Monthly Webinar - Strategies to manage Health Anxiety
Event Details
Members have free access to this event and will be sent the zoom link via the mailing list.
This monthly webinar takes place between 6 and 7.30pm.
We have three contributors: Shuja Hoda (psychotherapist), Jacky Owens (retired nurse) and Julie Hirst (public health), who will describe how they approach differing problems they have encountered with health anxiety.
Shuja will talk about how he approaches Health Anxiety using a CBT model and leave a good amount of time for suggestions for integrating hypnosis within this model. CBT adds to the element of psychoeducation and cognitive restructuring which can then open up the client to suggestions using hypnosis.
Jacky will give us some pointers from her experiences of working with health anxiety focusing on oncology patients.
Julie will talk about two cases:
A is a dog behaviour specialist who has had health anxiety since being a small child; she can’t remember the cause. A’s health anxiety is due to her fear of anything suspicious being discovered as a result of medical examinations. Consequently, at age 59 A has never attended any for screening procedures such as mammography or cervical smears and resists going to the dentist until in severe pain. A came to see me because she needs new spectacles and is afraid of the optician discovering anything amiss while examining her eyes.
B is a 70 year old retired teacher and came to see me for pain resulting from migratory polyarthritis which developed suddenly five weeks after her ‘recovery’ from Covid-19. B’s pain resulted in her being bedridden for days at a time and when she was up she had to walk with sticks due to pain and instability. On taking a history, B, ‘a worrier’ disclosed severe generalised anxiety for the last 11 years, a part of which is manifesting as health anxiety. For example, when I observed that she looked as though she had lost a bit of weight since I last saw her, she immediately assumed I was suggesting she had cancer. In fact, her weight loss is likely due to her reduction in the steroids prescribed for her arthritis and from which she is now effectively pain-free after 3 sessions of hypnosis. B’s anxiety is proving to be more of a challenge to resolve.
…………………………………………………..
