Taming Your Amygdala: Brain-based Strategies to Quiet the Anxious Mind

CPD

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.

Handouts

Speaker

Catherine Pittman, PhD, HSPP Related seminars and products

Saint Mary's College

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Catherine Pittman, PhD, HSPP, is a professor of psychology at Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana. Dr. Pittman is the author of the popular books Rewire the Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry (New Harbinger Publications) and Taming Your Amygdala (PESI Publishing & Media). She has a background in cognitive behavioral therapy, neuropsychology, fear-conditioning research, and has treated anxiety-based disorders in clinical practice for over 25 years.

Dr. Pittman’s experience makes her uniquely qualified to provide a clear understanding of neuroscience and how that informs the selection and application of successful anxiety treatment strategies. She is recognized for her clear, accessible explanations of the role of the amygdala, and her approaches to lifestyle change and cognitive restructuring that help motivate clients to be more engaged and motivated in therapy. Dr. Pittman regularly presents workshops at national conferences and webinars on anxiety treatment and is an active member of the public education committee of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Dr. Catherine Pittman maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Saint Mary's College. She receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Pittman receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Dr. Catherine Pittman is a member of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.

Objectives

1. Demonstrate the role of the amygdala in maintaining anxiety disorders for purposes of client psychoeducation.
2. Defend how clients who know the language of the amygdala have improved treatment engagement and mindfulness.
3. Use neurologically informed strategies such as relaxation, exercise, exposure, and sleep interventions to produce changes in the amygdala.
4. Use neurologically informed strategies such as cognitive restructuring techniques to reduce cognitions that ignite the amygdala activation that produces anxious responding.

Outline

• Key Knowledge about the Amygdala
  • Help clients understand the experience of stress, anxiety, and panic
  • How the amygdala learns through experience
  • Why vivid experiences in therapy are needed
• Essential Steps to Using the Amygdala in Therapy
  • Form a strong, empathic therapeutic alliance
  • How does your client experience anxiety?
  • Focus on client’s personal goals
  • Connect amygdala to client concerns and questions
  • Change the amygdala rather than avoid anxiety
  • Acceptance of limits of control using Serenity Prayer
• Teach Client’s Where Their Anxiety Comes From
  • Amygdala pathway – bottom-up triggering of emotion
  • Cortex pathway – top-down generation of emotion
  • Both pathways require the amygdala for anxiety to be produced
  • Help clients recognize their two pathways
  • How anxiety is initiated in each pathway and how they influence each other
• Client Friendly Explanations and Examples
  • Fight, Flight, Freeze Response
  • The amygdala as protector
  • The limits of the amygdala
  • How the amygdala learns thru experience
• Neuroplasticity in the Amygdala (Essential for all Anxiety Disorders, PTSD, OCD, Depression)
  • Interventions that calm the amygdala
  • Effective use of sleep, exercise, relaxation, yoga
  • Exposure interventions that teach the amygdala
• Through the Eyes of the Amygdala
  • The limits of how the amygdala processes information
  • The amygdala is not logical
  • Amygdala’s misinterpretations
  • Amygdala’s limited response set
  • The language of pairing
  • A better-safe-than sorry approach
• Changing Client’s Relationship to the Amygdala
  • Don’t trust the amygdala
  • A mindful approach to the amygdala
  • Mindfulness training for discomfort
• Relating Client Goals to the Amygdala
  • Amygdala’s misinterpretations
  • Amygdala’s blocking of goals
  • Amygdala’s limited response set
• Relationship of Cortex to the Amygdala
  • How the cortex can misinterpret amygdala activation
  • How the cortex can activate the amygdala
  • Neuroplasticity in the cortex
  • Emphasize how cortex “constructs” reality
  • The amygdala watches cortex television
  • Changing the channel in the cortex

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Physicians
• Psychologists
• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Social Workers
• Other Mental Health Professionals