What If Anxiety Has Only One True Source? (Dr. Todd Pressman's Upcoming Series on Anxiety)
What's really at the root of anxiety? Ahead of his live CE webinar on Saturday, May 2nd, Dr. Todd Pressman shares a preview of the framework that may change how we understand, and treat, fear.
Deconstructing Anxiety: A New Approach to Understanding and Treating Anxiety Disorders
There are many psychotherapeutic approaches for anxiety disorders that have been shown to be effective (Bandelow et al., 2015), with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) generally better than other approaches (van Dis et al., 2020). The Deconstructing Anxiety model is a new synthesis of evidence-based techniques, highlighting the common themes that have been empirically demonstrated as most helpful. This model teaches...
Q: What is really at the root of anxiety, and what happens when a client finally sees it clearly?
DR. TODD PRESSMAN: "It's actually a great first question that helps us explain the cornerstone of the whole Deconstructing Anxiety model — the principle of the Core Fear. The deepest illusion at the root of most anxiety, I would say, is that there are many different sources of anxiety. What Deconstructing Anxiety shows — and I think is so extremely helpful — is that there's actually one source of anxiety: what we call the 'Core Fear.'
It's a belief or interpretation of how life can be threatening that we learn in childhood. And it colors every idea of fear or any other problem throughout life. Once we buy into this early idea of how life can be threatening, it becomes the lens through which we interpret every problem from then on.
It's a dramatic statement, but it's easy to demonstrate with a process we do in the program called ‘Digging for Gold’. You take any problem, go through this deconstruction process, and find the same single Core Fear belief at the root. Take another problem, go through the process — same single Core Fear. And then we get this appreciation that that really is the true driver of all of our unpleasant or difficult experiences in life."
Q: When working with clients, how do you help get them past surface-level triggers and find what's actually driving their anxiety?
DR. PRESSMAN: "The answer is the Digging for Gold exercise. It's actually very simple — I hope elegant in its simplicity — because it's a streamlined process for taking any problem and seeing that it will deconstruct down to this one core fear, every time.
We take that problem — doesn't matter which one — and ask one of three questions:
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Why is that upsetting to you?
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What are you afraid will happen next?
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Or, what are you afraid you will miss or lose?
Pick whichever seems most apt. They're really different versions of the same question, attempting to get one level deeper and understand the truer source of the problem.
The answer to that question becomes a new problem, of which you ask one of the three questions again — answering it at a deeper level, then asking again at a deeper level still — and keep going back and forth like that until you arrive at the Core Fear."
Q: You've described anxiety as a doorway rather than an enemy. How do you know when a client is ready to move beyond just managing their symptoms?
DR. PRESSMAN: "How do we know when a client is ready to do therapy really right? The answer, unfortunately, is usually when their pain and suffering is great enough. But of course, we can also be motivated by what in Deconstructing Anxiety we call fulfillment — that's healing, that's growth, that's a return to our original state of wholeness.
Fear creates a sense of being cut off from part of ourselves, and an experience of being less than whole. So the ultimate urge, I think, that is driving all of us is to return to that sense of wholeness — characterized by complete fulfillment, nothing missing, nothing wanting or lacking.
The two drives that Deconstructing Anxiety talks about in the human experience: this drive for fulfillment that we're born with — our natural state — and then the drive of fear, which is an interruption in our pursuit for fulfillment. Fear causes us to check out threats and try to get control over them in a way that actually backfires, creating more suffering. That's one of the fundamental principles in the program — and necessary to understand if we're going to walk through the doorway and find a real cure for what ails us, rather than just manage symptoms."
Join Dr. Pressman and other clinicians this Saturday
Whether you are a seasoned clinician looking for a deeper framework or a practitioner curious about new approaches to anxiety treatment, Dr. Pressman's live presentation offers a rare opportunity to explore a model that goes beyond symptom relief . Earn 3 CE credit hours while gaining a framework you can bring directly into your clinical work.
Deconstructing Anxiety: A New Approach to Understanding and Treating Anxiety Disorders
There are many psychotherapeutic approaches for anxiety disorders that have been shown to be effective (Bandelow et al., 2015), with Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) generally better than other approaches (van Dis et al., 2020). The Deconstructing Anxiety model is a new synthesis of evidence-based techniques, highlighting the common themes that have been empirically demonstrated as most helpful. This model teaches...
