The Anxiety Virus – 3 Essential Strategies to Build Immunity to Uncertainty in the COVID Crisis.

The Anxiety Virus
77 Pages
ISBN 978-0578693996

This is not the end of the world. But it is the end of certainty as we’ve known it. With unprecedented instability regarding our health, our jobs, our social connections, even our survival — of course we’re anxious! But our dis-ease does not have to disable us. If we can immunize ourselves to uncertainty, we can start sleeping again, feel confident in our ability to handle things, and discover more flexibility, creativity and joy in our lives.

In The Anxiety Virus, psychotherapist Jennifer Shannon starts at the physiological source of anxiety, the limbic system, which is responsible for the fight-or-flight alarms that make us anxious. She explains that this “monkey mind” needs to adapt to a new level of uncertainty in our lives, and then lays out a clear method for training it.

Shannon’s three essential strategies—one cognitive, one behavioral and one emotional— are designed to help us expand our tolerance for what we cannot control, rather than contract against it with worry and compulsive behavior. They are “essential” strategies because, as Shannon has learned in her decades of working with anxiety disorders, we cannot transform ourselves unless we employ our thoughts, feelings, and behavior in unison toward our goal.

In a pandemic crisis, we turn to the epidemiologist for expert guidance. If you’re in an anxiety crisis, you’ll want an expert too. Look no further. Jennifer Shannon, LMFT, will show you the way.

Jennifer Shannon, LMFT

About Jennifer Shannon, LMFT (Santa Rosa, California Author)

Jennifer Shannon, LMFT

Jennifer Shannon is a licensed psychotherapist specializing in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety. She has worked with children, teens and adults since 1985. Originally trained as a psychodynamic or “talk” therapist, she noted that while her clients felt better, she still sought more lasting and permanent change for them. Then she attended a UC Berkeley course taught by her first mentor, Michael Tompkins Ph.D. on evidence based treatment.

What this means is treatment that has been found by scientific studies to be the most effective for specific mental health problems. Consistently Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT was found to be the most effective treatment for the most common disorders such as anxiety and depression. Jennifer began to avidly study CBT going to workshops, reading books and consulting with masters in the field, including Michael Tompkins, PhD, Christine Padesky, Ph.D. and Jacqueline Persons, Ph.D. Practicing CBT has been the most rewarding work Jennifer has ever done professionally.

Currently she works with adults, children and teens specializing in Anxiety Disorders, including Social Anxiety or extreme shyness, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Separation Anxiety, Panic Disorder, Phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder and some types of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. She also treats insomnia and depression.