defense.
  • Utilize the exercises from the Deconstructing Anxiety program for resolving anxiety.

Learning Levels

  • Intermediate to Advanced

Target Audience

This self-paced course is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, MFT's and Addiction Professionals.

Course Instructor(s)

  • Todd Pressman, PhD

    Todd Pressman, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and international seminar leader. He is widely known for his work with Deconstructing Anxiety. He graduated with degrees in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and Saybrook Institute. His books Deconstructing Anxiety: The Journey from Fear to Fulfillment, Radical Joy: Awakening Your Potential For True Fulfillment and The Bicycle Repair Shop: A True Story Of Recovery From Multiple Personality Disorder have all received high acclaim. In 1982, he traveled the world to study the great wisdom and healing traditions, including with a Zen master, a Jain family, a Zoroastrian high priest and a Sri Lankan firewalker. His education also includes an internship under Stanislav Grof, M.D. at the Esalen Institute. With a background deeply rooted in tradition (he was groomed by a father whose teachers were taught by Sigmund Freud), he has integrated this wide-ranging experience into a new program of psychological development called "Deconstructing Anxiety". His working model is based on Michelangelo’s ideal: to release the statue from the stone, the authentic Self from the overlays of imposed identity, into the discovery of freedom and fulfillment.

Disclosure

DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT FINANCIAL RELATIONSHIPS CE Learning Systems adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CE activity ― including faculty, planners, reviewers, or others ― are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (formerly known as commercial interests). All relevant conflicts of interest have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity. The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity’s planners, faculty, and the reviewer: PLANNERS AND REVIEWER The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships. FACULTY The faculty of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

References

  • An E, Lo C, Hales S, Zimmermann C, Rodin G. Demoralization and death anxiety in advanced cancer. Psychooncology. 2018 Nov;27(11):2566-2572. doi: 10.1002/pon.4843. Epub 2018 Aug 20. PMID: 30053317.
  • Bandelow, B. et. al. (2017). Treatment of anxiety disorders. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 19(2), 93-107. doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2017.19.2/bbandelow.
  • Aghababaei, N. et. al. (2016). Predicting subjective well-being by religious and scientific attitudes with hope, purpose in life, and death anxiety as mediators. Personality and individual Differences, 90, 93-98.
  • Bautista CL, Teng EJ. Merging Our Understanding of Anxiety and Exposure: Using Inhibitory Learning to Target Anxiety Sensitivity in Exposure Therapy. Behav Modif. 2022 Jul;46(4):819-833. doi: 10.1177/01454455211005073. Epub 2021 Apr 7. PMID: 33825494.
  • Foa, E.B. & McLean, C.P. (2016). The Efficacy of Exposure Therapy for Anxiety-Related Disorders and Its Underlying Mechanisms: The Case of OCD and PTSD. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 12, 1-28.
  • Hofmann, S. & Gomez, A. (2017). Mindfulness-Based Interventions for Anxiety and Depression. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 40(4), 739-749. doi: 10.1016/j.psc.2017.08.008.
  • LaFreniere, L & Newman, M. (2020). Exposing worry’s deceit: Percentage of untrue worries in generalized anxiety disorder treatment. Behavior Therapy, 51 (3), 413-423.
  • Moon, H.G. (2019). Mindfulness of death as a tool for mortality salience induction with reference to Terror Management Theory. Religions, 10 (6), 353.
  • Pegg S, Hill K, Argiros A, Olatunji BO, Kujawa A. (2022). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety Disorders in Youth: Efficacy, Moderators, and New Advances in Predicting Outcomes. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2022 Dec;24(12):853-859. doi: 10.1007/s11920-022-01384-7. Epub 2022 Nov 12. PMID: 36370264; PMCID: PMC9660212.
  • Tyrer P. Recent Advances in the Understanding and Treatment of Health Anxiety. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2018 Jun 22;20(7):49. doi: 10.1007/s11920-018-0912-0. PMID: 29931576.
  • Wong, P. T. P. (2017). Meaning-centered approach to research and therapy, second wave positive psychology, and the future of humanistic psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 45(3), 207–216.

CE Process Info

Content

  • Materials
    3 parts
    • Webinar Recording - Part 1
    • Webinar Recording - Part 2
    • Handouts
  • American Psychological Association (APA)

    CE Learning Systems, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CE Learning Systems maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

  • Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB)

    Deconstructing Anxiety: An In-Depth Exploration of a Powerful New Approach to Anxiety Disorders, Course #5004, is approved by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by CE Learning Systems, LLC. as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: 05/25/2023 - 05/25/2025. Social workers completing this course receive 6 clinical continuing education credits. ACE individual course approval meets the NJ Board of Social Work Examiners requirements for individual course approval pursuant to NJ Code 13:44G-6.4.16.

  • National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC)

    CE Learning Systems has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5951. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. CE Learning Systems is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Make An Impact is a service division of CE Learning Systems.

  • New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work (NYSEDSW)

    CE Learning Systems SW CPE is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #0060.

  • New York Education Department Board of Creative Arts Therapy (NYSEDCAT)

    CE Learning Systems (d/b/a CE-credit.com), is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists. #CAT-0008

  • New York Education Department for Licensed Mental Health Counselors (NYSEDLMHC)

    CE Learning Systems, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.

  • New York Education Department Board for Licensed Psychoanalysts (NYSEDLP)

    CE Learning Systems, LLC dba CE-credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychoanalysts #P-0031.

  • New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology (NYSEDPSY)

    CE Learning Systems dba CE-Credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0016.

  • New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy (NYSEDMFT)

    CE Learning Systems dba CE-Credit.com & AddictionCounselorCE.com is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Marriage and Family Therapy as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0045.

FAQs

  • Course Completion
    To complete the course, review the course objectives, then review the material, and then pass the exam with a score of 70% or greater and lastly complete an evaluation. Your certificate will be available to download immediately when you pass the course exam and complete the evaluation.
Deconstructing Anxiety: An In-Depth Exploration of a Powerful New Approach to Anxiety Disorders
You Have Completed This course
$147
You are enrolled
  • CE Hours
    6
  • Type
    Self-Paced
  • Publication Date
    Jan 31st, 2024

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