ºÚÁÏÍø

Changing Thoughts: Interventions for Anxious Thoughts

Knowing how to respond to our clients’ anxious thoughts in the moment can leave us feeling stuck. Anxiety expert Ashley Smith, PhD provides four key interventions to start helping our clients change the way they’re thinking and begin to quell their anxious thoughts.

4 Key Interventions for Anxious Thoughts

  • Flip It: Balance negativity or complaints by finding a positive aspect of this moment.
  • Be a Good Coach/Cheerleader: Coping thoughts of self-talk designed to boost motivation, courage, hope, and confidence in coping ability.
  • Spin It: Reframe the situation, see it from a different angle.
  • Find 3 Alternatives: Designed to expand thinking, which can help shift mental/emotional state. Find 3 alternative explanations. They don’t have to be believable.
In general, these are prefrontal cortex strategies designed to change inaccurate, unhelpful thoughts into rational, helpful ones. With all these techniques, remember that the goal is for the client to generate new thoughts, not for you to supply them with new thoughts.

Watch Dr. Ashley Smith dive deeper into how you can work with your clients on the content of thinking for anxious thoughts in the video below.



Helping the Anxious Generation: A Power-Packed Menu of Evidence-Based Interventions to Ease Anxiety and Build Resilience in Teens and Young Adults
POS059919
There’s no doubt that a record number of teens and young adults are on the brink of crisis. But it takes a special skillset to help this hurting and anxious generation.

This is your rare opportunity to learn the latest and most effective techniques directly from Dr. Ashley Smith, an award-winning psychologist, sought-after speaker, researcher and author of The Way I See It: A Psychologist’s Guide to a Happier Life. Drawing on evidence-based clinical interventions and 20 years of specializing in youth anxiety, Dr. Smith designed this fast-paced, strategy-rich training to help you feel confident and competent in addressing this growing need.
Meet the Expert:
Dr. Ashley Smith is a licensed clinical psychologist, professional speaker, author, and co-founder of Peak Mind: The Center for Psychological Strength. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology with an emphasis in children and families from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2007. She completed a predoctoral internship at Children’s Mercy Hospital before joining the staff at Omaha Children’s Hospital to help develop their dedicated anxiety services. In 2009, she relocated to Kansas City to serve as a senior staff psychologist at a nationally recognized anxiety specialty center. She ventured out on her own in 2017 and continues in private practice as a sought-after anxiety specialist.

Learn more about her educational products, including upcoming live seminars, by clicking here.

Email Signup