ABSTRACT
When one's clients dispute their irrational beliefs, they can help themselves to strengthen their newly developed rational beliefs by acting as if they already believe them. Thus, if therapist's clients are working to overcome their dire need for approval, they can counteract this irrational belief by disputing it cognitively and by speaking up and saying unpopular things in public. Clients with panic disorder frequently undermine their new rational beliefs in subtle ways. While showing themselves that they can stand their strong feelings of anxiety, such clients can act in subtle ways to reduce their anxiety. For example, they may sit down when they think they might pass out, or they may distract themselves from their symptoms as a way of avoiding their anxious feelings. These subtle manoeuvres serve unwittingly to reinforce these clients' irrational belief that they cannot tolerate intense anxiety since they act as if they cannot tolerate it.
