*Please note this page is still under construction 

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I have clustered some of the anxiety related problems and have given a brief example of the approaches I tend to use. I will be writing more about these specific disorders as I further develop this website. 

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• General anxiety disorder

• OCD

• Health anxiety

 

These are all distinctly different problems which can have similar underlying mechanics. I tend to use a combination of ACT and more traditional CBT as the central treatment models, which is typically highly effective. If these difficulties are more ingrained and harder to understand, there might also be a need for the therapy to look at the past developmental factors, such as traumas, loss, or unmet needs in childhood.

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• Body dysmorphia

• Social anxiety

• Low self-esteem 

• Perfectionism, a need for control, people pleasing or other such traits

 

These are all different problems which can have similar common underpinnings. This cluster of problems tend to require a great deal of exploration, in terms of when and how they developed. People with these problems tend to have a real difficulty with their own emotions, self worth or self image (spoken from personal experience) and this is where I would tend to focus the therapy.

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Improving self-acceptance, emotional understanding, and control of relevant behaviours, can all have a profound and life changing effect on these problems, and that is why I would predominantly use an approach like ACT with them.

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• Phobias

• Performance anxiety

• Panic attacks

• Agoraphobia

• In some cases, OCD, Health anxiety and Social anxiety

 

These problems are different, but can often have similar underlying patterns driving them forward and keeping them going. With this cluster, it often comes down to a highly developed but misfiring survival instinct. That is, the urge to avoid what we are fearful of.

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Avoidance is sometimes obvious, for example I previously had a phobia of needles, and would in the past rather develop a serious illness then have one anywhere near me. Other forms of avoidance can be subtle, secondary or complex. Perhaps we do everything we can to avoid a physical sensation, such as in panic disorder, or check excessively to avoid our immediate fear of dying in health anxiety, or wear certain clothes to avoid drawing attention to our arms, face or stomach, such as in BDD. 

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Where some obvious or subtle form of avoidance is central to the difficulty, it is hard to look past classic CBT methods for how powerful a method it can be. This is where I would typically go with this cluster of problems. Simply put, you can very rarely talk the fear out of the fear related part of your brain, you have to prove to it that the thing it feels terrified of isn't as bad as it thinks.