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Healthcare Training Institute - Quality Education since 1979CE for Psychologist, Social Worker, Counselor, & MFT!!

Section
11
Stress, Coping, and Anxiety
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So What if It Happens?
De-catastrophizing, Coping
Plans, and Point/Counterpoint.
♦ 1. De-catastrophizing: When predicting
dire consequences, the anxious client does not utilize all of the information
available to them, and as you know, rarely takes into account the dire predictions
that failed to materialize. You, of course, attempt to widen the range of information
on which the client bases his or her forecast, and to broaden their time perspective.
♦ 2. Coping Plans: At times, the anxious child or adult fears he
or she will be unable to cope. You then, of course, collaboratively develop a
variety of strategies that the person can use to manage the anxiety. I stress
on coping with the situation, not on mastering it.
Barbara's Socializing Plan
Barbara, anxious about
socializing with groups of people, developed the following plan:
1. Using
self-distraction (focusing on others' body posture.)
2. Focusing
on the "task" of conversing and behaving appropriately.
3. Using
a coping technique with images (turning negative images into positive ones).
4. Using a brief form of relaxation (deep breathing).
5. Using the incident to gather evidence about her thinking. She rehearsed this plan in the therapist's
office before trying it all in the real situation.
♦ 3. Point/Counterpoint.
You can use all of the strategies mentioned previously in a general strategy of
point/counterpoint. Here's an example...
Therapist: You seem to have
a lot of reasons why you believe the feared event is going to happen, why it is
so terrible, and why you wouldn't be able to handle it. Since you have those arguments
down so well, let's work together to dispute them with other possibilities. I'll
give you the fearful ideas, and you give me the counter ideas. When you run out
of positive counterpoints, we'll switch roles and I'll give the counterpoints.
The client and I switch back and forth between these roles and help
each other out in developing better counterpoints. The client often surprises
himself or herself with the number of counterpoints they can generate.
♦ 4 Positive Counterpoints to Anxiety
Generally four
counterpoints are covered in this strategy:
1. The probability of the feared
event;
2.
Its degree of awfulness;
3. The client's ability to prevent it from
occurring; and
4. The client's ability to accept and deal with the worst possible
outcome.
The therapist should present his counterpoint (anti-anxiety) with strength
and confidence. (Beck)
Reviewed 2023
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article References:
Mortensen, R. (2014). Anxiety, work, and coping. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 17(3), 178–181.
Schäfer, A., Pels, F., & Kleinert, J. (2020). Effects of different coping strategies on the psychological and physiological stress reaction: An experimental study. European Journal of Health Psychology, 27(3), 109–123.
Szabo, A., Ward, C., & Jose, P. E. (2016). Uprooting stress, coping, and anxiety: A longitudinal study of international students. International Journal of Stress Management, 23(2), 190–208.
Vail, K. E. III, Goncy, E. A., & Edmondson, D. (2019). Anxiety buffer disruption: Worldview threat, death thought accessibility, and worldview defense among low and high posttraumatic stress symptom samples. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 11(6), 647–655.
Vail, K. E. III, Morgan, A., & Kahle, L. (2018). Self-affirmation attenuates death-thought accessibility after mortality salience, but not among a high post-traumatic stress sample. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 10(1), 112–120.
Weigold, I. K., & Robitschek, C. (2011). Agentic personality characteristics and coping: Their relation to trait anxiety in college students. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(2), 255–264.
QUESTION
11
What are interventions to assist your client in answering the question
"So What If It Happens?" To select and enter your answer go to .
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