Being the most common feature in our times qualified our times to be probably called an era of anxietyowing  to  its  contradictions  and  challenges,  the  lack  of  opportunities  for  self-fulfillment,  over  stress  and  poor social  relationships  and  values,  which  leads  to  a  sense  of  tension  and  anxiety  associated  with  our  inability  to predict what will happen in the future.

Future anxiety is one of the anxieties that simultaneously emerged with Toffler’s launching of the term Future  Shock  (1970);  Zaleski  (1996)  indicated  this concept  which  refers  to  a  state  of  apprehension,  fear, uncertainty  and  anxiety  of  undesired  changes  expected  to  occur  in  the  future.  This  fear  of  the  future could include a variety of anticipated threats including physical threats, such as illness or accident, or emotional threats, for example the loss of one of the family members. These threats vary in terms of severity, and future anxiety may include the individual’s fear of failure in achieving his/her goals and aspirations.

Full story at Institute of Education Sciences

The post Future Anxiety appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

As you are probably already aware, scientific studies have shown that CBT is extremely effective in treating all forms of anxiety disorders because it combines cognitive and behavioral theories to treat both the underlying thought process and subconscious behavioral response to anxiety triggers that cause a particular disorder.

Cognitive Restructuring

One of the most common issues that people with anxiety disorders experience is a string of negative thoughts that cause them to become worked up. CBT addresses this issue by challenging those negative thoughts and eventually replacing them with more realistic positive thoughts. This process is formally called “cognitive restructuring”, and it takes three simple steps to perform.

Step #1: Spot the negative thoughts that trigger anxiety.

Before you can start working towards changing your client’s train of thought during stressful situations, you have to first understand what their current train of thought is. What are they thinking that’s causing their distress?

Does the agoraphobe think spiders are going to rush him the second he steps out of the house? Does the socially awkward high school student think he’ll be laughed at the second he steps in front of class to deliver his oral report? As you know, you have to fully understand the problem before you can start working towards a solution.

Step #2: Challenge the client’s negative thought process.

As you have found, you don’t want to be overly directive, but you need to find a way to show your client that their thoughts are irrational and get them to start questioning the legitimacy of their anxiety-provoking logic. Their fears may even be justifiable, in which case, as you know, you need to show your client why their disabling anxiety-inducing reaction is still irrational even should the worst case scenario come to pass.

Step #3: Introduce your client to a more positive and realistic outlook.

Once you have the client questioning their own thought process it’s time to introduce them to a better one. Walk your client down a more realistic and positive path so that he or she can start acting in a more positive manner when faced with an anxiety-inducing situation.

Clearly this is just one way CBT can help your clients get control of their anxiety-inducing triggers and turn around their lives in ways they never thought they could before.

By onlineceucredit.com

The post CBT: Three Step Cognitive Restructuring to Treat Anxiety Disorders appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

We’re going to start by examining each form of therapy individually before comparing the two

As you know, Psychodynamic  psychotherapy, like CBT, has been proven to work through research. It makes use of the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud and uses free association and the understanding of transference and counter-transference to help clients recognize why they’re having psychological issues and lead them down a cathartic path where they can then improve their status after realizing the root of their problem.

This therapy method tends to work well because it focuses on getting to root of the client’s problems and allows for a free range of corrections that account for the various idiosyncrasies you may notice during your sessions.

The challenge with psychodynamic  psychotherapy – especially in today’s fast-paced society – is that it takes quite a while and is rather costly in order to be truly effective. Getting sensitive, helpful information from clients by getting them to talk about their childhood can be like pulling teeth. It’s also hard to test the therapy empirically since results are intrinsic to each particular individual, which makes its effectiveness a hotly debated topic.

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)

CBT is seemingly the opposite of psychodynamic  psychotherapy.  It is goal-oriented, has a set time frame, and tends to be more structured – all pros in its corner. It also has a bit more scientific support and is much more cost effective than the former therapy type, which are big pluses in today’s economy.

CBT isn’t all roses and unicorns though. It can miss issues that are brought to light in more in-depth therapies like psychotherapy, which can greatly limited the overall effectiveness of CBT if those issues are left unaddressed. It tends not to be as effective for people with complex mental disorders or learning disabilities – limiting the population range CBT can benefit and causing you to have to turn away more clients if you choose to use only CBT.

The Final Comparison

CBT simply works better in today’s insurance reimbursement driven world. People are more skeptical of the psychodynamic approach than ever before and many simply aren’t willing to spend the money required to see real results from psychodynamic psychotherapy. You may it best to start with CBT, especially if there’s a specific issue the client wants addressed, and then ease into psychodynamic psychotherapy once the client has become acclimated with you and a working relationship and trust has been established.

The post Psychodynamic Psychotherapy vs CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.

CBT makes use of two schools of psychological thought: cognitive and behavioral psychology. As you know, cognitive psychology focuses on the study of mental processes such as thought, attention and memory. Behavioral psychology focuses on understanding how people interact within their environment. The two are used together within CBT to help clients with psychological disorders change both the way they think and the way they behave.

CBT is typically used to treat anxiety disorders in adults.  It can use proven techniques of desensitization to gradually introduce people to their fearful stimuli and teach them why they don’t need to afraid, or at least as afraid, of the subject of their phobias.

For instance, let’s say your client has arachnophobia, a fear of spiders.  As you may know, the theories behind CBT contend that you’ve been taught to be afraid of spiders (not in the literal sense but that could be the case too) and that slow exposure to your fear will help undo the fearful response.

Depending on just how afraid of spiders you are, you’d start at the lowest comfort level of CBT you can. In the above example, and perhaps you have tried this intervention, the client  would need to be introduced simply to the idea of spiders – being able to talk about them – before they could move on to seeing images, live specimens and possibly even letting one crawl along their arm!

As you know, CBT has been used effectively to treat a wide variety of disorders, such as schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, psychosis, and bipolar disorder.

Do you agree that CBT works by helping your client change the way he or she looks at life and their surroundings in order to help them achieve the goals they set?

The post An Example of CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy used with Anxiety appeared first on StepsToLivingInJoy.com.