4 continuing education units

Nearly every client who walks through a health professional’s door is experiencing anxiety. Even if they are not seeking treatment for a specific anxiety disorder, they are likely experiencing anxiety as a side effect of other issues. Clinicians who can teach anxiety management techniques have tools that can be used in nearly all clinical settings and diagnoses. Anxiety management benefits the clinician as well, helping to maintain energy, focus, and inner peace both during and between sessions. This course offers a comprehensive collection of ready-to-use anxiety management tools.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Describe two natural bodily functions that serve as powerful and basic tools for anxiety management
• Distinguish between the use of anxiety management techniques for prevention and intervention
• List and define nine basic categories of anxiety management techniques
• Identify at least one specific exercise in each of the nine basic categories of anxiety management techniques
• Name ten anxiety management techniques that employ cognitive restructuring as their base
• Describe two anxiety management techniques that address the specific disorders of phobia and panic attack

4 continuing education units

Statistics show that Americans are increasingly overweight. Among the factors contributing to this is the component of “emotional eating” – or the use of food to attempt to fill emotional needs. Even clients who do not bring this as their presenting problem often have it on their list of unhealthy behaviors that contribute to or are intertwined with their priority concerns. While not an easy task, it is possible to learn methods for dismantling emotional eating habits. The goals of this course are to present information about the causes of emotional eating and provide a body of cognitive and behavioral exercises that can help to eliminate the addictive pattern.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Distinguish between physical hunger and emotional hunger
• List at least three reasons that emotional eating habits develop
• Identify both cultural and physiological obstacles to overcoming emotional overeating
• Name at least five emotional needs that people attempt to fill with food
• Describe two exercises for each identified emotional need to help promote awareness and change
• Name four or more external cues for eating

2 continuing education units

This course teaches the benefits of journal writing as an aid to the therapeutic process. While most psychotherapy is conducted through traditional talk therapy, writing offers clients another vehicle for venting thoughts and feelings, practicing healthy self-nurturing, preventing overwhelm, and gaining information about their internal and external experiences of life. This course includes descriptions of the various uses of journaling as well as detail on seven journal-writing techniques.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• List five principle ways to use journaling as a therapeutic tool
• Identify the basic guidelines for using all types of journaling exercises
• List the therapeutic benefits of the writing process
• Identify seven specific journal-writing techniques
• Identify ways to apply writing techniques to fit the needs of the client

4 continuing education units

Journaling II offers 36 directed journal−writing exercises divided into three phases of use. It is designed for the practitioner who would like topic ideas for their clients in addition to traditional “freewriting.” It also offers interpretive questions coordinated with each exercise. (It is suggested, although not mandatory, that the practitioner has already completed course #20-13, “Writing It Out: Journaling as an Adjunct to Therapy,” which lays the foundation for understanding the benefits of journaling and how it can best be used with clients.)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Distinguish between freewriting and directed journaling exercises
• Select six exercises that can be used with clients as tools for self-awareness and self-exploration
• Describe a clinical situation for which a Phase 1, 2, and 3 exercise would be appropriate
• List the three basic rules for keeping a behavior log
• Identify five questions that can help clients learn more from what they have written

2 continuing education units

While professionals have long worked with intact couples on parenting skills, they must now also be versed in teaching parents who live in separate homes how to establish healthy “co-parenting” abilities. This course provides a basic understanding of the significant issues unique to children of split couples and how to help co-parents address these issues while at the same time overcome the blocks that prevent them from working together in a healthy way.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• List three basic goals of working with co-parents
• Describe two aspects of the healthy co-parenting mindset
• Identify five significant issues of children from split families
• Name two common blocks to effective co-parenting
• List three steps for forming a working business relationship between co-parents
• Identify three guidelines for working with only one co-parent’s cooperation