3. CBT requires collaboration and active participation from the participant. If you are working with a highly anxious adult female patient, what strategies might you use to help her cope with the anxiety using this modality?
4. With the content of the sessions described and the skills taught, what do you think will be the more challenging skills? Please use examples and cite the literature?
CBT requires collaboration and active participation from the participant. If you are working with a highly anxious adult female patient, what strategies might you use to help her cope with the anxiety using this modality?
Introduction
Anxiety is a normal response to stress, but it can be debilitating and even lead to physical illness. If you want to help your patient manage anxiety, CBT therapy is an effective way to do so. CBT uses behavioral psychology and cognitive therapy techniques—such as exposure therapy, relaxation training and cognitive restructuring—to help patients manage their anxiety symptoms. In this post, I’ll share some strategies you can use with anxious adults in order to increase your effectiveness as a therapist using this modality:
Explain your approach to therapy.
This section is a good place to explain your approach to therapy. You should discuss the importance of the therapeutic relationship, how it can be enhanced by a thorough assessment, and how you will work together as a team in order to achieve your goals. You should also address issues related to trust and confidentiality as well as issues related more specifically within CBT (e.g., learning styles).
You may also want to share some details about yourself so that they know that they are getting help from someone who cares about them deeply enough so that they are willing join forces with them on their journey towards healing!
Develop a trusting relationship with your patient.
Develop a trusting relationship with your patient. The importance of trust in therapy cannot be stressed enough, and it is vital that you establish some level of trust with your client before beginning CBT. Patients who are able to trust the therapist will be more likely to participate in treatment and work through anxiety-provoking thoughts, feelings, and behaviors than patients who do not have this connection with their therapist.
How do I build trust? Be willing to listen without judgment; offer unconditional positive regard for each other’s feelings; validate each other’s experiences; paraphrase what was said instead of making assumptions about what has been said; ask open-ended questions so there is no need for interpretation (but always check back with the client).
Assess the strengths and needs of the patient.
When working with a highly anxious adult female patient, you must assess the strengths and needs of the patient. The ability to assess this information will help you understand how to best help your patient with their anxiety disorder.
Assessing the strengths and needs of your patient can be done by asking questions like: What are some things that make me happy? How do I feel when I’m around my friends or family members? What helps me relax or calm down when feeling stressed out or nervous? These questions will allow you to get a better understanding of what factors may be contributing to their depression or anxiety disorder symptoms as well as how they feel about themselves in general
Focus on positive outcomes.
Focus on positive outcomes. The most helpful thing you can do is to focus on the patient’s strengths and abilities, as well as their goals and how you can help them achieve those goals. For example, if your client has an anxiety disorder that makes it difficult for her to breathe deeply or relax in social situations, discussing strategies for managing this will be more effective than focusing on her anxiety itself (which may seem overwhelming at first). This can also work with other disorders such as depression—and even better yet, CBT is often used alongside medication when trying to treat these conditions!
Ask open-ended questions to guide treatment planning (e.g., What helps you most when you feel anxious? What activities do you find most relaxing when you are anxious?).
To help your client cope with the anxiety, ask open-ended questions to guide treatment planning (e.g., What helps you most when you feel anxious? What activities do you find most relaxing when you are anxious?). These types of questions will help them think about their experience and make decisions about how to treat it. A good example is:
“What do you like/dislike about being around people?”
“Is there anything about this situation that makes it more difficult for you than others?”
By asking open-ended questions, encouraging active participation and providing supportive feedback, you can increase your effectiveness as a therapist by helping patients use their own coping strategies to manage anxiety
The goal of CBT is not to make you an expert in treating anxiety. Rather, it’s to help you work together with your patient in a way that they can use their coping skills and understand more about themselves.
Here are some tips for providing support during this process:
Ask open-ended questions rather than yes/no questions or statements. This will encourage the patient to talk about their feelings without feeling judged or criticized by the therapist (or anyone else). For example: “What do you think happened?” instead of “Why did this happen?” This helps people feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings with others because they are not being challenged on specific details when answering questions like these ones; however, keep in mind that sometimes there may still be some information needed from them before moving forward with therapy sessions so stay flexible when doing so!
Conclusion
CBT is an effective approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders. It is a valuable tool that can be used in any type of therapy setting, including individual, group or family therapy sessions. The best part about CBT is that it can be used regardless of whether or not patients are aware they have a specific anxiety disorder (e.g., social phobia). In fact, many times people who are diagnosed with panic attacks or generalized anxiety will not be able to identify what exactly their symptoms represent because they do not feel like they have anything wrong with them!