For all of the anxiety disorders, the gold standard of treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. For anxiety disorders, it is the single most effective psychotherapeutic approach compared to all other types of psychotherapy and often compared to medication. Thus, when trying to locate a mental health professional, make sure that he or she practices CBT. It is not sufficient that a therapist “does a little CBT” as part of his or her practice. CBT is not something in which one just dabbles effectively; it requires a great deal of training and experience. Do not assume that a therapist is experienced in CBT just because they represent themselves to be. Here are some additional guidelines and questions to ask a prospective mental health professional to ensure that you get the help you need with your anxiety.
1) Once you have found a therapist who identifies him or herself as a CBT practitioner, ask them to explain to you what CBT is. An experienced therapist will explain that CBT focuses on people’s thoughts (cognitions) and behaviors (things we do). Some other things you should hear or might ask about include: a focus on the here and now rather than on past relationships; homework between sessions; therapeutic goals; “automatic thoughts” or cognitive errors and using cognitive restructuring to correct these thinking errors; structured sessions, and behavioral experiments, to name a few.
2) Make sure the CBT therapist has lots of experience treating anxiety disorders. Ask them “How many patients in your practice do you treat for a diagnosed anxiety disorder?” Ask the prospective therapist: “What specifically do you do with your patients who have OCD (Panic attacks, social anxiety, phobias, separation anxiety, etc)? “ Their responses should emphasize EXPOSURE treatments for all of the anxiety disorders. If it does not, you will be wasting your time and money . If the therapist says something like: “I try to find the root of the problem and do a little CBT or exposure work.”, then they are not qualified to provide state of the art treatment for your or your loved one’s anxiety disorder.
3) Ask how many sessions they typically need with a patient to facilitate significant symptom reduction based on your symptoms. Of course there is variation depending on the onset of the symptoms, presence of additional symptoms, like depression and other factors, but you should hear that they treat individuals in a relatively time-limited frame work. This means that therapy does not typically go on for years, but rather months and sometimes even just several sessions. An experienced CBT therapist should be able to explain clearly what therapy will be like and how she or he will work with you to both identify and meet therapy goals. This should give you a sense of how much work you would like to do to meet your goals and therefore you can set reasonable expectations for the duration of the treatment.