I see more clients for anxiety conditions than any other issues and I continue to be amazed at some of the common mistakes about curing anxiety. Let me start by being clear that I applaud anyone wanting to assist clients, but in my experience, certain approaches will almost always be ineffective at best and often even worst will actually make the problem worse.
The psychological archeological dig
Frank Farrelly often talked about “The psychological archeological dig” where the therapist of practitioner decides to “dig deeper” into the client’s past recollecting past events. The problem with this approach is that often it reinforces the problem state reminding the client of all that has happened to date and highlighting the duration of the problem. Yes, it’s essential to gather good client information, BUT unless the practitioner changes the client’s thinking, then they are not really helping. I have seen clients who have had literally hundreds of hours with this approach. with no useful change whatsoever. Of course no single approach suits everyone and there will be some successes with this way of working, but personally, I don’t recommend it.
Breaking through? Breaking through what exactly?
In my view listening to the language, the client uses to describe the problem is invaluable. Andrew T Austin has done some invaluable work in exploring how people use metaphors. Some approaches talk endlessly about “breaking through” or “unleashing power” without due consideration about the presuppositions made by using such language. Often if the therapist is not linguistically aware, they tend to unwittingly lead the client down a path that is not helpful. My experience is that many (not all) who work this way tend to miss the elusive obvious when working with clients. Often they have decided what to do in client sessions before they gather any information from a client session.
NLP Aerobics?
NLP, when taught well, is an excellent set of tools, but all too often practitioners make the mistake of applying techniques they learned in workshops rather than actually paying attention to what is happening with the client. I call this “NLP aerobics” as what follows is often a great deal of unhelpful hyperactivity which totally avoids determining how the problem state is created and maintained. Some NLP practitioners make the mistake of believing that all anxiety conditions revolved around a visual trigger, which of course is not the case despite what they have been taught in practitioner courses.
Counseling
Often with this approach, the practitioner is great at listening to the client, BUT listening alone is in my experience not going to empower the client in making any useful change. I have seen countless numbers of clients who have spent hours talking to talk therapy therapists and most sessions are repeats of the same session over and over again. Of course, there will be some effective therapists out there, but the policy of “just listen” is in my view mostly highly ineffective to resolve anxiety related states.
So, what works?
No single approach works 100% for resolving client problems, BUT in my experience, the most effective way of resolving anxiety issues is to change how the client is thinking and the way in which they typically pay attention when creating the anxiety state. In PCW we explore in detail the sequences that create such problem states and how to empower the client to think, feel and behave differently. This does not take a great deal of time but it requires working in a precise and conversational manner.
