David Barlow, Ph.D. on the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorders

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "David H. Barlow, Ph.D. on the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorders", posted January 15, 2008. Dr. Van Nuys interviews David Barlow, Ph.D. a highly influential clinical psychologist and psychotherapy researcher well known for his seminal work on anxiety and panic disorders. In this interview, Dr. Barlow talks about some of the knowledge that research over the last several decades has taught us about the nature of the anxiety disorders. Among the important insights are these: 1) anxiety and fear are distinct emotions, 2) anxiety and panic are fundamentally distinct though related problems, 3) The older exposure-based treatments for anxiety disorders don't work well. What does work well is to work with people's avoidance of their emotions and emotional experiences; not so much their avoidance of situations. One current project Barlow is working on is a unified model for how to do effective therapy with all of the emotional disorders. In order to do this right, it is necessary to cross old boundaries between therapy schools and incorporate behavioral, psychodynamic and humanistic techniques in a systematic fashion. Barlow predicts that in the future the historic distinctions between these schools of psychotherapy will become more or less irrelevant as research based treatments focus on what works, not where it came from.