ABSTRACT
Relaxation Therapy (RT) involves teaching clients how to purposefully calm themselves and then to use that calm to manage their anxieties. The author's approach to RT is based on Erickson's theories. RT is usually targeted at enabling clients to regain control of the chaotic areas of their psychological being. Clients are shown how to employ a series of muscle and breathing exercises to achieve a state of total physical and mental relaxation. If practiced on a daily basis, this self-administered therapeutic tool is a valuable means of lowering anxiety base-levels generally. It is also an effective self-management technique for attenuating adverse/excessive anxiety responses to stressful stimuli. Some might argue that acquiring RT skills is more akin to psycho-education than psychotherapy. That is why all the author's group RT programs include facilitated time for mutual reflection and sharing. Anxiety affects everybody, everywhere. RT in particular, is a flexible, non-threatening, therapeutic modality, it is applicable to anybody anywhere.
