What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders

"Full of sage advice and enlivened by dozens of client–therapist vignettes, this book is an encyclopaedic sprint through the most common psychological problem in the world. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book is an ideal companion for the non-specialist practitioner.

—Sharon Breen, counsellor-in-training, coach and writer, for Therapy Today

"What Every Therapist Needs to Know about Anxiety Disorders is an exceptionally helpful and well-written book. Authors Seif and Winston, with their combined 70-plus years of experience in treating anxiety disorders, have gathered their enormous wealth of knowledge and experience into a highly readable and immediately applicable volume. Their theories have the solidness that only comes from long practice and research. Of central importance, they explain why many treatments (often standardly accepted) fail while freely sharing interventions they have proven to be successful. Professionals will find it informative and useful; those suffering from this cluster of disorders will be helped as well as feel understood and comforted. If you work with people with anxiety disorders, you need to read this book. If you are someone who suffers from anxiety disorders, you need to read this book. You will be glad you made the investment."

—Babette Rothschild, author of The Body Remembers and 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery

"Anxiety disorders present a myriad of distracting feelings, thoughts, and interpretations. Seif and Winston pull back the curtains to reveal the simple dynamic that maintains all anxieties and worries. You will learn how to persuade clients to drop their ‘get rid of’ mentality and adopt the powerful paradoxical responses that will serve as their ticket out of suffering. Here is the chance to learn from the wisdom of two master clinicians I’ve admired my entire career."

—Reid Wilson, PhD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and author of Don’t Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks.

"As a psychodynamically oriented therapist, I find this book brimming with useful insights and techniques that I can use to help my patients suffer less as they explore and understand themselves. The authors’ profound understanding of the workings of anxiety, based on their long experience, is illuminating and helpful to therapists of any theoretical orientation. Reading this book is like having a private consultation with the experts on anxiety and OCD. Free of jargon, the lucid and user-friendly style will make this book a frequently accessed companion for every therapist who has a sense that there is perhaps more one can do to alleviate patients’ often-crippling anxiety."

—Ruthellen Josselson, PhD, author of Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another.

"You won't feel anxious about working with anxious patients and won't know how much you didn't know about anxiety—yours and your patients—until after you read this book. The authors generously and expertly share their accumulated wisdom in a way that's nuanced, highly informative, and easy to grasp. Though the book is not primarily aimed at psychoanalysts, it is guaranteed to be thought provoking and productive to read because of its applicability to various treatment modalities, its richness, its originality, and its leading-edge approach."

—Sigalit Levy, PhD, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst at theWilliam Alanson White Institute