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

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

Sat, Nov 18th, 2023
10:00am – 4:45pm US Eastern Time
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About the Event

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.

Live Event
This live online event will be held as a Zoom Webinar. Attendees will have the option to interact through features such as the Chat and Q&A, but cameras and microphones will not be enabled.

Live Event Instructor

Todd Pressman, PhD

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.

Target Audience

This live interactive webinar is intended for behavioral health professionals, including Psychologists, Social Workers, Counselors, MFT's and Addiction Professionals.

Learning Objectives

After taking this activity, you should be able to:

  1. 1 Describe the core fear/chief defense model of anxiety.
  2. 2 Analyze the five core fears and the primary and secondary defenses we develop in response to them.
  3. 3 Demonstrate how to identify a client’s unique core fear and chief defense.
  4. 4 Explain the principle of “Doing the Opposite” of the chief defense.
  5. 5 Utilize the exercises from the Deconstructing Anxiety program for resolving anxiety.

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.

Disclosure to Learners

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).

The following relevant financial relationships have been disclosed by this activity's planners, faculty, and the reviewer:

Planners and Reviewers

The planners of this activity have reported that they have no relevant financial relationships.

Faculty

There are no known relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Commercial support

There is no commercial support for this distance-learning course.

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Joint Accreditation (JA)

6 Psychologist CE credit hours
6 Social Worker CE credit hours
Eligible until Nov 18th, 2023
In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems, LLC, is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
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American Psychological Association (APA)

6 CE credit hours
Eligible until Nov 18th, 2023
Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP Office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.
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Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB ACE)

6 CE credit hours
Eligible until Nov 18th, 2023
As a Jointly Accredited Organization, CE Learning Systems LLC is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 6 continuing education credit(s).
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6 CE credit hours
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New York Education Department Board of Social Work

6 contact hours
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CE Learning Systems, LLC, (d/b/a impactce.com) 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. Provider #0060.
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New York Education Department Board of Creative Arts Therapy (NYSEDCAT)

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

6 CE credit hours
Eligible until Nov 18th, 2023
CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.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 mental health counselors. #MHC-0072.
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New York Education Department Board of Psychologists

6 CE credit hours
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CE Learning Systems, LLC, (d/b/a impactce.com) is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for psychologists, # PSY-0016.
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New York Education Department Board of Marriage and Family Therapy

6 CE credit hours
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CE Learning Systems, LLC (d/b/a impactce.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 marriage and family therapists #MFT-0045.
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Event Agenda

Agenda times are listed in US Eastern Time. That is 3 hours later than US Pacific Time. The event starts at 7:00am US Pacific Time.

10:00 - 10:15am Introduction and overview 10:15 - 10:30am The creation story revisited—understanding the birth of fear in the psyche 10:30 - 11:30am Laying out the “Deconstructing Anxiety” model: Each of us lands on a particular core fear in childhood Description of the 5 core fears, universal themes of loss This first contact with fear is intolerable—we must restore our original innocence 11:30 - 11:45am Break 11:45 - 1:15pm Continuing with the “Deconstructing Anxiety” model: We find our chief defense as a way of protecting us from the core fear We develop secondary defenses, adaptations of the chief defense to the various circumstances we encounter in life The core fear/chief defense dynamic becomes the foundation of our personality; we interpret and respond to all circumstances through that lens All defenses backfire, creating the anxiety they are designed to protect us from We therefore employ our defenses even more rigorously and the whole cycle spins out of control, creating an anxiety disorder 1:15 - 1:30pm Lunch 1:30 - 3:00pm New strategies for resolving fear The way to release fear is to “do the opposite” of the chief defense Digging for Gold: Finding the core fear 1:50 - 3:00pm New strategies for resolving fear (con’t) Who Are You Really?: Uncovering your chief defense Analyzing secondary defenses The Alchemist: Asking “What happens next?” The Witness: Enhanced Vipassana (Mindfulness) technique 3:00 - 3:15pm Break 3:15 - 4:45pm New strategies for resolving fear and closing The Warrior’s Stance: Active “not doing” A subtle defense: The Resistance to Resistance Vision Questing: Finding one's “mighty purpose”

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