Whole-Client Anxiety Treatment: Somatic and Mindfulness-Based Interventions to Defuse Anxiety, Deactivate Panic and Manage Bodily Sensations

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

Debra Premashakti Alvis, PhD Related seminars and products

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Debra Premashakti Alvis, PhD, a licensed psychologist, developed the Mind/Body Program at the University of Georgia, providing clinician training on the integration of mindfulness and contemplative practices into psychotherapy. Her work as a professor at the University of Georgia included the supervision of doctoral students and co-leading a research team investigating mindfulness.

In addition to teaching, Dr. Alvis maintains a private practice and has more than 25 years of clinical experience in treating clients with a variety of conditions by mindfulness principles, body-oriented principles and traditional psychotherapeutic approaches. She also has an over 30-year personal contemplative practice.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Debra Alvis maintains a private practice and receives a speaking honorarium from Asadis Training, Essential Therapy Training, Georgia Museum of Art, Bascom Museum of Art, and Mountain Area Health Education Center. She receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Debra Alvis is a member of the American Association of College Student Personnel, the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, the Association of Specialists in Group Work, the Athens Area Psychological Association, and the Georgia Psychological Association.

Objectives

1. Utilize psychoeducation tools to explain the physiology of anxiety, and how contemplative and somatic approaches impact the body, to establish client expectations for treatment.
2. Analyze the clinical implications of research indicating a positive correlation between meditative movement and a reduction in anxiety symptomology.
3. Utilize breathing training with clients to teach them how to manage anxieties and more effectively cope with bodily sensations.
4. Employ deep muscle relaxation exercises with clients to reduce the intensity of physical anxiety symptoms and improve sleep quality.
5. Analyze the clinical implications of intolerance of bodily sensation on health related anxieties.
6. Assess risks and contraindications to the use of mindfulness-based and somatic interventions.

Outline

• Autonomic nervous system responses and states
• Cognitive & amygdala pathways to anxiety
• Serotonin, dopamine and other transmitters
• The role of brain derived neurotropic factors
• The impacts of sleep and nutrition on the anxious brain
• Psychoeducation strategies

• DSM-5™ Classification of Anxiety Disorder
• Assessment from the whole person perspective
• Clinical approaches for ambiguous anxiety presentations
• How differentiating vagal states informs treatment

• Deep relaxation techniques to wire in relaxed, alert mood
• Moment to moment exercises for letting go
• Breath and movement strategies to deactivate panic

• Bodily sensations and health-related anxieties
• Visual meditations for specific clinical concerns
• Prepare with movement, imagery, and sound
• Draw from inner resources
• Instil a new perspective with movement and writing

• Interrupt the worry cycle: from the meditation cushion to daily life
• Mindful exploration – predictions vs. what happened
• Bring curiosity to perceptions
• Prime secure attachment for social anxiety
• Engage and calm parts of the self

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Marriage and Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals