CFT

A Comprehensive Understanding of Anxiety Treatment Options

John Nolan
3rd May 20253rd May 2025

Anxiety treatment encompasses a range of self-help strategies and professional therapeutic approaches aimed at helping individuals manage and reduce the impact of excessive worry and fear. Self-help options include breathing techniques, mindfulness, lifestyle changes, setting boundaries, examining unhelpful thoughts, and engaging in valued activities. Professional help is recommended for more significant anxiety and involves working with a trained practitioner who can provide understanding, identify unhelpful patterns like avoidance, teach specific skills, and offer support. Different professional approaches to anxiety treatment include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), exposure-based methods, Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), neuroscience-informed approaches, and techniques from NLP. Choosing the right approach depends on the severity and impact of anxiety, the success of previous efforts, the specific type of anxiety, and finding a professional with relevant experience and a good connection. Anxiety treatment is a journey that requires patience and commitment, ultimately aiming to help individuals live a more meaningful life less controlled by fear.

How do therapeutic approaches address the multifaceted experience of anxiety across these sources?

John Nolan
13th March 2025

Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) Focuses on the future and solutions rather than the past and problems. Instead of dwelling on the causes of anxiety, SFBT emphasises what the client wants to have instead of anxiety. It adopts a resource model, viewing clients as having strengths and resources to cope with anxiety, rather than a deficit… Read More »How do therapeutic approaches address the multifaceted experience of anxiety across these sources?

Anxiety Attack Management Report24th May 2025
This report outlines strategies for managing anxiety attacks based on information from the sources. It explains that anxiety attacks are temporary exaggerations of the stress response and not harmful. Key immediate actions include breathing techniques, relaxation, focusing on thoughts and sensations without judgment, using distraction, and resisting the urge to flee. Longer-term strategies involve identifying triggers, making plans, writing or journaling, challenging thoughts, adjusting language and reactions, practising self-care, seeking support, building understanding, and being persistent.
ACT for anxiety24th May 2025
ACT for anxiety is an approach focused on changing your relationship with anxiety rather than trying to control or eliminate it. It posits that control efforts often exacerbate the problem. The goal is to help clients live a rich and meaningful life aligned with their values, even when anxiety is present. This is achieved through core processes: Acceptance (willingness to experience anxiety), Cognitive Defusion (changing the relationship with thoughts), Contacting the Present Moment (mindfulness), The Observing Self (perspective taking), Values (clarifying what matters), and Committed Action (taking steps towards values despite anxiety). These processes are seen as more beneficial than symptom control because they target underlying issues and foster psychological flexibility. Clients can use ACT for anxiety as a self-help tool by working through principles and exercises presented in workbooks, focusing on understanding the rationale, practising the core skills, identifying values, and taking committed action, using tools like monitoring forms and specific exercises like Conscious Questioning and FEEL exercises. The emphasis is on taking action with anxiety towards a valued life.
The Role of a Depression Coach23rd May 2025
A coach specialising in depression focuses on helping individuals lift depression and manage related issues like stress and anxiety to improve performance and well-being. This involves helping clients define desired changes, understand their experiences, and solve problems. Key aspects may include setting clear, measurable goals, utilising accountability and support systems, and working in person or remotely. It is crucial to remember that coaching is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health treatment, particularly for clinical depression.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety:What makes it different.22nd May 2025
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for anxiety is a process-based approach that helps individuals live a full and meaningful life while learning to coexist with anxiety. It does not view anxiety as a disease but as a normal human experience that can become problematic when one attempts to control or avoid it excessively. Key principles include acceptance (willingness to experience difficult thoughts and feelings without struggle), mindfulness (paying attention to the present moment nonjudgmentally), cognitive defusion (changing one's relationship with thoughts), clarifying personal values (chosen life directions), and taking committed action (steps towards values, even with anxiety). The goal is not necessarily anxiety reduction itself, but building psychological flexibility to engage in a rich and meaningful life, guided by values.
Depression Coaching19th May 2025
Depression coaching is not a clearly defined practice. However, by combining insights from descriptions of coaching, depression, and related therapeutic approaches like Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), one can infer potential elements of such a practice. These might include focusing on desired futures and goals, identifying strengths, setting specific and measurable steps, challenging unhelpful language, incorporating acceptance of difficult feelings, aligning actions with personal values, using scaling to track progress, and encouraging action despite challenging emotions, all while being mindful of the specific obstacles presented by depressive symptoms such as lethargy and lack of hope. Coaching principles emphasise working with a person's motivation and using language that resonates with them.