The Twelve Steps of the panicLINK Program
SESSION ONE – How Do I Know I Have Panic Disorder?
In this introductory session, Dr. Blumberg teaches you his method of putting a panic attack under a microscope and breaking panic apart into two key factors. You will learn to construct your panic profile and predict in advance your panic experience.
He will give you the fundamental knowledge necessary to adopt a takeCONTROL training stance, so you are ready to take control when panic strikes. You will hear the actual words he spoke to his patients to teach them how to track panic attacks with the panic tracker, the panicLINK log.
SESSION TWO – What Makes Panic Tick? The Rules That Govern the Panic Experience
In this second session, Dr. Blumberg helps you see the inner working of a panic attack. You learn the rule that controls your attack intensity and how to measure your attack intensity with the PANIC BAROMETER.
You understand how to prevent those powerful attacks that sent you to the emergency room. You learn what makes panic hang around and annoy you.
Dr. Blumberg also shows you how to take the terror out of panic. You see how Dr. Blumberg builds a panic blueprint with his patients. Then you complete the takeCONTROL training readiness checklist to determine whether you have learned what you need to benefit from Session Three, takeCONTROL Training Steps One, Two and Three.
SESSION THREE – takeCONTROL Training Steps 1-3
In this session, you have an opportunity to witness a live demonstration of Dr. Blumberg in action teaching a patient to take control when panic strikes in his waiting room. You observe the doctor explain the first three steps to adopt a takeCONTROL training stance.
STEP ONE – Develop your panic blueprint to predict in advance your two parts of panic. Then, start the execution of the counter-attack, the one-two punch, by taking panic apart.
STEP TWO – Build your cognitive challenge for the counter-attack on enemy thinking.
STEP THREE – Develop a NEUTRAL scientific observer role as your new orientation towards your physical symptoms.
SESSION FOUR – takeCONTROL Training Steps 4 – 6
In this session, you observe the Doctor teaching his patient how to develop a new method of relating to panic symptoms through:
STEP FOUR – Symptom Normalization. He draws on his rich experience to teach you how to develop a new way of understanding your body’s physical reactions. This session is full of concrete examples to teach you how to put symptoms back in a natural/normal context.
STEP FIVE – The Paradoxical Rule to teach you how to get symptoms to obey you.
STEP-SIX – Welcome the return of symptoms.
In conclusion, he puts the six takeCONTROL training steps into a live practice exercise on a practice CD for his patient. Then, he helps you personalize your own practice CD.
Finally you complete a readiness checklist to see whether you are prepared to enter Session Five.
SESSION FIVE – Real Live Practice: Opening Up Your World Again
Now that you have your takeCONTROL training stance and six takeCONTROL training steps, you are ready to develop a practice plan. Dr Blumberg guides you through the development of a detailed plan to establish a successful practice program, including adjusting the training level, building the bridge between the in-home advanced preparation and rehearsal phase to maintaining the takeCONTROL training stance in live practice situations.
Then, you get an opportunity to see how he helps a patient devise a practice program for her target area, shopping in the market. In this session, Doctor Blumberg continues to remind you of the do’s and don’ts of real live practice.
SESSION SIX – Your Practice Program
Here you see common mistakes and nasty bad habits of incorrect approaches to practice. Then the Doctor takes you step by step through Judy’s successful practice program on a bus, using the panicLINK practice tracking form. You observe the exact instruction he gave her to open up her travel world. Then, ten classic practice situations are examined.
Doctor Blumberg set up a practice prototype with specific instructions that you can use to develop your personal practice program. Then the Doctor discusses the principles of practice as they apply to nontraditional situations like exercise and tapering off medication. Finally you complete a readiness checklist so you can determine whether you are ready for Session Seven.
SESSION SEVEN – Are You Rebound Ready?
“I thought I was done but I have just begun.†Although this session may be one of the most challenging, in some ways it is a fundamental step on the learning curve to reaching the panic-free life style. The Doctor outlines the two response pathways when symptoms return:
Pathway One, the setback mode, and
Pathway Two the rebound mode.
Then he goes on to show three different setbacks types that put you at risk for a relapse.
In Session Seven, you complete a setback inventory. Then, you see the difference between novice versus veteran thinking patterns about the return of panic. Finally, you learn rapid rebound methods that help you move closer to a panic-free lifestyle.
SESSION EIGHT – The Big Picture on the Road to a Panic-Free Lifestyle
The Doctor explains four more types of setbacks to give you a road map to avoid the land mines of novice thinking and the setback mode. In his effort to train you to be rebound ready, he gives you six questions to help you turn a setback into a learning opportunity. Then he gives you the exact words that over 5,000 patients have shared with him when in a setback mode.
It becomes your CHOICE. He gives actual instruction as if you were in his office of the actual words you should say to yourself over and over again to take pathway two and become a rapid rebounder. Finally, you complete a rebound readiness scale to find out if you are ready to start Session Nine-Your Four Why? Triggers.
SESSION NINE – Your Four Why? Triggers
The next two sessions opens up an explanation of the three-factor whyPANIC model in preparation for the discovery of your MISSING LINK. Learning the four “Why?” triggers and how they apply to you takes the mystery out of the panic experience. Over time, panic is “out of the blue” no more. First, the doctor discusses a typical patient and you have a chance to look for and discover her four “Why?” triggers.
Then you review an extensive inventory of examples for each of the first three “Why?” triggers to see which triggers apply to you. The inventory for the core “Why?” trigger four is reserved for sessions eleven and twelve… THE DISCOVERY OF YOUR MISSING LINK. Then the doctor introduces you briefly to the whyPANIC model.
SESSION TEN – Your Four “Why?” Triggers and The Missing Link
Now, the Doctor reviews the “Why?” triggers again. This time, he wants to introduce you gradually to the core trigger 4… the missing link. He wants to make sure you are ready to begin the discovery of your missing link. The steps in the discovery process oftentimes can increase panic symptoms or produce an increased awareness of emotions. Sometimes it is helpful to obtain professional guidance to help understand and control symptoms or feelings.
Here the Doctor gives you another example of the “Why?” trigger four and uses the panicLINK log to show you how to approach the examination of the core “Why?” trigger. Finally, you go through a Link Readiness Checklist to see if you are ready to start Session Eleven.
SESSION ELEVEN – The WhyPanic Model
Session Eleven starts with an outline of the seven stages of progress in the panicLINK program, so you can see where you are. Next, you start to understand the personality makeup of panic-prone individuals when you review the six features of the pre-panic personality.
Each unit of information helps you better understand the whyPANIC model and piece together the Missing Link to out of the blue panic. Then, you have an opportunity to understand the big G (guilt) and complete your own pre-panic personality profile, the denial of emotion inventory, the chronic stressor inventory .
The Doctor begins to explain how the whyPANIC model works.
SESSION TWELVE – The Discovery of Your Missing Link
Now you have an opportunity to watch Patty go through the eight steps in the discovery of her missing link. You see how she completed the panicLINK log, the panic tracker, at different steps in the discovery process. You also have a chance to complete your inventory of emotional contexts.
Next, you see how John restored the Missing Link during a relapse visit with the Doctor. Then you see how the discovery and effective mastery of the missing link can help prevent relapses and lead to a more effective emotional management system and a panic-free lifestyle.
