Anxiety therapists in Anniston, Alabama AL
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
Collins Counseling Associates
Licensed Professional Counselor, LPC, LMFT
Diana Ford, LPC specializes in counseling for mind, body and spirit
19 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Bold Expressions Therapy
Psychologist, Psy.D.
I am passionate about working with anyone who has experienced depression or anxiety and who wants to take a deeper look at how these painful thoughts and feelings developed, and how they shape their daily lives. I strive to give my patients a myriad of coping skills and therapeutic tools that will allow them to deftly navigate the world’s everyday stressors, and ask them to look introspectively at their own expectations and biases as together we resist heteronormative patriachal structures.
4 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Erika Gray
Psychologist, Psy.D
Anxiety is the most pervasive mental health concern in our society. I utilize CBT and exposure approaches to address the thoughts that fuel the anxiety that is disrupting your life.
13 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Kailyn Bobb
Psychologist, PsyD
We would use an effective therapeutic approach that helps individuals identify and change negative thought patterns and behaviors contributing to anxiety. Then we will incorporate relaxation techniques, mindfulness, and deep-breathing exercises that can assist in managing physiological symptoms while also identifying triggers and experiences that have led to symptoms of anxiety and fear responses.
7 Years Experience