Understanding and Addressing the Freeze Response in Anxiety

FROZEN: Part 2 of 2 Featuring Personal Work with Cody

Today, you will hear the exciting conclusion of the work that Jill and David did with Cody, a young man who sometimes freezes in social situations due to feelings of anxiety. He actually froze up when Jill and David were working with him in part 1 last week. What will they do?

Tune in today and you'll find out!

Before I describe Cody’s session, I want to remind you that I am bringing back my annual, four-day summer intensive at the South San Francisco Conference Center this year, for the first time in five years. We had to abandon it due to the pandemic, and this year we are bringing it back to life on August 8 to 11. It will cover TEAM-CBT for depression and anxiety, but with a few changes, hopefully innovations and further improvements.

For one thing, you can attend in person or online this year, and Dr. Levitt will be teaching with me. This will make the experience even better, since Jill is a brilliant psychotherapy teacher, certainly among the top in the world! The in-person seating will be strictly limited to 100, so register early if you are interested, at

Intensive Information / Registration

The online version will be identical, with many skilled experts to guide you in the many interactive exercises, making both the in person and online versions identical. However, the online will be roughly half the cost, so that could be an appealing option if you are cost-conscious or if you live far away. No travel needed this year!

But perhaps most important, this annual intensive always proves to be the best training experience of the year, with chances to learn sophisticated and magnificent TEAM techniques to use with your patients. But you will also have the chance to do your own personal work. Many, many people have said that the intensives are absolutely magical, and I totally agree!

In fact, the summer intensive might be the training you always dreamed about, but never really received, in graduate school!. Sadly, this workshop is a training program which will be limited to therapists and mental health professionals and graduate students in a mental health field  Apologies, but therapists have complained when non-therapists have attended our continuing education training programs. This is partly because of the intimate nature of the small group exercises and the personal work the therapists may do during the workshop. Certified coaches and counselors are welcome to attend.

Beginning of Part 2 with Cody

You will hear some of the tools that seemed especially helpful, including

• Self-Disclosure
• Positive Reframing, not only for his negative feelings but also for his freezing
• Identify and Explain the Distortions
• Externalization of Voices with Acceptance Paradox
• the Feared Fantasy
• the Experimental Technique
• And more.

Whether you are a shrink or general citizen, I think there might be a lot for you to learn from Cody, not only about techniques to treat social anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, but also about enlightenment as well. ‘

That’s because the goals of a TEAM-CBT session are not just the reduction of negative feelings, but the complete obliteration of negative feelings, along with jumping on a psychic trampoline that catapults you into a state of profound self-acceptance and enlightenment.

At least, that’s my take on it!

Did it really happen?

Here's how Cody was feeling at the start of the session, along with his goals for each feeling at the end of Positive Reframing, and his feelings at the end of the session. As you can see, all of his negative feelings went to zero.

Emotions

% Before

% Goal % After Sad, blue, depressed, down, unhappy

40

10 0 Anxious, worried, panicky, nervous, frightened 95 15 0 Guilty, remorseful, bad, ashamed 20 5 0 Inferior, worthless, inadequate, defective, incompetent 40 10 0 Lonely, unloved, unwanted, rejected, alone, abandoned 50 10 0 Embarrassed, foolish, humiliated, self-conscious 100 30 0 Hopeless, discouraged, pessimistic, despairing 50 15 0 Frustrated, stuck, thwarted, defeated 50 15 0

Angry, mad, resentful, annoyed, irritated, upset, furious

30

5 0

Confused

60 10

0

 

What explains these seemingly impossible changes in a single therapy session? And are they real, or is this all just a bunch of hype?

Stay tuned and let us know what you think at the end!

Early, I had a challenging exercise to do on Cody’s SDBa. Here’s the solution.

To my way of thinking, Cody’s Downward Arrow chain of thoughts suggest a number of related Self-Defeating Beliefs, including:

1. Perfectionism: I should always try to be perfect.
2. Perceived Perfectionism: Others will not love and accept me if they see that I’m flawed or if I screw up. I must earn the respect of others.
3. Approval Addiction: I need everyone’s approval to be worthwhile.
4. Achievement Addiction: My worthwhileness and capacity for happiness are based on my intelligence, achievements, and productivity.
5. Fear of Rejection. Being rejected and alone would be devastating.
6. Worthlessness Schema (possibly): I’m not inherently lovable, likeable, or worthwhile.
7. Mistrust Schema (possibly): Other people are unsafe or predatory, and powerful, and eager to judge or hurt me. (David: this is a new one similar to Perceived Perfectionism, but this belief puts more of a negative twist on the perception of inherent malevolence in others.)

You always have to be the patient’s point of view about the SDBs, so these are just my guesses.

End of Session

Thanks so much for listening, and a big hug for Cody for sharing his inner self with all of us! To me, this is the best teaching because it is real, and you can see what the shrinks REALLY do behind closed doors.

You also get to see shrinks as struggling, vulnerable, and imperfect human beings, just like yourself!

Cody, Rhonda, Jill, and David