Anxiety therapists in Bangor, Maine ME
Anxiety or Fears
Jayson L. Mystkowski
Psychologist, Ph.D., ABPP
While Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT) is highly effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder), clinicians do see some “return of fear,” or partial relapse, in some patients due to a variety of factors. Over the past two decades, treatment researchers, with whom Dr. Jayson Mystkowski had the pleasure of working with at UCLA for over 10 years, have studied “return of fear” and discovered some key variables that may optimize the effects of learning during CBT for anxiety disorders (Craske et al., 2008).
First, evidence suggests that focusing on tolerating fear versus eliminating fear yields better clinical outcomes in the long term. Namely, teaching clients that fear and anxiety are normal feelings, rather than attempting to “down-regulate” such feelings all the time, is more realistic and seems to engender “hardier” clients. Second, helping clients to generate an expectancy that “scary things will not happen,” is very powerful. To do this, it is important for clinicians to create more complex exposure exercises (i.e., tasks in which a client confronts a stimulus of which they are afraid), using multiple feared stimuli instead of one at a time. Then, the lack of a feared outcome becomes particularly surprising and memorable for a client and fear reduction is more potent. Third, increasing the accessibility and retrievability of non-fear memories learned during treatment are powerful factors in mitigating against a return of fear. Craske and colleagues demonstrated that exposure to variations of a feared stimulus, using a random schedule across multiple contexts or situations, is more effective than exposure to the same stimulus, on a predictable schedule, in an unchanging environment. The former paradigm, it is argued, creates stronger non-fear memories that are easier for a client to access when subsequently confronting feared objects or situations outside of the therapy context, than the later scenario.
In sum, clinicians have long been aware that some fear or anxiety returns following very successful CBT treatment. As mentioned above, there are some clear, empirically supported ways to modify the therapy we provide to further help clients generalize the gains made in therapy sessions to the real world.
20 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Dr. Megan Kloep
Psychologist, Ph.D, Clinical Psychologist
Anxiety disorders are a broad category and I work to identify the specifics with you. I rely on evidence based interventions for everything from Generalized Anxiety and Panic Disorder to Specific Phobias and OCD
8 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Dr. Lyndsay Elliott
Psychologist, PsyD.
Anxiety and managing emotions is a primary speciality. Treatment is tailored to your specific issue and needs.
19 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Dr. Paul Daanen
Psychologist, PsyD
Anxiety almost always lies in the aftermath of trauma. I work with people to identify and transform the thoughts and interpretations of situations that trigger anxiety and panic. Perhaps as important, my work also emphasizes the strengthening of someone's belief in themselves and their self-concept as a whole--since we cannot control the future, we must learn to be confident in our capacity to handle whatever might come.
14 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Dr. JD Wright
Psychologist, PhD, Licensed Psychologist
I draw from cognitive, somatic, and positive psychological approaches when working with anxiety. We will focus first on strategies to help you feel more in control of your present symptoms and struggles. We can then turn to working with underlying concerns to help you feel confident that real change is happening.
4 Years Experience