The University of Wisconsin-Superior will host Dr. Jud Brewer for a free virtual presentation “Unwinding Anxiety: Can anxiety and worry be perpetuated like a habit?” on Tuesday, April 2, beginning at 4:30 p.m.

Anxiety levels are increasing individually and collectively in modern day. Faced with uncertainty, an overabundance of information (and misinformation), among other challenges, our minds struggle to keep up. Our brains default to old survival mechanisms to help us deal with anxiety, which can lead to the development of unhealthy coping habits (e.g. stress eating) and ironically feed anxiety as a habit itself.

Drawing on his clinical work, neuroscience research studies and development of next-generation digital therapeutics for habit change, Brewer will discuss the underlying behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms of why anxiety and other habits are formed and how we can paradoxically tap into these very processes to uproot them. He will also discuss how we can apply these insights to improving clinical treatments and to our own lives.

Brewer is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” having combined over 25 years of experience with mindfulness training with his scientific research therein. He is the director of research and innovation at the Mindfulness Center and professor in behavioral and social sciences and psychiatry at the Schools of Public Health & Medicine at Brown University.

This event is presented by UW-Superior’s Pruitt Center for Mindfulness and Well-Being and sponsored by the Student Behavioral Health Initiative at the Universities of Wisconsin.

Additional information and registration for this free virtual event is available online.