People who experience intense anxiety are likely to find it difficult to function in everyday life due to the symptoms associated with anxiety. The assessments and activities in this workbook are designed to provide facilitators with a wide variety of tools to use in helping people manage the intense anxiety in their lives more effectively. Many choices for self-exploration are provided for facilitators to determine which tools best suit the unique needs of their clients.
The Managing Intense Anxiety Workbook is designed to be used either independently or as part of an established mental health issue program. You may administer any of the assessments and the guided self-exploration activities to an individual or a group with whom you are working, and you may administer any of the assessments and activities over one or more days. Feel free to pick and choose those that best fit the outcomes you desire.
The purpose of this workbook is to provide facilitators who work with individuals and groups who may be experiencing intense anxiety issues with a series of reproducible activities that can be used to supplement their work with participants. Because these activity pages are reproducible, they can be photocopied as is, or you may adapt them by whiting out and writing in your own changes to suit the needs of each group, using that page as your master-copy to be photocopied for each participant.
The Managing Intense Anxiety Workbook provides the tools needed to help participants understand the intensity of their issues and learn how to lead more effective lives.
The Awareness Modules The reproducible awareness modules contained in this workbook will help you identify and select assessments and activities easily and quickly:
Module I: Signs of Stress Symptoms This module will help participants explore the signs of stress in their lives, recognize the symptoms of anxiety, and learn tools to begin to help decrease the anxiety.
Module II: Need for Control This module will help participants explore the various ways they need to be in control of their lives.
Module III: Social Approval This module will help participants explore the various ways that their need for the approval of others affects their functioning in social situations.
Module IV: Perfectionism This module will help participants explore ways that their need to be perfect and mistake-free, as well as their determination to achieve unrealistic standards can cause anxiety.
Module V: Erasing the Stigma of Mental Health Issues This module will help participants explore the stigma of having intense anxiety and the impact that the stigma has on them.
About the Author
Ester R.A. Leutenberg has worked in the mental health field for many years as a publisher, author, and advocate for those suffering from loss. She personally experienced a devastating loss when her son Mitchell, after struggling with a mental illness for eight years, died by suicide in 1986. Soon after, as a way of both healing and helping others, Ester co-founded Wellness Reproductions & Publishing with her daughter Kathy Khalsa and began developing therapeutic products that help facilitators help their clients.
With Whole Person Associates, Ester has co-written several books and corresponding card decks including: GriefWork ~ Healing from Loss, Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Creating a Healthy Balanced Life, The Complete Caregiver Support Guide, Life Skills to Help Teens Balance Way Too Much, Motivation, and Veterans - Surviving and Thriving after Trauma, Transitional Life Skills for Teens series, and the Optimal Well-Being for Senior Adults series. Visit WholePerson.com for a complete list.
Ester, a breast cancer survivor since 2003, counsels other survivors in overcoming body and loss issues. Ester is a board member of SOS (Survivors of Suicide) in Tucson AZ.
John J. Liptak, EdD has many years of experience in providing counseling services to individuals and groups in a variety of settings including job training programs, correctional institutions, colleges, and universities. In addition, John has years of teaching experience as an adjunct professor at Radford University.
John frequently conducts workshops on assessment-related topics. He has written three books on career-related topics. His books have been featured in numerous newspapers including The Washington Post, and The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His work has also been featured on MSNBC, CNN Radio, and on the PAX/ION television series, Success without a College Degree.
With Ester and Kathy, he has written three other comprehensive books for teachers and counselors to use with their students and clients: The Self-Esteem Program, The Social Skills Program and The Stress Management Program: Inventories, Activities & Educational Handouts.
Ester and John continue to co-write workbooks and corresponding card decks in each of these series that help facilitators help their teen and adult participants: Coping, Erasing the Stigma of Mental Health Issues through Awareness, Working With Families, Mental Health & Life Skills, Mind-Body Wellness, and Teen Mental Health & Life Skills, all published by Whole Person Associates. Visit WholePerson.com for a complete list.
