Teaching Clients Where Their Anxiety Comes From
- Focus and Limitations
- Explaining Neuroplasticity
- Amygdala and cortex pathways to anxiety
- Helping clients recognize both pathways: Useful examples
- Assessing when anxiety is initiated in the amygdala vs. cortex
- Shifting from anxiety reduction to a goal-focused approach
Explaining the Amygdala in Anxiety Treatment
- Explanation of Fight/Flight/Freeze Response and physical symptoms
- Survey to assess F/F/F tendencies
- The amygdala as protector and its limitations
- Promoting mindfulness in responding to the amygdala
- Helping clients see how the amygdala blocks their goals
- Helping client develop personal goals
- Importance of the working alliance and confidence in the therapist
- Evidence-based strategies to reduce amygdala activation
- Common issues and limitations
Using Exposure to Teach the Amygdala
- Worksheets for trigger selection and hierarchy development
- The essential step of agreeing on tasks
- General guidelines for exposure
- Tips for exposure effectiveness
- Using imagery in exposure
- Resisting compulsions with response prevention
- Risks, limitations, and concerns
- Case examples
Neurologically-Informed Interventions for the Cortex Pathway
- The relationship between the cortex and amygdala
- Surveys to identify amygdala-activating cognitions
- Explanations that motivate clients
- Mindfulness to combat amygdala-activating cognitions
- Distraction, including limitations
- When cognitions interfere with Exposure
- Limitations of cognitive approaches