Feeling anxious? We have good news! No matter how busy you are, how often you travel, or how limited your budget is, there is a new approach that may work for you. It can stand alone or be added to enrich your existing therapy experience. You can use it alone or in a group, and with or without optional live phone coaching. It’s called online learning with optional homework!
CBT skills to go!
As a clinical psychologist, I have found that the use of online learning can be fantastic for delivering portable CBT skills. CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy, which is an approach that helps to change the thought processes that lead to excessive anxiety. We use CBT with clients in sessions, but for some people therapy isn’t an option-- or they simply don't need that sort of care. For others, the cost of weekly therapy is too high. There is a shortage of CBT psychologists in their town, they are frequent business travelers, or just too busy with other obligations. For these people, my online program makes CBT skills affordable and accessible.
CBT Helps Anxiety!
Most people would say they have experienced anxiety at some point in their lives. For some, anxiety means feeling jittery before giving a presentation. For others, anxiety means battling a generalized and constant worry. Either way, research proves time and again that cognitive-behavioral therapy skills and techniques work to control anxiety. Some of these skills involve tools to help convert anxiety into a focused, productive, and energized sense of wellbeing. Many of the skills also involve tools to find tranquility, relax the body, or quiet the mind.
Benefits for Clients
People with anxiety are more likely to benefit from self-help because they tend to be conscientious and detail-oriented. People with anxiety are actually very likely to be successful. This was part of the reason I chose to create an anxiety webinar with a skills-teaching, self-guided learning program that provides optional feedback. The goal of CBT approaches is to help clients take control of their own thoughts. The anxiety webinar offers concrete skills and techniques that are proven to be effective for managing various types of anxiety.
Independence: Many people find the webinar empowering because it offers an affordable way for them to learn skills that help them feel better, without necessarily requiring the direct help of a doctor. This feels good to many people because it gives them a sense of independence- in psychology we call it self-efficacy. We support this completely. We are happy to teach and guide in-person if the client wants it, and the webinar does have the option for live phone coaching too- but we think it is important to let clients know that at the end of the day, these are relatively simple skills and anyone can learn them.
Quality Control: The demand for CBT has led many therapists to tell clients that they offer CBT, even if the therapist actually has very limited CBT training or experience. The webinar guarantees that you’re learning proven CBT skills from a licensed psychologist who specializes in CBT. The webinar provides an organized set of high quality CBT interventions to provide anxiety relief, created by a credentialed member of the National Health Register of Health Service Psychologists. For example, this short clip from the panic section of the webinar demonstrates a proven toolbox of techniques presented specifically to help clients manage panic attacks.
Privacy: Many clients find comfort in the anonymity that the webinar provides. Whether for personal or professional reasons, many clients have legitimate concern about being seen waiting in doctors’ lobbies or having a trail of insurance paperwork. Others simply prefer a totally private learning environment. The best learning environments are safe and secure, and the webinar provides a new way for those with privacy concerns to get high quality CBT treatment on their own terms.
The webinar can be used as a standalone product, with or without live phone coaching- the webinar can also be used in tandem with ongoing psychodynamic therapy. For clients who are currently in therapy to work through complicated issues in addition to anxiety, introducing the webinar as an addition to psychodynamic treatment has been very helpful. Many psychodynamic psychologists who used to refer their ongoing clients to us for brief CBT skills training to supplement the psychodynamic work now choose to save their clients time and money by using the webinar as an adjunct to their psychodynamic therapy.
Homework is a cornerstone of successful CBT. Practicing your skills helps to consolidate learning and make the skills your own. That’s why the webinar includes supplementary worksheets and homework assignments to help track progress. These worksheets help self-guided users stay focused, or they can be sent directly to your phone support coach if you wish- they can even be sent to your pre-existing therapist online- even if your therapist works in another state, a government clinic, or any other type of therapeutic setting! The point is that CBT tools are now available in a format that provides multiple levels of involvement- from totally autonomous learning, to optional phone support, and even including live therapy. Finally- consumers have affordable convenient access to CBT tools that are available in whatever way works best for them!