What is anxiety?

Anxiety is an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, nervousness, worry, and somatic presentation such as heart racing, shaking/trembling, sweating, increased heart blood pressure, headaches, and stomachaches. Often times people will also experience recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns and be preoccupied by these thoughts and concerns. Everyone feels anxious from time to time. However, anxiety becomes a problem when people begin avoiding certain situations as a result, and the avoidance starts interfering with their daily functioning.

Common anxiety and related problems include: Social anxiety: serious anxiety about social related activities (public speaking, performance, parties, speaking to others, etc) due to fear of judgement from others and/or embarrassment.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD): excessive anxiety or worry about a wide range of things such as school, work, health of self or others, finances, etc, when there is no apparent reason to cause such concern. The excessive worry often comes with tension and physical symptoms such muscle aches, trouble relaxing, headaches, etc.

Separation anxiety: being afraid of leaving home or loved/trusted ones to the point of refusing necessary life activities. It is more commonly seen in children, but can also happen to adults.

Phobias: Fears about particular objects, activities, or situations that are blown out of proportion that makes one want to avoid and causes significant problems in daily life.

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD): Uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts obsessions and behaviors (compulsions) that one feels the urge to repeat over and over.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Intense distress after experiencing extremely traumatic events,
such as being a victim of a crime, an accident, combat, or natural disaster and causes disruption of one’s life.

What is depression?

Depression is different from common feelings of sadness or grief. It is an illness that causes a person to feel sad and hopeless a lot of times and makes it difficult for him/her to carry on with daily activities. Most people with depression do get better with proper treatments such as therapy and/or medication. There are several forms of depression. Severe depression may lead to the need for hospitalization. There is also persistent depressive disorder (previously called dysthymia), referring mild, chronic depression that is less severe and has fewer symptoms than major depression. However, persistent depressive disorder can be steadily lasting for a long period of time.

Why evidence-based treatment?

Evidence-based treatments (EBTs) refer to therapy approaches that have been well tested in research and proven to be effective. For example, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the mainstay of EBTs, and  one of the most well-established treatments to help manage anxiety, mood, and other symptoms of distress and to improve one’s wellbeing. While there is no one “magic cure” for everyone, it makes sense to try approaches that are backed by scientific research as the first-line treatment.
 
I specialize in EBTs for anxiety and mood disorders and have extensive experience researching, teaching, and providing these treatments. As a research scientist, I have been directly involved in large clinical trials studying EBTs for anxiety and depression. As a clinician, I am skilled in delivering personalized cognitive and behavioral therapies for a wide range of clinical presentations across life span. 
 

What is CBT?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a short-term, practical, and goal-oriented therapy. The basis of CBT is that the way people think, how they behave, and their emotional experience are connected. Therefore, the work of CBT is first to identify the thinking patterns, dysfunctional beliefs, and maladaptive behaviors that contribute to and maintain psychological symptoms. Adaptive coping and problem-solve skills then are introduced and practiced to address problems in life that have been driven by the tendency to avoid due to anxiety and/or mood symptoms.  

To effectively learn these skills, CBT typically involves “homework” assignments outside of therapy sessions. In fact, homework is essential to the success of this kind of treatment.

What is exposure?

In CBT for anxiety, there is a critical component called “exposure.” It means to gradually expose someone to situations that bring on anxiety to progressively learn to decrease the avoidance and/or compulsive behavior that s/he has been using in the past to past to ease anxiety associated with those situations. The homework for CBT for anxiety almost always includes exposures to ensure ample opportunity for practice and to increase treatment success.

Is CBT with youth different?

CBT with children and adolescents work on the same principals. However, parents are often included in treatment process as well. Depending on the age of the child, symptom presentation, and family dynamic, parents may have varying levels of involvement. However, typically it is beneficial for parents to be included so they understand their child’s experience and the treatment process. It is particularly important for parents to learn how/if they have inadvertently engaged in parenting styles that may have accommodated their child’s anxiety and how they can appropriately respond when their child becomes anxious. Additionally, parents can also often provide support for the homework assignment.