A Neuro-cognitive Update on the Understanding of Anxiety Disorders

Dr. Marwa Azab, Professional Counselor, Professor & Neuroscientist

Pathological worry follows its own rules. A neuroscience-informed framework for assessing and treating GAD, with protocols that transfer straight into session.

Adult Psychotherapy Neuropsychology Cognitive / Behavioral Existential / Humanistic

Overview

Worry presents itself as preparation. It promises resolution, control, a rehearsal of the worst so nothing can surprise us. Yet the brain, in generating imagined outcomes, widens uncertainty instead of closing it. Stranger still, pathological anxiety is not ordinary anxiety amplified. It follows different cognitive rules, serves different functions, and responds to different interventions.
This training offers an updated, neuroscience-informed framework for understanding and treating generalized anxiety disorder. It moves beyond symptom reduction toward the mechanisms that keep chronic worry alive: cognitive avoidance, metacognitive beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty, and impaired cognitive control. Clinical vignettes and directly applicable exercises anchor each concept in practice.
You will learn to differentiate adaptive worry from pathological worry, using criteria drawn from comparative research on GAD, high worriers, and other anxiety presentations.
The training clarifies how verbal, abstract worry suppresses somatic arousal and becomes negatively reinforced.
You will discover how to elicit and work with positive and negative beliefs about worry.
Intolerance of uncertainty is examined as a cognitive schema, with its prospective and inhibitory dimensions and its measurable link to symptom severity.
You will explore emotion dysregulation through the contrast avoidance model and the role of savoring.
Attentional bias to threat, cognitive control deficits, and the emerging evidence linking chronic anxiety to accelerated cognitive decline are addressed directly.
Concrete tools are provided throughout: worry concretisation, worst-case coping protocols, problem orientation work, and pre-emptive benefit finding during uncertain waiting periods.
The result is a sharper conceptualisation of anxiety within contemporary stress contexts. Assessment becomes more differentiated, case formulation more mechanism-driven, and intervention choices better matched to what actually maintains the disorder. The strategies transfer immediately to individual practice, and remain grounded in current empirical literature.

Download the program

  • 2h30 of continuing education
  • 22 lessons that last from 5 to 15 minutes each
  • 1 PowerPoint
  • 1 bibliography (APA)
  • 1 final evaluation
  • 1 certificate of completion
  • 7-day money back guarantee
  • Unlimited access
  • 97% of participants who completed the satisfaction survey declare they would recommend this course to a colleague

Accreditation

Ordre des Psychologues du Québec
Canadian Psychological Association
Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association
Collège des médecins du Québec

For physicians who practice psychotherapy, training recognized by the Ordre des psychologues du Québec is automatically considered as activities adopted by the Collège des médecins, in accordance with Article 3 of the Regulation.

For physicians who do not practice psychotherapy, the College evaluates each recognition request based on the following criteria:

  • the relevance of the activity to the practice of the profession
  • the skills and experience of the trainer
  • the quality of the content and its adequacy with the physician's practice
  • the pedagogical framework of the activity
  • the quality of the documentation provided
  • compliance with the training objectives set out in the regulation
  • the presence of a certificate of participation or an evaluation

About the expert

Picture of Marwa Azab
Dr. Marwa Azab is a neuroscientist, licensed professional counselor, and professor whose work sits at the intersection of affective neuroscience and applied clinical practice. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and an M.A. in Clinical Psychology, and teaches at California State University, Long Beach and in Stanford University's Continuing Studies program.
Her research and teaching focus on the science of uncertainty, stress, emotion, anxiety, and interoception, examined specifically within the conditions of 21st-century stressors. She is the author of the textbook An Update on Anxiety Disorders: Etiological, Cognitive and Neuroscientific Aspects, which forms the empirical backbone of her clinical trainings on generalized anxiety disorder, worry mechanisms, and intolerance of uncertainty.
Dr. Azab writes the Psychology Today blog Neuroscience in Everyday Life, read by more than 1.5 million people, and translates current research for a wide professional and public audience on social networks @DrMarwaAzab. Her work has been featured on ABC, NBC, NPR, BBC, and in Vogue, and she is a TED speaker.

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Learning objectives

  1. Differentiate between adaptive worry and pathological worry
  2. Identify at least three cognitive mechanisms that maintain chronic worry in generalized anxiety disorder
  3. Identify positive and negative beliefs about worry and explain how they contribute to the maintenance of GAD
  4. Explain how intolerance of uncertainty influences emotions and their regulation in GAD clients; Explain how elevated anxiety symptoms contribute to accelerated cognitive decline

Learning material

A theoretical course illustrated with clinical examples. This course consists of videos of 5 to 15 minutes each. The course PowerPoint is available for download.

Syllabus

  • PowerPoint
  • 1. Introduction

  • Understanding GAD

  • 2. Anxiety
  • 3. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • 4. High Worriers vs GAD Patients vs Other Anxiety Patients
  • 5. Worry
  • 6. Positive Beliefs About Worry
  • 7. Poor Problem Orientation

  • Cognitive Vulnerabilities and Maintaining Mechanisms

  • 8. GAD and Intolerance of Uncertainty
  • 9. IU Biases Emotional Experience
  • 10. Is IU a Cognitive Vulnerability Specific to GAD?
  • 11. Waiting Well
  • 12. Negative Beliefs about Worry
  • 13. Chronic Worry Protects Against Abrupt Shifts
  • 14. Attentional Bias, Cognitive Control, and Threat Controllability

  • Etiology and Biology

  • 15. Etiological Factors: Genetics
  • 16. Genetic Factors
  • 17. Environmental & Developmental Factors
  • 18. Anxiety and Stress
  • 19. Nervous System Activation and the HPA Axis
  • 20. Chronic Stress and Hippocampal Damage
  • 21. Brain and GAD
  • 22. Conclusion
  • Bibliography


CE Credits

Download a certificate of successful completion.



Audience

This course is intended for all mental health professionals.

Registration

Download the program

  • 2h30 of continuing education
  • 22 lessons that last from 5 to 15 minutes each
  • 1 PowerPoint
  • 1 bibliography (APA)
  • 1 final evaluation
  • 1 certificate of completion
  • 7-day money back guarantee
  • Unlimited access

Ask a question

Do you have a question? Then email us at contact@asadis.net

Frequently asked questions

  • Is there an evaluation at the end of the course?

    To validate the achievement of the learning objectives, a final evaluation in the form of true/false questions is required. It must be completed in order to obtain the certificate of completion.

    In addition, an optional self-assessment is offered at the beginning and end of the course, allowing you to measure your progress on the targeted skills.

    These evaluations are not graded and are intended primarily to support your professional reflection.

  • How long do I have access to the course?

    After your registration, the course is accessible anytime and from anywhere with unlimited access.

  • When does the course start?

    That is entirely up to you! When you buy a course, you'll receive an access link that you can activate when you want.

  • Is there a student rate?

    Yes there is! Learn more and request your student discount.

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The courses offered by ASADIS are accredited by different professional organisations. In addition, ASADIS is approved by the Canadian Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. ASADIS maintains responsibility for the program.

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