Jennifer L. Abel – 101 Practical Strategies for the Treatment of GAD, Panic, OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Phobias and Insomnia

• Clinically Relevant Techniques from a Clinician Who is an Expert in Treating Anxiety!
• Creative Non-medication Treatment Methods
• Use Technology to Treat Anxiety, Including YouTube Exposures,
• Recording Relaxation and Exposure Loops, and the Best Apps
• Innovative Mindfulness Strategies that Melt Panic and Anxiety
• Effectively Treat Insomnia, Tension, Headaches, Fatigue, Irritability and More!

Many times in my practice, I have met new clients who have seen multiple therapists and have tried an array of medications, only to continue to be plagued with anxiety. They are frustrated when they show up at my office.

After studying the latest research, working with experts in the field, and almost exclusively treating clients with anxiety disorders for more than 20 years. Even the most treatment resistant clients can be helped by me.

Since the early days of my clinical career, I have developed methods that have been vital to providing relief for chronic anxiety. These techniques are easy to use and can help your clients.

This is a video that you can watch. You need to develop skills. If you can help your clients overcome worry, panic attacks, phobias, OCD, social anxiety and insomnia.

Target and transform clients with difficult problems.

• Hypochondriasis
• Perfectionism
• Subjugation
• Catastrophizing
• Intolerance of uncertainty
• Procrastination

You will learn how to help anxious and sleep-deprived clients through several demonstrations and hands-on exercises. We will look at progressive relaxation, observation and acceptance strategies, time management, mindful labeling, postponing worry, interoceptive exposure and much more.

If you are dealing with clients.

• Have trouble committing to treatment
• Want to break their dependency on medication
• Can’t sleep despite trying everything
• Believe their panic is medically based
• Trapped in habits that reinforce their fears and anxiety

You will be happy you watched the video.

The person is Jennifer L. Abel.

1. Identify the anxiety spiral in order to catch worry and panic early.
2. Outline alternatives to CBT when CBT is ineffective in the treatment of anxiety and insomnia.
3. Recognize 5 client habits that cause or contribute to anxiety including perfectionism, subjugation, procrastination, hypochondria, and catastrophizing and intolerance of uncertainty.
4. Discover how to use technology to treat anxiety, including audio recordings for relaxation, verbal exposure loops and video exposure.
5. Demonstrate progressive relaxation to treat tension headaches, fatigue, insomnia, chronic pain, muscle tension and high blood pressure.
6. Discuss the cycle of negative reinforcement and stop it by using the latest and most effective methods of exposure and response prevention.
7. List 4 unique mindfulness techniques to treat worry, OCD, panic and phobias, including mindful labeling and a mindfulness game.
8. Show how to use exposure therapy and mindfulness to treat obsessive compulsive disorder.
9. Explain when to use interoceptive and other exposures to treat panic attacks and when to utilize coping strategies.
10. Develop skills to treat all 3 aspects of social anxiety: skills deficits, irrational beliefs and physiological anxiety.
11. Use the most effective methods for treating agoraphobia and simple phobias, including flying phobia, emetophobia, acrophobia and claustrophobia.
12. Determine if sleep disorders or other medical problems interfere with sleep when trying to treat insomnia.
13. Identify at least 12 effective ways to treat insomnia without medication.

101 Practical Strategies for the Treatment of GAD, Panic, OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Phobias and Insomnia is available for purchase.

There are treatment strategies for anxiety.

The White Bear research says that trying not to worry makes it worse.

• Treatments to circumvent the White Bear Phenomenon
  • Moving Toward relaxation
  • Process vs. command
  • Postpone worry
  • Acceptance

The focus is on the present and not on what happened in the past or what is going to happen in the future. The focus is on the present and not on what happened in the past or what is going to happen in the future.

• Mindful acceptance:
  • 5 metaphors
  • Observe and label thoughts and emotions
• Mindfulness as relaxation
  • Being in the present
  • Active and quiet mindfulness
  • Game and demonstrations

The therapy is called cognitive therapy.

• A quicker and better way – B3s
• Hands-on exercises to find alternative thoughts
• “Shoulds” and “Wants”
• Finding humor in worry

The progressive relaxation is called the PR.

• 8 benefits of PR
• Signaling and timing
• Patter
• Debriefing and home practice instructions
• Alternatives to PR -Tin Man to Scarecrow and sponge absorbing tension

Problem Solving Strategies

• Worry prevents problems solving
• Mindfully label problems
• Brainstorming
• Postpone worry to problem solving times
• Problem solving worksheet

Exposure strategies can be used.

• Negative reinforcement in anxiety
• Metaphor – Little Shop of Horrors
• Assess for negative reinforcement
• Remove crutches that negatively reinforce
• Traditional in vivo exposure
• Imaginal exposure
• Video exposure
• Flooding the thoughts and words
• Interoceptive exposure
• Response prevention

You can make your own recordings.

• Record for free
• Turn recordings into MP3s
• Make loops for verbal exposure
• Make relaxation recordings
• Transport large MP3s to clients for free

There are specific programs for anomalies.

There is a generalized anxiety disorder.

• Worry spirals
• 3 benefits of catching anxiety early and evidence this works.
• 12 reminders to catch anxiety early
• Self-controlled desensitization (SCD)
• Applied or active relaxation

OCD

• In vivo exposure and response prevention
• Alternative exposures
• Covert obsessions (normalizing, flooding thoughts and singing words)
• Contamination fears
• Mindfulness and OCD

There are Panic Disorders and Panic Attacks.

• New panic attack specifier
• Interoceptive exposure
• Explain what caused that first panic attack
• Anxiety sensitivity
• When panic looks like OCD
• Anxiety spiral in panic
• Benzodiazepenes make panic worse
• Nighttime panic

Specific Phobia and Agoraphobia.

• Rule out fear of panic
• Exposures:
  • In vivo
  • Imaginal
  • Flood the fear verbally
  • YouTube and other Internet options
• Three Common Specific Phobias – flying, emetophobia, acrophobia

Social anxiety.

• 3 components of social anxiety: skills deficit, cognitive distortions, physiological anxiety
• Normalize social anxiety
• Social skills training – eye contact, open ended questions, listening, improving affect
• Exposure: in vivo, role play, flooding thoughts
• Coping strategies
• Speech phobia

Insomnia

• Rule out other sleep disorders and medical causes
• Treatments for insomnia:
  • Worry postponement and problem solving before bed
  • Sleep hygiene and several stimulus control strategies
  • Creating a sleep rhythm by addressing schedules, naps and lighting
  • The win-win trick
  • Relaxation strategies

ANXIETY TREATMENT RESISTANT.

When it isn’t effective enough.

• Rule out ADHD, depression and medical issues
• Encourage emotional processing
• Address lifestyle habits
• Psychotropic medications
• When CBT and medication doesn’t work:
  • Increase emotional processing
  • Experiential techniques
  • Address interpersonal problems shown to interfere with CBT

There are personality qualities associated with anxiety and what to do.

• Hypochondriasis and fear of untimely death – postponing, flooding, etc.
• Perfectionism – strategies for balance and better life
• Subjugation – continue “the wants” stop negatively reinforcing fear and guilt
• Catastrophizing/intolerance of uncertainty – postpone, address superstitions and worry
• Procrastination – planned procrastination and creating small goals.

101 Practical Strategies for the Treatment of GAD, Panic, OCD, Social Anxiety Disorder, Phobias and Insomnia is available for purchase.