For many clients, anxiety can be crippling – it often stifles their personal and professional growth, shuts down their ability to form relationships, and sometimes even takes a toll on their physical health.
So how can we help clients disrupt the exhausting cycle of anxious thoughts and feelings?
Below, we created a free tool based on the work of Shelly Harrell, PhD for practitioners to share with their clients. It breaks down four key strategies to manage anxiety and reduce residual stress.
Click the image to enlarge
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- Attention – Centering Techniques
To neutralize anxiety, it can often help to use techniques designed to focus attention beyond anxious thoughts.
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- Expressive, Creative Strategies
To channel anxious thoughts or feelings in more productive ways, we might identify specific outlets to express creativity such as working on project, drawing, and athletics.
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- Reflection Exploration Strategies
To monitor where anxiety arises, become more aware of anxiety triggers and reflects on anxious thoughts and feelings, we might try strategies that foster self-observation.
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- Healthy Lifestyles Values
To reduce residual feelings of anxiety, it could help to turn attention towards healthy habits, healthy relationships, healthy pleasures, and a healthy environment.
If you’d like to print a copy to share, please click here: Color or Print-friendly
(Please be sure to include the copyright information when sharing. We put a lot of work into creating these resources for you. Thanks!)
For more expert strategies for working with anxiety check out this NICABM short course with Stephen Porges, PhD; Peter Levine, PhD; Pat Ogden, PhD; Richard Schwartz, PhD; Ron Siegel, PsyD; and 13 other top-experts.
What strategies have you used with clients struggling with stress and anxiety?
Please share your experience below.
I have my MSW but focused my work on coaching with energy healing. I was reading below a comment about EFT helping clients to manage their anxiety.The problem I have found with EFT is that it is an act of attempting to cut off the experience and the tapping is symbolic of hitting your body for feeling a certain way. I don’t find that helpful for people who are suffering with trauma. Instead, I teach my clients to identify the sources of their feelings by going within their bodies and into the tension. I encourage them to acknowledge the images that arise in the tension and undo them with visualization. The other tool I offer is mantra chanting, it literally changes the brain activity as well as heals the brain, and it with their mind they learn to undo tension problems. This is done by going within rather than trying to cut it off with physical action. The mantra is the physical action. Energy healing, when done skillfully and with knowledge, can assist the client to return to their bodies. Once they have this energetic release of anxiety it has a stronger potential to promote the beginning of a meditation practice which can be taught with coaching.
I have my clients make two playlist. The first is of upbeat, happy music Dance to music that will bring them out of the down freez stage and the other of soothing calming yoga type music for when they are hyper.
Thank you for your valuable work you put out there🙏🏻💞
Love the 4 core strategies. When I share the strategies with my clients I encourage them to utilise more than one and to choose those that are enjoyable and easy for them to commit to. For example, they could balance yoga and meditation with walks by the river or they could journal in the morning and go to the gym after work.
Absolutely love your content and get so much support and help from it to offer to clients. Thank you so much
thank you proving most useful with two clients and their family so far
I use the OBA a lot Observe Breath Allow. From
ACT. Is to observe where it is on your body give it space by breathing and stopping the fight. A lot like Rain from Tara Brarch. Mindfulness Nd selfcompassion
Also EMDR on the wordt that can happen
I would like to thank everyone at NICABM, for providing excellent, downloadable Visual Infographics.
Along with being a Trusted Source of Professionals; collectively providing many years of research and experience to create the many educational Series offered.
It is greatly appreciated, to learn of the most up-to-date Theories and Research, as well as opening the Conversations regarding Conditions that are just now beginning to be understood by many.
Thank you NICABM. You are Leaders and Influencers!
Thanks
My daughter and I developed the use of the phrase “Storm Brewing” to allow her to alert us to the build-up of anxiety. We’d previously sat down with her and thought about her escalating symptoms and what we could observe. We then created an action plan on how to help her whenever she said “Storm Brewing”. This removed a lot of her anxiety because she knew that we would do just what was needed (mostly just sit quietly with her until it had passed) and she wouldn’t have to try to explain herself. We now ask “How’s your weather?” rather than how are you as it’s easier to use the weather as an analogy. I now use this with clients.
I appreciate the infographic.
And I love your strategy for my 11-year-old granddaughter who just had a meltdown in school today. Lots of anxiety generally, new school today. Can hardly wait to talk with her.
I hear you…hang in there. Try to stop and challenge the basis for anxious thoughts whenever you feel other than neutral or positive. I know it can be difficult in the moment! Best wishes.
Finding keypoints, to self regulate. Thank you
Very helpful thank you ??
Thank you for sharing, this is a very nice quick visual to reference
Very helpful graphics and nicely executed. Thank you.
Very helpful graphics and nicely executed. Thank you.
It can be such a challenge to get even the most open of people to commit to a routine of meditative practice, which is an important muscle for us to practice and build so that we can cultivate a natural calm in our daily lives. We are Human Beings, and that is what meditative practice can help us with, becoming more Human Beings rather than chasing our tails around as Human Doings. Whenever we are faced with a problem, we feel the need to ‘do something’ about it, the impulse is to become active, and doing meditation seems, well it just doesn’t seem to fit the ‘doing’ so we brush it aside in favor of other techniques, like the ones you suggest, brilliant. Thank you for creating such a handy little tool for us to use. I also find that EFT is a wonderful tool to help people to feel like they are ‘actively doing’ something to take care of their anxiety, and so themselves in general. One day mindfulness practices like meditation will become a practice for the masses, but until we get there… thank you for being part of the solution.
I absolutely intend to plagiarize(?) your human beings/human doings language. When I am helping clients recognize and handle feelings, I have always said (greatly shortened here),
1. name the feeling,
2. take time to be aware of how that is affecting you,
3. express the feeling appropriately.
Most folks want to skip that second step. I like how you framed it.
Excellent visuals as they are clear and comprehensible for a client to actively engage with. Sometimes visuals can be effective bullet points facilitating and aiding executive functioning skills; memory and problem solving skills can improve by using them.
Thanks for the info-graphics. These visual aides have provided clients great reminders what is at their disposal, what we can control. That is what we are in business to do. These help it be visually clear to them just how to begin to improve health and well being. These graphics have been wonderful to add to client’s portfolio of healing.
Thank you for this
Again this infographic is excellent and I so appreciate receiving these. Thank you! As a counselor, I try to focus on welllness in all realms. Currently I am using a circles diagram that intertwines heart, body, spirit, and mind. I do a lot of presenting to average folks and these four circles and language are easy to understand. This infograhic is another picture that will be an example I can use that fits within the four circle diagram. I speak on grief and loss and do Grief Recovery Method work and I explain that grief and stress are all stored in the body but every circle has therapeutic modalities. What we use for one person may not be what the next person requires. This infograhic gives another visual way of explaining and conceptualizing mental health.
Thanks, I really like the idea of circles diagram – going to work on some now… Graphics are such a great way to teach, and for our clients to quickly reference without dreading having to read complicated information.
Such a helpful and concise model.
Great infographic. Thanks for making it available. Good as a handout for clients to post on their fridge!
Brilliant, simple and useful. Thanks