Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Anxiety Disorders

Cognitive= of the mind, or the thought processes
Behavioral= pertaining to one's behavior
Therapy= healing
At least that's how I broke it down for myself when the staff at the children's OCD clinic at Yale told me that my son would be a great candidate. It meant no medication, which was the direction we wanted to go in (not that I am opposed to medication, it's just not the place I wanted to start) and it meant most likely giving my son a set of tools that he could take with him throughout the course of his life, whether or not his anxiety again reached unmanageable proportions.

It meant he wouldn't have to try and work out his issues through play therapy, which we all agreed he was too old for, nor lay upon a couch, Freudian style, to be inappropriately analyzed in ways that just didn't seem necessary.
From the start, what appealed to me about CBT was its practicality, it's every day-ness, it's usefulness. For starters, there is a limit on how long someone sees their therapist. There is work to be done and once it feels to the patient and the therapist that it is actually done, they say goodbye. There is "Homework" which means that a patient is expected to take responsibility for the thoughts and feelings which occur, and to actually practice the ideas and techniques put into place during the therapy sessions to report on for the next session. There is an emphasis on the relationship, or rapport between the therapist and the patient - so that even if transference and counter transference occur, the good feeling between them is valued and emphasized. For a more detailed description of CBT, please follow this link: http://www.nacbt.org/whatiscbt.htm
and for the national headquarters, follow this link: http://www.nacbt.org/
There is no quick fix to any disorder. That being said, checking out CBT may be an empowering first step in dealing with anxiety or related disorders. The fact that your mind, which is giving you so much trouble, can also be the key to talking yourself out of it, can be quite liberating. My son isn't "fixed" but he believes in himself a whole lot more than he did six months ago, and that's worth more than any version of perfection I can imagine.

Aimee Boyle is the mother of two long-haired, blue-eyed boys and a special education teacher. She is a regular contributor to EmpowHER.

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• Anxiety
• Wellness