You tense and relax each muscle group in turn, working progressively throughout the body. Progressive muscle relaxation aims to relax the muscles to ease the bodily sensations of anxiety, such as muscle tension. Controlled breathing involves breathing deeply into your lower abdomen for four counts and out for six counts, repeating for at least a few minutes. Controlled breathingĬontrolled breathing aims to reduce physiological symptoms of anxiety by regulating breathing. Here are 10 evidence-based anxiety management tools (adapted from Leahy et al., 2011 Westbrook, Kennerley, & Kirk, 2011 Kennerley, 2014). It can be helpful for clients to develop a written list or toolkit of strategies that work for them. Relaxation strategies calm bodily sensations, cognitive skills aim to shift anxious thinking, and behavioral strategies help to reduce safety behaviors.ĭifferent tools work for different people in different situations. There are different types of tools that target different areas of the anxiety cycle. For example, the Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy situational formulation cycle can be used as part of psychoeducation. Psychological formulation (Johnstone & Dallos, 2014) can help clients understand maintenance cycles of anxiety (i.e., how their anxious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors interlink to keep anxiety going). They can write down triggers or keep an anxiety diary as a way to gain a deeper understanding of these patterns (Leahy, Holland, & McGinn, 2011). Keeping track of experiences of anxiety can help clients identify patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Here’s an example of an anxiety psychoeducation video.įor further reading about psychoeducation, this article offers 48 Ways to Apply Psychoeducation as a Coach, while our article Coaching for Anxiety offers podcasts and techniques that you can use with your clients. Normalizing anxiety helps to reduce a client’s sense of shame or feeling that there’s something wrong with them (Welford, 2010). It is important to normalize anxiety initially and provide information about the brain’s threat response (Donker, Griffiths, Cuijpers, & Christensen, 2009). Here are four steps for helping your clients cope with anxiety. This brief TED Talk video introduces anxiety and the fight, flight, or freeze response. In this theory, negative cognitions (e.g., predictions and appraisals) start the vicious cycle of anxiety, triggering associated physiological responses and safety behaviors (e.g., avoiding or escaping feared situations).Īlthough safety behaviors alleviate anxiety in the short term, they can lead to anxious predictions never being challenged, which maintains or worsens anxiety in the long term (Wells, 1997). Medical professionals can categorize these difficulties as anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder (American Psychological Association, 2013).īeck, Emery, and Greenberg’s (2005) cognitive theory suggests that anxiety difficulties stem from an overestimation of danger and underestimation of coping ability. This can lead to excessive fear, hypersensitivity to threat, and unhelpful behavior change that impacts daily functioning (Clark & Beck, 2011). What Is Anxiety According to Psychology?Īnxiety is a normal and adaptive emotional response, defined as feelings of distress, worry, and physiological symptoms in the context of apprehensively anticipating future danger or misfortune (American Psychological Association, 2013).Īnxiety is the activation of the body’s fight, flight, or freeze response, which is often experienced as restlessness, trembling, poor concentration, sweating, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, and irritability (Clark & Beck, 2011).Īlthough anxiety is a normal experience, it can become a problem when it exceeds the reality of potential danger.
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