Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that aims to reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, primarily depression, PTSD and anxiety disorders. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on challenging and changing cognitive distortions and their associated behaviors to improve emotional regulation and develop personal coping strategies that target solving current problems. Though it was originally designed to treat depression, its uses have been expanded to include many issues and the treatment of many mental health and other conditions, including anxiety, substance use disorders, marital problems, ADHD, and eating disorders. CBT includes a number of cognitive or behavioral psychotherapies that treat defined psychopathologies using evidence-based techniques and strategies.
Exposure therapy is a technique in behavior therapy to treat anxiety disorders. Exposure therapy involves exposing the patient to the anxiety source or its context. Doing so is thought to help them overcome their anxiety or distress. Numerous studies have demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and specific phobias.
Stanley Jack Rachman was a South African-born psychologist who worked primarily with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders. He spent much of his career based in the UK and Canada.
Adam Scott Radomsky is a Canadian psychologist who studies obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and related anxiety disorders. He is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada, and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry.
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT), also known as NHS Talking Therapies, for anxiety and depression, is a National Health Service initiative to provide more psychotherapy to the general population in England. It was developed and introduced by the Labour Party as a result of economic evaluations by Professor Lord Richard Layard, based on new therapy guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence as promoted by clinical psychologist David M. Clark.
Guided imagery is a mind-body intervention by which a trained practitioner or teacher helps a participant or patient to evoke and generate mental images that simulate or recreate the sensory perception of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, movements, and images associated with touch, such as texture, temperature, and pressure, as well as imaginative or mental content that the participant or patient experiences as defying conventional sensory categories, and that may precipitate strong emotions or feelings in the absence of the stimuli to which correlating sensory receptors are receptive.
PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder, is a psychiatric disorder characterised by intrusive thoughts and memories, dreams or flashbacks of the event; avoidance of people, places and activities that remind the individual of the event; ongoing negative beliefs about oneself or the world, mood changes and persistent feelings of anger, guilt or fear; alterations in arousal such as increased irritability, angry outbursts, being hypervigilant, or having difficulty with concentration and sleep.
Richard McNally is an American psychologist and director of clinical training at Harvard University's department of psychology. As a clinical psychologist and experimental psycho-pathologist, McNally studies anxiety disorders and related syndromes, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive–compulsive disorder, and complicated grief.
Anke Ehlers is a German psychologist and expert in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She is a Fellow of the major science academies of the UK and Germany.
A Bachelor in Clinical Psychology is a type of postgraduate academic bachelor's degree awarded by universities in many countries. This degree is typically studied for in Clinical Psychology.
Safety behaviors are coping behaviors used to reduce anxiety and fear when the user feels threatened. An example of a safety behavior in social anxiety is to think of excuses to escape a potentially uncomfortable situation. These safety behaviors, although useful for reducing anxiety in the short term, might become maladaptive over the long term by prolonging anxiety and fear of nonthreatening situations. This problem is commonly experienced in anxiety disorders. Treatments such as exposure and response prevention focus on eliminating safety behaviors due to the detrimental role safety behaviors have in mental disorders. There is a disputed claim that safety behaviors can be beneficial to use during the early stages of treatment.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a cognitive disorder, which may occur after a traumatic event. It is a psychiatric disorder, which may occur across athletes at all levels of sport participation.
Adrian Wells, CPsychol, is a British clinical psychologist who is the creator of metacognitive therapy. He is Professor of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology at the University of Manchester, U.K. and is also Professor II of Clinical Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
Richard Allan Bryant is an Australian medical scientist. He is Scientia Professor of Psychology at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and director of the UNSW Traumatic Stress Clinic, based at UNSW and Westmead Institute for Medical Research. His main areas of research are posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and prolonged grief disorder. On 13 June 2016 he was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), for eminent service to medical research in the field of psychotraumatology, as a psychologist and author, to the study of Indigenous mental health, as an advisor to a range of government and international organisations, and to professional societies.
John Marzillier is a retired psychotherapist who was described as 'a significant shaper of the profession of clinical psychology' in which he practiced for 37 years.
Stefan G. Hofmann is a German-born clinical psychologist. He is the Alexander von Humboldt Professor and recipient of the LOEWE Spitzenprofessur for Translational Clinical Psychology at the Philipps University of Marburg in Germany, examining Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, especially for anxiety disorders.
Jonathan S. Comer. is an American psychologist who is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Florida International University. He is currently the director of an interdisciplinary clinical research program called the Mental health Interventions and Novel Therapeutics (MINT) Program. The MINT program focuses on improving the quality, scope, and accessibility of mental health care. Comer also serves as director of the Network for Enhancing Wellness in Disaster-Affected Youth, a SAMHSA-funded program in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) that provides trauma-informed training and consultation to youth-serving professionals in disaster-prone and disaster-hit regions. Comer is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a leader in the field of clinical child and adolescent psychology. The author of over 250 scientific papers and chapters, he has received early career awards from the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies for his work. His research has been funded by federal agencies and by several private foundations and non-profit organizations. He has also received funding from the Andrew Kukes Foundation for Social Anxiety.
David H. Barlow is an American psychologist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Psychiatry at Boston University. He is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology. Barlow is known for his research and publications on the etiology, nature, and treatment of anxiety disorders. The models and treatment methods that he developed for anxiety and related disorders are widely used in clinical training and practice. Barlow is one of the most frequently cited psychologists in the world.
Anne Marie Albano is a clinical psychologist known for her clinical work and research on psychosocial treatments for anxiety and mood disorders, and the impact of these disorders on the developing youth. She is the CUCARD professor of medical psychology in psychiatry at Columbia University, the founding director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CUCARD), and the clinical site director at CUCARD of the New York Presbyterian Hospital's Youth Anxiety Center.
Bunmi O. Olatunji is an American psychologist who is Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in Social Sciences at Vanderbilt University. He is Director of the Emotion and Anxiety Research Laboratory and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for the Vanderbilt University Graduate School. Olatunji studies the psychopathology of obsessive–compulsive disorder.
