Anxiety, Panic, Fears: Can Cognitive Behavioral Therapy "Cure" You? 

The source of worry and anxiety is fear; and fear is an emotional experience that needs healing.

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Have you ever had an anxiety or panic attack, or a bit of social anxiety and found that you could THINK it away?

Cognitive or cognitions are about thinking! Only rarely can we talk ourselves out of being afraid or anxious.

Although cognitive and behavioral techniques are helpful in healing, they do not  acknowledge the other critical issues of anxiety: that fear is at the root of the disorder and fear is an emotion or feeling.

Feelings have a physical component and the physical toll of negative emotions can lead to long term damage to the heart and other organs. Negative coping behaviors like over eating or smoking can also cause physical damage.

As a mental health counselor I first help my clients reframe their anxiety into "the fear factor".

I explain to them that the source of worry and anxiety is fear and that fear is an emotional experience that needs healing.  Once they understand the fear problem and that the fear is actually lodged in their brain somewhere, we begin the process of releasing the fear.

I like to use a technique called EMDR (eye movement desensitization and repossessing). It works wonders with fear.

Once we minimize the fear with EMDR we can then control it with cognitive and behavioral methods.