The Ten Best-Ever Anxiety Treatment Techniques: Updated Strategies to Help Even the Most Challenging Clients

Credits

Speaker

Daniel J. van Ingen, PsyD Related seminars and products

Licensed Psychologist

The IMA Group

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Daniel van Ingen, PsyD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, and the author of 3 books: Anxiety Disorders Made Simple: Treatment Approaches to Overcome Fear and Build Resilience, You Are Your Child’s Best Psychologist: 7 Keys to Parenting with Excellence, and Flourish: Breaking Free with Less TV. He earned his B.A. in psychology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he was a medal of courage recipient and had a tree planted in his name for his support and advocacy for minority students. He earned his M.A. at Saint Mary’s University in Minneapolis and his Psy.D. at the University of St. Thomas Graduate School of Professional Psychology. Some of his experiences include coordinating a PTSD clinic at a VA medical center, work in two college counseling centers, service in substance abuse outpatient treatment, training medical residents in St. Petersburg, FL, and directing a day treatment program for adults with intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior for five years.

Dr. van Ingen, trained as a scholar-practitioner, has many empirical studies published on cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders, parenting research, and disabilities. He has presented at national and international conferences for over 15 years. His book, Anxiety Disorders Made Simple: Treatment Approaches to Overcoming Fear and Building Resiliency, has received outstanding reviews from psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers alike. He has been dubbed the Sarasota Parenting Doctor in his private practice work with families. He is co-founder of Parenting Doctors (www.parentingdoctors.com), an organization dedicated to serving Sarasota County families. He is a national speaker, blogs anxiety articles and posts weekly parenting podcasts on his website www.danvaningen.com, also available on iTunes. He has been featured on ABC-7 for his expertise on anxiety treatment. Follow him at Twitter @drvaningen, his Facebook page: Anxiety Disorders Made Simple and his Parenting Doctors YouTube channel.
 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Daniel van Ingen maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with IMA. He is a receives royalties as a published author. Daniel van Ingen receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Daniel van Ingen has no relevant non-financial relationships.

Alternate Dates

Objectives

1. Determine the neurobiological causes of panic, generalized anxiety and social anxiety and clarify how this information directs treatment decisions and improves treatment compliance.
2. Implement strategies for stress management to reduce symptoms of anxiety in clients, including lifestyle changes, cognitive interventions and time management tools.
3. Perform effective use of diaphragmatic breathing techniques for physiological modulation in the treatment of anxiety.
4. Demonstrate how the process of memory reconsolidation can be utilized to reduce reactivity to trauma cues, including shame trauma, that trigger social anxiety or panic attacks and sets up effective exposures to promote rapid recovery.
5. Integrate specific clinical techniques to address persistent worry and understand how they change the neurobiology of ruminative thought patterns in clients.
6. Utilize cognitive therapy interventions with clients to manage perfectionism, procrastination and to increase flexible, creative problem solving to replace worry.

Outline

• Why & how psychotherapy works to “use the brain to change the brain”
• Pragmatic application of neuroscience to provide effective treatment
• Presentation of anxiety when comorbid with depressions
• Identify lifestyle contributions to anxiety
  • Impact of cannabis, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco/vaping, sugar
  • Physical conditions that mimic panic
• Explore potential uses for medication
  • When to refer for medication
  • Discontinuing medication under medical guidance

• FOUR reasons why worry persists and the methods to manage those
• Cognitive interventions to reduce persistent rumination
• Eliminating worry: TWO methods to “contain worry”

• FOUR important lifestyle changes to reduce anxiety
• Treatment approaches that change brain function for long lasting recovery
• Activate the brain’s Default Mode Network (DMN) to increase cognitive flexibility & creative problem solving
• The right way to teach & use diaphragmatic breathing
• Use the Protocol, Predict, Prepare & Plan, to eliminate panic
• Develop the FOUR competencies of stress management
  • Eliminate stressors - Impact of constant technology use
    • Screen time, gaming, texting
    • Respond to new fears created/exacerbated by social media
  • Managing time & environment
  • Managing attitude
  • Rest & relaxation: Including the powerful Attention Restoration Theory
• Use the powerful, science-based protocol for memory reconsolidation to create successful exposures
• Change catastrophic thinking
• Utilize Mindful Awareness techniques to improve social anxiety fear
• Apply the “3 C’s” model to construct treatment for social anxiety
• Employ techniques for mindfulness to improve the response to exposure methods

• The best thought-replacement methods for worry & rumination
• Identify the person with “Too Much Activity”
• Tools to reduce generalized anxiety in the highly active person
• Cognitive approaches that can intervene on anxiety-producing perfectionism and procrastination that interact with Generalized Anxiety Disorder

• Address the relationship between the desire for significance & social anxiety in Millennials and the iGeneration
• Special considerations for treating different age groups, from children to aging clients
• Identify negative internal dialogue & apply methods from rational emotive therapy to counteract that
• Structure cognitive change through planned “counter-cognitions”
• Construct “In vivo exposure” techniques that optimize recovery from social anxiety at every age
• Utilize Emotional Freedom Techniques & “Tapping In” to diminish anticipatory anxiety

Target Audience

• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Counselors
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Case Managers
• Addiction Counselors
• Therapists
• Nurses
• Psychiatrists
• Physicians
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Occupational Therapists
• Other Mental Health Professionals