I am Aaron Gilbert of Boston Evening Therapy Associates.
We're located in Brookline, Massachusetts. We're going to be putting together a series of
informational videos, that I hope you'll find useful. Today we're going to talk about anxiety
which is the number one reason
that tends to bring people into therapy. Anxiety in one form or another is the most common issue that
brings people to therapy.
It ranges in severity from a vague but persistent sense of unease to
incapacitating panic attacks and many levels in between.
Psychotherapy can be very effective in addressing the pain of anxiety
and helping the patient move towards health and well-being.
Symptoms of anxiety can include specific phobias,
excessive worry, heightened fear reactions, or vague but persistent sense of
unease.
how can effective psychotherapy help ease pain
and promote healing and growth. In many circumstances the patient seeking help
from the painful experience
of prolonged anxiety will want to resolve particular problems in their life:
"I'm always worried I will lose my job." "I'm afraid I will be discovered to be
a fraud."
"I worry I will get terribly sick or die."
Patients may desperately seek reassurance that all will be OK and that
their fears are unwarranted,
but it is not the identified problem which is in fact causing the pain
It is the troubled mind which is trained itself by repetition and practice
to generate worry and fear. It is the thought process itself and not the
identified
problem. The patient is tricked to
think it is an external problem we must solve, when in fact
it is internal. The realization that one is not defined by painful anxiety,
that our thoughts and feelings
are not descriptors of self can be a powerfully liberating and transformative
experience
and a deeply rewarding part of effective psychotherapy.
In a mindfulness
approach to psychotherapy. The patient learns to notice
the anxious thoughts and feelings without attaching
or fusing with them to sit with anxious feelings
and do our discomfort and most importantly
allow it to pass, as does a large ocean wave.
No need to try to stop it or avoid it,
see it, sense it and let it pass
overhead. Foreboding regret fear and doubt
are hallmark sentiments of anxiety. It is the work of the therapist and patient
together to loosen this grip
and create space for healthier and more hopeful sentiments.
Mindfulness brings the patient back to the now
to breathing into this very moment in time
to the current sensations of the body in the immediate reflections of
the mind. Thoughts and feelings are allowed to come and go
without being latched onto and ruminated upon
in a churning and repetitive manner which fuels
unrest and anxiety. It is often unpleasant or even painful to sit with these
unwanted emotions or thoughts.
It is counter to the patient's mind set
which seeks to deny these feelings, to abandon them as quickly as possible,
so why do this? Why do we encourage the resolute act of sitting
with difficult feelings? By drawing them close
rather than pushing them away, often the patient learns that even painful and
powerful feelings are transient
and that we can in fact tolerate them until they slip away.
The patient also begins to learn that these negative feelings and thoughts are
not defining of the self,
of who they are. As preferred
and more pleasant feelings and thoughts emerge, the patient learns to notice
them deeply,
to mark them as desired states, in this way creating
a map. The desired place to return to
again and again until it becomes familiar
and easily located. The anxious mind
relentlessly pursues a problem
to fix upon, It is not the problem that needs fixing, it is the impulse
to seek it.