What Therapy Is Best For Anxiety?

There are many types of therapy that are used to treat anxiety. There is not one that is considered the best per se. However, there is one form of therapy that is useful for anxiety and is backed by a long history of clinical studies in terms of its efficacy. This form of therapy is known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is designed to be a short-term, skill acquisition-based therapy which changes maladaptive emotional responses to anxiety-inducing stimuli.

There is no one type of CBT though. Think of it as an umbrella term that includes various related therapies such as Cognitive Therapy, Behavioral Therapy, REBT, and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy to name just a few of the more popular versions of CBT. What these forms of CBT all have in common is that they require people to approach what makes them anxious by relearning how they respond to that anxiety-inducing provocation. 

The important concept to keep in mind is that CBT methods are active and not a passive form of therapy. Everyone has seen a movie or television show where the therapist rarely speaks or asks a series of open-ended questions such as how did that make you feel or tell me more about that? Those open-ended questions certainly do have their place, but CBT is far more dynamic. CBT requires the therapist to take on the role of teacher. Clients are taught how to use specific techniques, either behavioral in nature or more belief-based.

CBT therapists will often call these anxiety-reducing techniques: tools. Once a client learns a set of tools, they can take them wherever they go. This is important since people experience anxiety in different situations and circumstances. By having these tools available, they can access them whenever the need arises.

Since there is such a variety when it comes to CBT-based tools, most people can find a few that they like and are effective for them. By using these CBT techniques over and over, the client becomes less reliant on the therapist and is able to overcome their anxiety on their own.