Eliminating Worry and Repetitive Thinking: How to Relieve the Two Conditions that Underlie Anxiety and Depression

Overactive brain circuitry can trap people in cycles of rumination that keep them anxious and depressed. Letting go of ruminating worries, or banishing persistent negative thoughts such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m worthless” isn’t easy for our clients. When repetitive thoughts won’t shift, therapists themselves can begin to feel stuck. In this workshop, we’ll examine why clients lock into depressive thought patterns and explore the four subtle reasons they hold on to worry. We’ll then explore pragmatic, achievable, evidence-based solutions for eliminating these patterns and replacing them...Read more with attitudes of calmness and competency. Less...

Learning Objectives

• Summarize the neurological causes of rumination and how these apply to assessing and treating rumination in anxious and depressed clients.
• List four underlying causes of depression and apply evidenced-based techniques that improve these conditions. .
• List 4 purposes of worry and apply techniques that break the hold of worry, such as methods that “erase the trace” of worry, transferring worry to another person, using ritual to contain worry, and putting off health anxiety.
• Describe how to interrupt the ruminative cognitions that decrease energy and then apply self-reinforcing techniques that can energize clients, such as ‘Start Where You Already Are’ and ‘Get the Train Rolling.

Target Audience

Learning Levels

• Intermediate to Advanced

Saturday, September 24, 2022

11:00 AM EDT - 02:15 PM EDT