ABSTRACT
This chapter considers theoretical developments in Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for anxiety disorders in general or for other specific anxiety disorders, such as social anxiety. General anxiety disorder (GAD) is seen as a disorder defined by pervasive and generalized worrying about virtually everything. Global distress in clients with GAD difficulties also reflects symptoms found in clients with low mood. Interestingly for some clients with GAD, global distress may be subtler and, alongside the anxiety and low mood, one can detect a sense of flatness and indifference. In adult life, self-treatment strategies may be learned strategies concerned with how to deal with distressing triggers, or potentially distressing triggers. The most typical self-treatment strategy is self-criticism or, in its adaptive form, self-coaching. Worrying and self-interruption processes, described in problematic self-treatment, can be also conceptualized as emotional avoidance. Chronic avoidance strategies are thus targeted and chronic vulnerability is overcome through reassessment of the danger and the building of tolerance for uncomfortable experiences.
