When Health Anxiety and Chronic Illness Overlap
CBT and ACT Interventions to Reduce Distress Despite Ongoing Symptoms
- Speaker:
- Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 05 Minutes
- Format:
- Audio and Video
- Copyright:
-
Jul 16, 2026
- Product Code:
- POS150878
- Media Type:
- Digital Seminar
Description
Of course, clients with chronic pain or chronic illness, or who have experienced medical trauma, live with real, ongoing symptoms and legitimate health concerns -
But many also have health anxiety that can worsen distress.
You’re left wondering – how much worry, preoccupation, and vigilance is expected in this case, and how much might be disordered anxiety that I should be treating?
And how do I talk about health anxiety with my clients without minimizing their lived experience?
In this session, Taylor Ham – author of The Health Anxiety Workbook – will give you the tools you need to differentiate expected anxiety in the context of chronic illness from illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder and then treat it. You’ll learn:
- CBT and ACT interventions to reduce fear-driven behaviors, tolerate uncertainty, and engage with life despite ongoing pain and medical symptoms
- A framework to avoid both overpathologizing and unintentionally reinforcing clients’ anxiety
- How to helpfully respond when medically complex, anxious clients seek reassurance or hyperfocus on their symptoms
Credit
Speaker
Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP Related seminars and products
Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, CCATP, is a Certified Clinical Anxiety Treatment Professional and author of the book The Health Anxiety Workbook: Practical Exercises to Overcome Your Health Worries (Rockridge Press, 2021).
Ms. Ham specializes in treating a range of anxiety and mood issues, as well as stress and relational issues. In her practice, she uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioral and mindfulness-based techniques to help clients leave their health-related anxieties behind so they can live the lives they want. Ms. Ham earned her MS degree in Marriage and Family Counseling from Virginia Tech University and has been designated a Clinical Fellow by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Taylor Ham maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Octave Behavioral Health. She receives royalties as a published author. Taylor Ham receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Taylor Ham has no relevant non-financial relationships.
Additional Info
Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)Access never expires for this product.
Questions?
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Additional CE Info
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.
Objectives
- Differentiate between clinical diagnosis of illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder and normative, proportionate anxiety in clients with chronic illness, chronic pain, or medical trauma.
- Identify common clinician behaviors that unintentionally maintain health anxiety in medically complex clients.
- Utilize at least two strategies from CBT and/or ACT to help clients increase tolerance of uncertainty and reduce safety behaviors.
Outline
Health Anxiety vs. Reasonable Medical Distress
- Why make a distinction?
- Illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder
- Health anxiety in the context of chronic illness, pain, and medical trauma
- Cognitive, emotional, and behavioral markers that point to co-morbid health anxiety
- What about OCD?
- Common assessment traps
The Health Anxiety Cycle: How Well-Intentioned Care Can Reinforce Health Anxiety
- Reassurance, symptom analysis, and accommodation as unintentional safety behavior reinforcement
- The role of intolerance of uncertainty and mortality fears in maintaining health anxiety
- Manage therapist and client discomfort with uncertainty and “both/and” realities (real illness + health anxiety)
CBT and ACT Interventions for Clients with Chronic Pain or Chronic Illness
- How to provide thoughtful psychoeducation on health anxiety and the pain/anxiety feedback loop
- Cognitive interventions to avoid invalidating real symptoms or medical uncertainty
- Address reassurance-seeking and safety behaviors while maintaining appropriate medical follow-up
- Adapt behavioral experiments and exposure work to account for physical limitations and fluctuating symptoms
- Integrate ACT-based values work to help clients build meaning
- Limitations of the research and potential risks
Target Audience
- Counselors
- Social Workers
- Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Nurses
- Other Mental Health Professionals
Reviews
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