Anxiety therapists in Hot Springs Village, Arkansas AR
Anxiety or Fears
Psychotherapy.Com
Psychologist, Ph.D.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for anxiety, fears or phobia
28 Years Experience
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. Jennifer McManus
Psychologist, PhD, Licensed Psychologist, PLLC
Does this sound familiar? You want to feel calm and peaceful, but instead you find yourself feeling: constantly worried, burdened by a sense of impending doom, or even debilitated by anxiety. It has been hard for you to manage this level of fear and anxiety on your own. Each day it becomes more difficult to focus on anything other than those worst-case scenarios that your mind so quickly creates. Life doesn’t have to go on this way. Hi, I’m Dr. Jennifer McManus, and I help ambitious women find relief from fear and anxiety. It is my mission to provide scientifically informed psychotherapy without sacrificing compassion and genuine concern.
10 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. Erick David Arguello
Psychologist, PsyD
With a compassionate and empathetic approach, I offer evidence-based interventions tailored to your unique needs and circumstances. Whether you're experiencing overwhelming worry, panic attacks, or intrusive thoughts, I am here to help you navigate through these challenges.
15 Years Experience