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Deconstructing Anxiety: An In-Depth Exploration of a Powerful New Approach to Anxiety Disorders

Dec. 6, 2025

10:00 AM - 4:45 PM (EST)

Virtual Event
6 CE Credits
This experiential workshop explores treatment-resistant anxiety by uncovering the core fears—universal themes of loss—that drive anxiety disorders. You’ll learn techniques to identify and release deep-seated resistances, transforming fear into purpose and lasting change. Drawing from psychodynamics, mindfulness, Gestalt, CBT, and transpersonal psychology, this training provides practical strategies to counteract fear-based defenses, helping even the most anxious clients achieve meaningful breakthroughs.
This workshop will provide a deep dive into treatment-resistant anxiety, helping to uncover the root causes of anxiety in even your most challenging clients. You will learn techniques for releasing the resistances that keep the anxiety alive, getting at their source and transforming them into a sense of high purpose and meaning, yielding powerful change and lasting results. With the understanding that anxiety (fear) is at the root of all suffering, you will gain insight into the five core fears–“universal themes of loss”–we all share, including: • abandonment (loss of love), • loss of identity, • loss of meaning, • loss of purpose (the chance to express oneself) and • fear of death (including fear of sickness and pain) We develop our primary defenses, usually early in childhood or at times of trauma, as our best attempt to protect ourselves from these fears, but always at a great cost. This leaves us constantly holding vigil, on the lookout for the resurfacing of the fear. We build our entire personality upon this fear-defense dynamic. When our fear-defense dynamic spins out of control, an anxiety disorder can develop. The theory and techniques offered in this workshop will teach you how to uncover the core fear and chief defense quickly and reliably. With this knowledge, new strategies for “doing the opposite” of the chief defense and its secondary defenses have proven extremely successful in even the most anxious clients. Incorporating psychodynamics, mindfulness, Gestalt, CBT and transpersonal psychology, participants will undergo the actual techniques being presented, making for a rich and highly experiential presentation. Come prepared for an exciting adventure into the deepest regions of the unconscious, where the hidden fears at the source of our difficulties live, to bring them out into consciousness, available for rapid and lasting transformation.

This live interactive webinar is designed for behavioral health professionals, including:

Counselors

Social Workers

Psychotherapists

Marriage & Family Therapists

Psychologists

Substance Use Disorders Counselors

Case Managers

Physicians

Other Mental Health Professionals

Todd Pressman, PhD

Dr. Pressman is an international presenter, psychologist, and author. He is the founder and director of Logos Wellness Center and Pressman and Associates Life Counseling Center, which is dedicated to helping people design lives of meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. His studies under some of the world’s leaders in the Consciousness movement, as well as the personal grooming he received from a father whose teachers were students of Sigmund Freud, prepared the way for the discovery of the holistic principles he espouses. His work with Olympic athletes and high-performing CEOs has further honed his understanding of the secrets of excellence and the path to fulfillment.

After this training, participants will be able to:

  1. Utilize the exercises from the Deconstructing Anxiety program for resolving anxiety.
  2. Explain the principle of “Doing the Opposite” of the chief defense.
  3. Demonstrate how to identify a client’s unique core fear and chief defense.
  4. Analyze the five core fears and the primary and secondary defenses we develop in response to them.
  5. Describe the core fear/chief defense model of anxiety.

10:00 – 10:15 am Introduction and overview

10:15 – 10:30 am The creation story revisited—understanding the birth of fear in the psyche

10:30 – 11:30 am Laying out the “Deconstructing Anxiety” model:

Each of us lands on a particular core fear in childhood

Description of the 5 core fears, universal themes of loss

This first contact with fear is intolerable—we must restore our original innocence

11:30 – 11:45 am  Break

11:45 – 1:15 pm  Continuing with the “Deconstructing Anxiety” model:

We find our chief defense as a way of protecting us from the core fear

We develop secondary defenses, adaptations of the chief defense to the various circumstances we encounter in life

The core fear/chief defense dynamic becomes the foundation of our personality; we interpret and respond to all circumstances through that lens

All defenses backfire, creating the anxiety they are designed to protect us from

We therefore employ our defenses even more rigorously and the whole cycle spins out of control, creating an anxiety disorder

1:15 – 1:30 pm  Lunch

1:30 – 3:00 pm  New strategies for resolving fear:

The way to release fear is to “do the opposite” of the chief defense

Digging for Gold: Finding the core fear

1:50 – 3:00 pm  New strategies for resolving fear (con’t):

Who Are You Really?: Uncovering your chief defense

Analyzing secondary defenses

The Alchemist: Asking “What happens next?”

The Witness: Enhanced Vipassana (Mindfulness) technique

3:00 – 3:15 pm  Break

3:15 – 4:45 pm  New strategies for resolving fear and closing:

The Warrior’s Stance: Active “not doing”

                    A subtle defense: The Resistance to Resistance

Vision Questing: Finding one’s “mighty purpose”

Intermediate to advanced.

Cost

Registration $147 | Dec. 6 | Virtual Event | 6 CE Credits | 10:00 am – 4:45 pm ET

Registration Deadline:  Dec. 6, 2025

Cancellation Policy

You may request to cancel your registration for a future credit up to 72 hours before the event’s date and time.  Cancellation requests made within 24 hours of the event date/time will not receive a transfer. When you register for an event, you agree to these terms.

A total of 6 CE credits are available.

Additional Approvals Pending.

ASWB ACE

Clinical Events, LLC, (provider # 2201) is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 11/01/2024 – 11/01/2025.

NBCC

Clinical Events, LLC has been approved by NBCC as an Approved   Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7643 Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Clinical Events, LLC is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

NY State Board of Social Workers

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0828.

NY State Board of Mental Health Counselors

Clinical Events, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors. #MHC-0329.

NJ State Board of Social Workers & Professional Counselors

New Jersey Social Work Examiners Board accepts ASWB ACE Provider credits.

New Jersey Professional Counselors Board accepts NBCC-approved CE provider credits.

All Other States

All other states accept ASWB ACE Provider credits and NBCC-approved CE provider credits. Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their jurisdictions. States and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Canada Social Workers

BC, AB, SK, MB, ON, and QC accept ASWB ACE-approved provider programs to meet licensure renewal requirements.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Canada Counsellors

Clinical Events is an NBCC-approved provider.  Licensees are responsible for determining whether courses meet the CE requirements in their province. Provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for credit.

Financial: Dr. Pressman maintains a private practice. He receives royalties as a published author. Dr. Pressman receives a speaking honorarium, from Clinical Events, Inc. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

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