Cognitive-Behavioral treatment is now pushing further into the confrontational. Participants will learn how to divide and conquer: to interrupt anticipatory anxiety and then to manage physical symptoms using cognitive strategies, paradox, pattern disruption, exposure and interceptive exposure, peeling away their ever-present safety crutches and, the second order change of perceiving panic disorder as a mental game.
Obsessions persist despite the application of logic or reason, and compulsions are so successful at briefly relieving anxiety that they take on a life of their own. The therapist can reframe the nature of the problem and incorporate all interventions within four simple but provocative guidelines that challenge the dysfunctional beliefs of the client.