Author Description

What Every Therapist Needs To Know About Anxiety Disorders Is An Integrated And Practical Approach To Treating Anxiety Disorders For General Psychotherapists. What Is New And Exciting Is Its Focus On Changing A Patient's Relationship To Anxiety In Order To Enable Enduring Recovery Rather Than Merely Offering A Menu Of Techniques For Controlling Symptoms. Neither A Cbt Manual Nor An Academic Text Nor A Self-help Book, What Every Therapist Needs To Know About Anxiety Disorders Offers Page After Page Of Key Insights Into Ways To Help Patients Suffering From Phobias, Panic Attacks, Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts, Compulsions And Worries. The Authors Offer A Rich Array Of Therapist-patient Vignettes, Case Examples, Stories, And Metaphors That Will Complement The Work Of Trainees And Experienced Clinicians Of Every Orientation. Readers Will Come Away From The Book With A New Framework For Understanding Some Of The Most Frustrating Clinical Challenges In Anxiety Disorders, Including Reassurance Junkies, Endless Obsessional Loops, And The Paradoxical Effects Of Effort. --publisher Description. Machine Generated Contents Note: Introduction -- Reasonable Goals -- Techniques Are Not The Answer -- Three General Characteristics Of Highly Anxious People -- Anxiety Feels Dangerous -- How An Anxiety Disorder Differs From Plain Anxiety -- Three Types Of Triggers -- Defining Aspect Of An Anxiety Disorder -- Basic Principle: Identify And Treat Avoidance -- Sensitivity And Anxiety -- Discussion Of Causation -- Insight: Cause Versus Maintenance -- Primary Versus Secondary Gains -- Studies On Causation -- Dilemma Of Insight -- Consequences Of Affect Intolerance -- Value Of Talking About Anxiety Symptoms -- Direct Approach To Treating Anxiety Disorders -- Neurological Perspective: Role Of The Amygdala In Sensitization -- Value Of Exposure -- Fear-maintaining Cycle -- Avoidance, Resistance, Neutralization -- Phenomenology Of Anxiety: Anxiety Alters Consciousness -- With Anxiety, Common Sense Makes No Sense -- Paradoxical Attitude -- Approaching Anxiety Mindfully -- Embracing Anxiety -- Role Of The Therapist -- Teaching Metaphors -- Essential Elements To The Therapeutic Attitude Of Acceptance -- First Contact Must Instill Hope -- Immediate Help: Embed Information In Your Questions -- Get The Details -- Find Out What They Have Tried -- Introduce The New Paradigm: Offer A More Profound Change Than Techniques -- Provide Information And Answer Questions -- Problem With Techniques -- How Techniques Can Be Helpful -- Techniques Are Temporary Help, Not Goals -- Emergency Coping -- Techniques That Can Be Helpful: What Is, Not What If? -- Anxiety Management Tricks That Easily Backfire -- Diaphragmatic Breathing -- Anxiety Management In Cases Of Real Danger, Not False Messages -- Some Issues In Determining Patient Progress -- Specific Phobias -- Panic Disorder -- Social Anxiety Disorder -- Obsessive-compulsive Disorder -- Generalized Anxiety Disorder -- Traumatic Anxieties -- Exposure In The History Of Psychotherapy -- Exposure Therapy Is More Than Just Do It -- Role Of The Therapist During Exposure: What To Say And Do -- Exposure Can Be An Intrinsic Part Of Diagnosis And Assessment -- Exposure For Patients With Obsessive-compulsive Disorder: Exposure And Response Prevention -- Ocd With Purely Mental Obsessions And Compulsions -- Right Way To Practice Exposure -- Varieties Of The Worry Experience -- Caveat: Generalized Anxiety Disorder-rarely A Stand-alone Diagnosis -- Worry Is Not An Affect: It Is Thinking-and Thoughts Are Not Facts -- Productive Versus Unproductive Worry -- Important Insight: Some Worry Thoughts Raise Anxiety And Some Lower It -- Therapeutic Perspective On Worry -- About Worry And Time: The Role Of Urgency -- Evaluating Worry -- Rumination: A Different Kind Of Worrying -- Coping With Worry: What Doesn't Work -- Coping With Worry: Strategies That Work -- How Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts Are Maintained -- Living With Joy Despite Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts -- Treating Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts -- Issues For Therapists: Varieties Of Presentation -- Issues For Therapists: Therapist Anxiety And A New Construct -- Exposure To Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts -- Pitfall Number 1: Turning The Causation Arrow Around -- Pitfall Number 2: Pathological Doubt Ocd-misidentifying Ocd Thoughts As Issues And The Seduction Of Co-compulsions -- Pitfall Number 3: Intrusive Thoughts Or Doubts About Sexual Orientation Or Identity-misdiagnosing Ocd Thoughts As A Sexual Issue -- Pitfall Number 4: Get Your Feelings Out -- Pitfall Number 5: Mistakes In The Application Of Exposure-based Treatment -- When People Come Back Without Doing Home Practice -- Anticipatory Anxiety: When People Need Help Getting Over The Hump -- Reassurance Junkie: When People Are Constant Callers -- Illness Worries (health Anxiety And Hypochondria) -- Scrupulosity (religious And Secular) -- Emetophobia (fear Of Vomiting) -- Paruresis (shy Bladder Syndrome) -- Anxiety Disorders Are Chronic Intermittent Disorders: They Come Back -- Most Enduring Recovery Is When Symptoms Do Not Matter -- Search And Destroy: The Role Of Subtle Avoidance -- Role Of Psychotherapy In Relapse Prevention -- Proper Place For Stress Management -- Finally. Martin N. Seif And Sally Winston. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.