Anxiety therapists in Allendale, South Carolina SC
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. Qatana Samanen
Psychologist, Licensed Clinical Psychologist
When clients come to me, they are experts on their problems. My job is to help them identify and work toward the solutions. My clients become experts on what they can do to enjoy life more. I feel privileged to be part of a process that empowers people to transform their lives for the better.
36 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Gayle MacBride
Psychologist, PhD, LP
Anxiety is a condition that is based on avoidance. With me you will learn how to approach these situations, learn what successful practice will look like, and learn skills to talk to yourself differently (more accurately)about your fears. Before you know it, you will be seeing a braver you!
18 Years Experience
Anxiety or Fears
Lauren Rance
Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist (PsyD, LP)
I work with individuals who feel like they can't relax, find themselves comparing themselves to other people, struggle with body image, and have frequent feelings that they "aren't good enough" despite evidence suggesting otherwise. We work together to create calm in the body and the mind.
8 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