The over-engineered term we used in graduate school was “misapperceptions.” The self-defeating thought constructs that lead to anxiety, depression, and some interpersonal difficulties.
Change the misapperceptions, the thinking went, and you will liberate the individual from anxiety, help them get their feet back on the ground, and empower them to reclaim wasted cognitive and emotional energies. This “top down” approach is the core element of most professional listening.
We now know, however, that relieving anxiety is not just a top-down endeavor. Many of the problematic states originate in the body and are “bottom up.” In other words, our bodies react to stimuli (often related to distressing memories), sending warning messages to the brain. The brain reacts, looks around for something to attach the fear to (often the fear itself), and you’re off to the races. A cocktail of cortisol, norepinephrine, and other distress neurotransmitters and hormones gets released into your system, which is hard to manage once it gets rolling.
The curse of a wonderful brain is that cyclical escalation starts in the blink of an eye. The blessing is—because it is cyclical—it can be interrupted at any point of the cycle.
Summary: Anxiety is a colossal waste of your most valuable resource, the cognitive and emotional energies of your executives, physicians, and nurses. To reclaim as much of that resource as possible, it is essential that professional listening services include both Top-Down and Bottom-Up approaches.
Examples of Top Down approaches are CBT, DBT, ITC, and so on. Mindfulness, meditation, DMT, Somatic Experiencing, these are bottom up.
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Fern EPC specializes in coaching executives, physicians, physician leaders, and other providers.
Website: fernepc.com.
Email: [email protected]
