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Live Webinar

The Health Anxiety Treatment Guide: ACT and CBT-Based Interventions for Illness Anxiety and Somatic Symptom Disorders


Speaker:
Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP
Duration:
Full Day
Language:
Presented in EN, subtitles in EN and FR
Product Code:
LWC058957
Brochure Code:
PWZ92964
Media Type:
Live Webinar - Also available: Digital Seminar

Dates


Description

A nervous awareness of potential illness will continue to lurk on every doorknob and in every crowded room for years to come.

But for many clients, extreme anxieties about their health lead to hours checking their symptoms online, undergoing dozens of unnecessary doctor visits, and doing anything to evade perceived health risks.

And if you can’t help these clients learn to stop fearing death, they’ll continue to avoid life.

But these anxieties can be tricky to recognize and tough to treat. Without the right approach, you could fail to spot the problem, lose your client’s trust when you suggest their fears are exaggerated, or even inadvertently reinforce their anxieties.

That’s why health anxiety treatment expert and author Taylor Ham, LMFT, created this online training, so you can get the up-to-date skills and clinical tools you need to confidently diagnose and treat these clients and free them from the fears that control their lives.

Packed with case studies, worksheets and practice tips, Taylor will provide you a blueprint for identifying health anxieties that can hide beneath relationship distress, OCD, and other presenting issues. PLUS she’ll give you step-by-step instructions on how to use CBT, ACT, and mindfulness-based interventions to make real therapeutic progress and:

  • Maintain clients’ trust when confronting them about exaggerated symptoms
  • End reassurance seeking and checking behaviors that can prolong their anxieties
  • Use exercises to help clients tolerate uncertainty and accept somatic symptoms
  • Reduce clients’ unhealthy rumination and intrusive thoughts
  • And much more!

Don’t wait to get the tools you need to break the unhealthy cycle trapping so many of today’s clients.

Register now!

Credit

Program Information

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.



Canada Credit - CE Information Coming Soon

Continuing education credit information is coming soon for this live webcast.



Speaker

Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP's Profile

Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP Related seminars and products


Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP, is a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional and author of the book The Health Anxiety Workbook: Practical Exercises to Overcome Your Health Worries (Rockridge Press, 2021).

Ms. Ham specializes in treating a range of anxiety and mood issues, as well as stress and relational issues. In her practice, she uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based techniques to help clients leave their health-related anxieties behind so they can live the lives they want. Ms. Ham earned her MS degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Virginia Tech University and has been designated a Clinical Fellow by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT).

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Taylor Ham maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Octave Behavioral Health. She receives royalties as a published author. Taylor Ham receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Taylor Ham has no relevant non-financial relationships.


Additional Info

Program Information

Webcast Schedule

Please note: There will be a 70-minute lunch and two 15-minute breaks; one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Lunch and break times will be announced by the speaker and at their discretion. A more detailed schedule is available upon request.


Access Period for Live Webcast

For live CE credit, you must watch the live webcast in its entirety at its scheduled time and complete the CE quiz and evaluation within one week. You will have access for 90 days after the program for review.


Questions?

Visit our FAQ page at https://www.pesicanada.ca/faq or contact us at https://www.pesicanada.ca/contact-us.


Objectives

  1. Assess for Somatic Symptom Disorder and Illness Anxiety Disorder in clients.
  2. Differentiate healthy anxieties from potential co-morbid disorders.
  3. Develop and provide client-friendly psychoeducation about health anxiety and its related symptoms.
  4. Build collaborative treatment plans tailored to each client’s unique experience of health anxiety.
  5. Utilize evidence-based CBT strategies to break the problematic cycle of health anxiety through changing thoughts and behaviors.
  6. Apply ACT techniques and mindfulness-based strategies to enhance clients’ uncertainty tolerance and acceptance of somatic symptoms.

Outline

Assessing Clients for Health Anxiety
  • Common traits of sufferers and the impact of COVID-19
  • DSM-5™ Criteria: Somatic Symptom Disorder and Illness Anxiety Disorder
  • Diagnosis and differentiation between these two disorders
  • Instruments and interviewing techniques
  • Common co-morbid disorders
  • Health anxiety vs OCD
Physical Symptoms, Stress and the Brain-Body Connection
  • Why we no longer use “hypochondriac”
  • Techniques for getting client buy-in
  • Physical symptoms of stress and anxiety
  • The brain-body connection
Breaking the Cycle: Psychoeducation and Early Session Interventions
  • Psychoeducation: 3 activities to explain the cycle to clients
  • Techniques to reduce reassurance seeking behaviors
  • Strategies to help control self-checking and research rabbit holes
  • Case study: John, 50 years old
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): Proven Techniques to Challenge the Health Worries Clients Can’t Shake
  • Practical tips for goal setting
  • Thought experiments to expose misbeliefs about health and illness
  • Hypothesis testing and gathering evidence for worried thoughts
  • Challenging core beliefs about health
  • Using exposure techniques in health anxiety treatment
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Build Uncertainty Tolerance and Somatic Symptom Acceptance
  • The problem with experiential avoidance
  • Clinical strategies to enhance uncertainty tolerance
  • ACT exercises to help clients better accept somatic symptoms
  • Mindfulness techniques to interrupt rumination and automatic reactions
  • Breathwork for “in the moment” stress relief
Clinical Considerations
  • How to assess progress
  • Managing issues of transference
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks

Target Audience

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

Reviews

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