COURSE 5 OF 12 · WINTER SEASON
An Experiential
Approach to Reducing
Attachment-Related
Anxiety and Rumination
An Experiential
Approach to Reducing
Attachment-Related
Anxiety and Rumination
An Experiential
Approach to Reducing
Attachment-Related
Anxiety and Rumination
Experiential methods for mapping the rumination loop, redirecting compulsive behavior, and connecting to the protective parts beneath anxious thinking.
Some clients can spend hours replaying a single conversation, searching for a certainty that never comes. This course helps you map the rumination loop with clients, find the choice point between body activation and compulsive behavior, and meet the protective part underneath with compassion.
3.0 CE Contact Hours
(NYS) LCAT + LMHC
Self-Study
About this course
This continuing education course explores anxiety, rumination, and analysis paralysis through an attachment-informed and expressive arts lens. Through case examples, reflective inquiry, guided visualization, EFT tapping, and expressive arts exercises, participants will learn experiential methods for helping clients map the rumination
loop, identify the choice point between body activation and compulsive behavior, and relate compassionately to the protective parts beneath anxious thinking.
Emphasis is placed on helping clients move from mental urgency into embodied self- trust, distinguish anxiety from intuition, and foster increased secure functioning.
How this course follows the SEED Framework
Across three lectures and an experiential art activities, this course moves through every step of the SEED Framework, so you experience the process yourself before you guide clients through it.
S – Soulful Inquiry
Reframes rumination as a protective response rather than a thinking problem, and invites clients to ask the part that ruminates: What do you believe you are preventing? Where do you live in my body? The lesson closes with the Stillness on the River Bank guided journey.
E – Exploration
Introduces the Rumination Loop Map (trigger, story, body sensation, compulsion, temporary relief, stronger doubt) and the Choice Point between sensation and compulsion. Clients name the parts behind the loop: the Manager chasing certainty, the Firefighter seeking relief, the Inner Child longing for reassurance, and the Sovereign Self who can pause.
E – Expression
In Scribble Alchemy, clients capture rumination energy in a two-handed scribble, find a shape in it, and dialogue with that shape: What are you trying to protect me from? What do you need in order to rest? They then draw that resource directly into the image.
D – Deep Receiving
Clients learn to discern anxiety from intuition through the body, then receive The White-Flame Rose guided meditation and an EFT tapping practice that softens mental fog and anchors a new belief. I can witness anxiety without obeying it.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
OBJECTIVE 1
Identify at least three clinical indicators of anxiety and rumination as they may appear in clients’ thoughts, body sensations, attachment behaviors, and relational patterns.
OBJECTIVE 2
Describe the rumination loop and identify one clinical intervention point within that loop.
OBJECTIVE 3
Identify two experiential interventions that may help clients externalize rumination, regulate
nervous system activation, and access a more grounded sense of self-trust.
This is for you...
This is for practitioners who…
✓ Work with clients navigating anxiety, overthinking, relational uncertainty, attachment activation, or compulsive reassurance-seeking.
✓ Want to help clients understand rumination as a protective strategy rather than a character flaw.
✓ Use or want to integrate attachment theory, parts work,
somatic awareness, guided visualization, EFT tapping, and
expressive arts interventions.
✓ Support clients who struggle to distinguish anxiety from intuition, urgency from truth, or compulsive action from grounded choice.
✓ Want practical, experiential tools for helping clients interrupt anxious loops and build emotional regulation, self-trust, and relational discernment.
This will help your clients…
✓ Recognize how rumination shows up in thoughts, body
sensations, behaviors, and relationship dynamics.
✓ Understand how overthinking may function as an attempt to create certainty, control, or safety.
✓ Identify the “choice point” between nervous system activation and compulsive behaviors such as checking, fixing, researching, withdrawing, or reassurance-seeking.
✓ Externalize and explore rumination energy through body-based reflection, imagery, parts dialogue, and art-making.
✓ Practice replacing anxious urgency with grounded presence, compassionate self-leadership, and more secure next steps.
Tools to use in practice
A self-assessment, based on the lesson topics
Guided visualization and expressive arts exercise
A story-based scripted EFT Tapping Practice
Downloadable guidebook and lesson summaries
TESTIMONIALS
What practitioners are saying...
"Invigorates my practice."
"As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over a decade of experience, finding continuing education that not only meets my licensure requirements but also invigorates my practice is rare. The courses offered by Briana’s continuing education school have been so helpful. Her psycho-spiritual approach deeply resonates with my work, and I've been able to integrate the concepts into therapy with profound results."
- Lena M. LMHC
"A rich tapestry of insight."
"As an art therapist, I'm always seeking ways to deepen my skill set and offer more to my clients. The workshops and seminars at Briana's school are exceptional; each course is a rich tapestry of insight, practical skill-building, and transformative knowledge."
-Michelle C. LCAT
"Fills a gap in the field."
"Holding licenses in both clinical social work and art therapy, I find Briana's continuing education offerings to be unparalleled in their depth and relevance. Her unique blend of traditional psychotherapy with spiritual and creative modalities fills a gap in our field."
- Patricia M. LCSW, LCAT
ENROLLMENT
Choose Your Plan
SINGLE COURSE
$97
An Experiential
Approach to Reducing
Attachment-Related
Anxiety and Rumination
3 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
BEST VALUE
THE WINTER SEASON
$194
Courses 1, 2 & 3 · buy two, get one free
9 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
About your instructor
My name is Briana MacWilliam, and I’m a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC), educator, and the founder of Soul-Centered Security®.
I didn’t come to this work because my own relationships were easy. Divorce, grief, and heartbreak brought me face to face with the same attachment patterns I was helping my clients understand. What helped was building a deeper relationship with my body, emotions, creativity, and spirituality.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve served more than 6,000 clients and students across inpatient psychiatry, community mental health, higher education, and private practice. My work weaves together attachment theory, creative arts therapy, embodied practice, and spiritual growth.
I also have additional training in trauma-informed somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), hypnotherapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. And I am the author of Secure in the Spark: A Spiritual Path to Heal Attachment Wounds, available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
My courses for practitioners share the tools and creative processes that supported my own growth, and the healing of the people I’ve had the privilege of serving.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to take the 12-part courses in order? No. Each course stands alone and is designed to be entered at any point. That said, we recommend starting with Course 1 if you're new.
How will I receive my certificate? After completing your course work, there will be a learning evaluation, instructor evaluation, and webform to complete. After submitting your webform, your certificate will automatically be emailed to you.
How long will I have access to the course? Your purchase includes lifetime access, including to any updates we might make in the future. If a course is retired in the future, we will email you the digital files to download to your own device.
Which boards approve these courses? Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists (#CAT-0014) and licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0224). The ATCB has also accepted our courses in the past, because of our state approval, however, we recommend contacting the ATCB directly if you have a concern.
What if I have further questions? You can contact us at [email protected].
Start where your clients are stuck.
PROVIDER INFORMATION
Briana MacWilliam, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed creative arts therapists; #CAT-0014, and is also an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors; #MHC-0224.
PLEASE NOTE:
While some subject areas overlap in education, a course that includes art therapy directives does not qualify a counselor to practice art therapy, and similarly an art therapist is not qualified to practice as a counselor, without proper licensing.
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