Bespoke Members
Introduction
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) can be a challenging disorder to identify and treat. Its cardinal feature, excessive and uncontrollable worry, is a vague and subjective symptom that is present in most other anxiety disorders. In addition, implementing many of the therapeutic strategies that specifically target worry can often feel like “chasing a moving target”, since what people worry about often shifts from day to day. As a consequence, even when traditional CBT strategies are effective in a session for a particular worry, a new worry requiring intervention is likely to pop up the following week. It can therefore be more helpful to conceptualize GAD worries according to the processes that underlie them, and to target them accordingly. This workshop will focus on the process-driven understanding and treatment of excessive worry and GAD as a cognitive response to the perceived threat of uncertainty and its consequences on outcomes and personal coping due to an overall intolerance to uncertainty.
The event will be equivalent to 2.3/4hrs of CPD.
Content
This workshop will focus on clinical strategies designed to conceptualize and treat GAD excessive through the lens of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and negative beliefs about the feared outcome of uncertain events. Specifically, the role of IU as the primary theme of threat in GAD will be introduced, with an emphasis on the clinical rationale for IU and how to present it to clients. In addition, the development, application, and debriefing of behavioural experiments designed to specifically challenge negative beliefs about uncertainty will be presented. The workshop will include case examples and vignettes, as well as detailed homework handouts to use with clients.
Learning Objectives
Workshop participants will learn to:
• Understand and conceptualize excessive worry and GAD within a CBT framework that highlights the role of intolerance of uncertainty
• Present a clinical model of excessive worry to clients that uses the fear of uncertainty as the primary theme of threat
Identify worry-specific safety behaviours
• Develop behavioural experiments designed to test out negative beliefs about uncertainty and its consequences
• Troubleshoot challenging presentations, including common worry themes seen in GAD (e.g., decision-making and fear of making mistakes)
Training Modalities
Didactic content, case examples, Q&A.
Key References
Dugas, M.J., Sexton, K.A., Hebert, E.A., Bouchard, S., Gouin, J.-P., & Shafran, R. (2022). Behavioral experiments for intolerance of uncertainty: A randomized clinical trial for adults with generalized anxiety disorder. Behavior Therapy, 53, 1147-1160.
Robichaud, M., & Dugas, M.J. (2015). The generalized anxiety disorder workbook: A comprehensive CBT guide for coping with uncertainty, worry, and fear. New Harbinger: Oakland
Robichaud, M., Koerner, N., & Dugas, M.J. (2019). Cognitive-behavioral treatment for generalized anxiety disorder: From science to practice (2nd ed.). Routledge: New York.
About the presenter
Dr. Melisa Robichaud is a Founding Director of the Vancouver CBT Centre, where she works as a clinical psychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders. She is currently an adjunct faculty member in the University of British Columbia (UBC) Department of Psychology, a clinical instructor in the UBC Department of Psychiatry, and a clinical associate in the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Department of Psychology.
Dr. Robichaud is a past President of the Canadian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapies (CACBT) and has been certified as an expert in CBT by the organization. She also formerly served on the Anxiety Canada Board of Directors, and was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board. Her area of clinical specialization is CBT for anxiety disorders, with a special emphasis on generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). She has provided workshops internationally and has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters on the subject, as well as co-authoring several books on the cognitive-behavioural treatment of GAD.
Who should attend
This workshop is most suitable for mental health professionals with some prior exposure to CBT and its application to GAD and to excessive worry across the anxiety spectrum.