What Kind of Psychotherapy Is Best for Anxiety?

If you have a cognitive distresser underlying your anxiety, such as negative thought patterns or untrue beliefs, you can be helped by psychotherapy. Here are some of your choices.

Anxiety may feel random, but often, it ends up being fueled by negative thought patterns, inadequate coping strategies, or deeply embedded unconscious beliefs.
Here’s where psychotherapy, sometimes called talk therapy, can help, too.

When you understand the root of the fear—faulty beliefs, a painful incident in the past, or simply a lack of social skills—you can start to heal yourself from the inside.

Psychotherapy for anxiety

No fewer than five distinct psychotherapies work for anxiety. Here are a few popular ways to do it:

Pharmacological therapy and Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most commonly used evidence-based treatment for anxiety.

CBT methods for anxiety are geared toward helping you correct irrational beliefs concerning the probability and/or true cost of an expected life hazard and do so by using a suite of cognitive and behavioral (e.g., exposure) tools.
A 2018 review of 41 studies Sources found that CBT is an effective treatment for anxiety-related disorders compared to a placebo. The best-described CBT for AN was for OCD, GAD, and acute stress disorder.
CBT generally consists of a short-term course of therapy (usually weekly treatment over 3–5 months) and is tailored to address the particular problem you wish to work on.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

ACT is based on the model that accepts distress as a normal part of living and uses positive coping strategies and life skills to manage and cope with pain and distress (Kabat-Zinn, 1994).
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) operates from the premise that the normal condition of the human mind is to be filled with a great deal of background chatter, much of which tends to be negative.

ACT may help you build greater psychological flexibility by teaching you to accept your painful thoughts and feelings nonjudgmentally. You also learn how to act on the values you believe in, even in the presence of painful feelings.
ACT therapists utilize a variety of mindfulness-based and behavior-change interventions.

ACT is frequently combined with other types of therapy and may be conducted in individual or group formats. It can be applied as a brief intervention or as a long-term treatment.
Exposure therapy
It’s a type of CBT that gradually exposes you to the ideas or objects behind your anxiety or fear. This is being done in a monitored and supportive setting so that you can learn to control your anxiety and decrease avoidant behaviors.

What is Exposure Therapy Good For?

• specific phobias
• panic disorder
• Social anxiety disorder
• OCD
• the PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder)

While OCD and PTSD are not included in the anxiety disorders chapter according to the DSM-5-TR criteria, the two disorders may also present with high levels of anxiety.
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)—a form of CBT that uses mindfulness meditation to monitor negative thoughts and feelings, such as anxiousness.
It’s usually done in a group setting, though it may also be done alone.

MBCT teaches you:

Be present and nonjudgmental, and recognize and dispute negative thinking.
Awareness and dealing with symptoms of anxiety, like fast breathing, tension and your thoughts racing, is important.
There are many anxiety disorders that MBCT can be effective for, and it is often used in combination with other treatments, such as medication or other forms of therapy.

Psychodynamic therapy

To a psychodynamic therapist, much of what we think, feel and do is driven by unconscious factors, such as early experiences and repressed emotions.
In psychodynamic therapy, you work to untangle these unconscious conflicts, feelings, and behaviours and develop the ability to make more conscious and healthy choices.
Psychodynamic therapy generally focuses on discussing your thoughts, feelings, behaviours,r dreams, and subconscious.

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT)

DBT is a psychological treatment that utilizes mindfulness. Psychodynamic therapies are types of insight therapies that emphasize the motives of human history and mind experiences.
DBT is a form of therapy that blends individual therapy and group skills training during debt. It is designed to help you learn emotional regulation, interpersonal effectiveness, and problem-solving skills.
DBT therapists employ mindfulness skills, including deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, to reduce anxiety in the present.
Another 2020 study compared CBT to DBT for those diagnosed with GAD among 68 participants. They discovered that CBT led to greater reductions in anxiety and depression, while DBT led to significantly better results when it came to emotional regulation and mindfulness.

IPT (Interpersonal Psychotherapy)

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a treatment that aims to help you with your relationships and how you act in community settings. Although IPT is not specifically an anxiety-busting approach, it can be effective if you have anxiety stemming from your relationships or the way you relate to others.
IPT can help you recognize and resolve problems related to your communication skills and your social functioning, and that can lower your anxiety level or your other mental health issues.

What type of therapy is best for anxiety?

There is no one-size-fits-all therapy for anxiety, and you need to pick the one that is right for you.
For example, if your anxiety is relationship-driven, you might be best suited to IPT. Or maybe you believe unhealed traumas of the past are fueling your anxiety; you might look into psychodynamic therapy.

How does therapy help with anxiety?

People with anxiety tend to respond very well to therapy because of it.

• Recognize and reframe negative thought patterns
• learn healthy coping skills
• Address the underlying issues
• receive support and guidance

Bottom line

If you have anxiety, therapy can help you challenge negative thought patterns and adopt new coping skills.
Psychotherapy, of course, comes in many forms, and depending on the origin of your anxiety, there is likely an effective approach suited specifically to your needs and personal tastes.