What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders

Martin N. Seif, PhD, ABPP, cofounded the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and was a member of its board of directors from 1977 through 1991. Dr. Seif is associate director of the Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Center at White Plains Hospital and a faculty member of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut, and leads Freedom to Fly, an airport-based program for fearful fliers. Sally Winston, PsyD, cofounded the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland, where she is codirector. She is the inaugural recipient of the Jerilyn Ross Award of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and has decades of experience treating patients, training therapists, and advocating for public awareness of anxiety disorders and advances in their treatment. She has given training workshops in the US, Canada, Asia, and Africa.

1. Why Details Make a Difference 2. The Basics 3. A Contemporary View of Anxiety Disorders 4. The Therapeutic Attitude of Acceptance 5. Getting Started 6. Techniques Your Patients Have Probably Already Tried and Misunderstood: What They Are and How to Make Them Helpful 7. Diagnoses: An Annotated Tour of the Anxiety Disorders 8. Exposure: The Active Ingredient 9. The Curious Case of Worry 10. Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: All Bark and No Bite 11. Classic Pitfalls: Common Mistakes Non-Specialists Make 12. Another View of Resistance: Issues that Interfere with Treatment 13. Some Hard-to-Treat Problems: A New Perspective 14. Relapse Prevention Appendix 1. Additional Metaphors Appendix 2. A Summary of the Labeling Process That Can Be Given to Patients Appendix 3. How to Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing Appendix 4. Anxiety Diary