AD24 Dialogue 01 – Forget Techniques! These 5 Attitudes are EVERYTHING in Anxiety Disorder Treatment - Reid Wilson, Ph.D; Lynn Lyons, LICSW

The four primary anxiety disorders— panic, specific phobias, social anxiety, and generalized anxiety—control people by generating an absolute standard for certainty and comfort. They inject rules into consciousness, then use that set of rules to take over mental territory. Assigning various exercises and techniques is the least effective way to promote change. We need to go after these disorders at the metacognitive level to take on anxiety’s process and overall laws. Any directives we might offer clients should consistently be driven by a set of five therapeutic goals that can be expressed to the client as “attitudes.” Lynn and Reid will present each of these attitudes and demonstrate how they can be delivered to clients in a persuasive manner. You will learn ways your clients can employ these principles in specific threatening circumstances.

Educational Objectives:

1. Defend the advantage of personifying the disorder and perceiving treatment as a mental game

2. Describe and justify the therapeutic sequence of detachment and absorption

3. Identify the benefits of an intervention which is arousal congruent

4. Illustrate how a shift in attitude belongs in the therapeutic skillset