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Working with Clients with Anxiety:  A simple model for helping your clients overcome Anxiety and Overwhelm

No further public workshops scheduled for 2020.  If you would like me to run this workshop for your organisation or group, please email me or contact me by phone.

 

Presented by Angela Baker, (Registered Counselling Psychologist).   Based in Palmerston North, Angela has over 15 years of counselling experience including 12 years at the Student Counselling Service at Massey University.  She is currently in private practice offering counselling, coaching and supervision as well as offering on-line courses on Mindfulness and managing stress, and face-to-face workshops on topics related to Wellbeing.

She has a particular interest in working with clients with anxiety, and in translating some of the useful recent psycho-physiology and neuroscience research into concepts that are understandable and empowering for clients.  This workshop has a practical focus.  Angela will not present in-depth scientific concepts, but rather take some of the key recent discoveries and show how these can be very helpful to clients. 

 Target Audience:  Counsellors, Social and Community Workers, Youth Workers, Educators, Pastoral-Care  Workers, Nurses, Support Workers and other allied health and social services professionals.

About The Workshop

  • The more entrenched a client’s pattern of anxiety, the more important it is that they understand ‘how anxiety works’ – the basic psychophysiology of anxiety and how our physiological states affect how our minds work. With this understanding we can help clients to a) have a more compassionate way of seeing themselves and b) begin to develop their own individualised toolkit to reduce their physiological arousal, manage and respond to their stress triggers and cope with their anxious thoughts and feelings. 
  • Angela presents a simple, evidence-based model that clients can easily relate to. She also gives demonstrations of how the model can be woven into conversation with clients in a way that enables you to gain a more nuanced client history at the same time as providing invaluable psycho-education and, further into the counselling process, helping the client to identify strategies that can help them improve their wellbeing. This model weaves in very effectively with creating a practical ‘Wellbeing and Resilience Action Plan’ with your clients over successive sessions (sample format provided).
  • Integrates well with a wide range of counselling modalities
  • The approach is very practical with demonstrations and/or videos of how Angela uses the model with clients.
  • Clients report that this approach helps them to understand they’re not going crazy and to see a way forward
  • This framework is also very helpful for reviewing our own stress and self-care

Objectives:

  • Counsellors and others involved in offering one-on-one therapy will be able to understand basic psychophysiology related to anxiety and how this information can be introduced conversationally in client sessions
  • Allied professionals working in roles where they are supporting clients with anxiety will gain a deeper understanding of anxiety and what your clients are experiencing and will explore how they can make use of this knowledge within their current role
  • Participants will explore how this model fits with their own experiences of stress, overwhelm and anxiety, and use it as a framework to identify strategies for their own self-care in the coming months, both in their personal and professional lives
  • This way of understanding anxiety will also help you to maintain a compassionate attitude, both towards yourself and your clients in the midst of the frustrations and challenges that anxiety can present

    Comments from previous ‘Working with Clients With Anxiety’ workshop   “Well organised and presented material.  Easy to absorb, well-paced and generous sharing of your resources and knowledge.”   “The practical suggestions for working with anxiety were a useful addition to my toolkit as well as for taking care of myself.” (Garry, Fieldworker)   “Great to watch your interview with a client (role-play) and teaching at the whiteboard.  Clear, practical, information, strategies and techniques to change my practice positively.” (Shirley Jourdain, Counsellor)

    A comment from a lecturer who showed one of Angela’s videos (presenting this model) to her class.  “…My colleague H…was ‘blown away’ by your presentation on stress and the mind. He’s heard some of that information from other sources, but never so well collated and exemplified. He said it should be a TED talk. He (and I) are deeply grateful for you letting us hear the talk.” 

    Registration includes: lunch, handouts, plus six week’s access to video presentations from Angela’s latest on-line courses –  ‘The Defrag Action Plan’ and ‘The Upward Spiral Action Plan which cover many of the key concepts from this workshop.

     

    At this stage there are no further public workshops scheduled for 2019.  If you would like me to run this workshop for your organisation, please email me or contact me by phone.