OVERCOMING ANXIETY by David Berndt, PhD (Book Blitz plus Excerpt)

 

 

Overcoming Anxiety

By

David Berndt, PhD

Genre: Mental Health, Self-help
Released July 27, 2015; 188 pages

Book Blurb

The good news is that anxiety can be overcome without relying on medication. Psychologist David Berndt, Ph.D., in Overcoming Anxiety outlines several self-help methods for relief for anxiety and worry. In clear simple language and a conversational style. Dr. Berndt shares with the reader powerful step by step proven techniques for anxiety management.

You will learn:

• A Self-hypnosis grounding technique in the Ericksonian tradition.
• Box Breathing, Seven Eleven and similar breathing techniques for anxiety relief.
• How to stop or interrupt toxic thoughts that keep you locked in anxiety.
• How to harness and utilize your worries, so they work for you.
• Relief from anxiety through desensitization and exposure therapy.

Designed to be used alone as self-help or in conjunction with professional treatment Dr. Berndt draws upon his experience as a clinician and academic researcher to give accessible help to the reader who wants to understand and manage their anxiety.

 

 

 

Author Bio

David J. Berndt, Ph.D. was an Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago where he published or presented over 80 papers and articles before establishing a private practice. Dr Berndt currently lives in Charleston, S.C. where he also teaches in an adjunct capacity at the College of Charleston. He is best known for his psychological tests TheMultiscore Depression Inventory, and the Multiscore Depression Inventory for Children, both from Western Psychological Services. He also contributes to several psychology websites including www.psychologyknowledge.com.

Praise for Dr. Berndt’s work

About Overcoming Anxiety

“Dr. Berndt is a creative and forward-thinking psychologist who has contributed to advancing psychology both with his research and clinical practice. He has helped countless patients with their depression and anxiety, and his conversational and accessible style of writing makes Overcoming Anxiety a book you would want for your top shelf."- Charles Kaiser, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the College of Charleston

Links  

Website: http://psychologyknowledge.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/authorfriendly

Facebook: https://facebook.com/DavidJohnBerndt

Blog: http://authorfriendly.wordpress.com
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YVE4J30


EXCERPT

As a clinical psychologist who works every day with clients to help them find ways to navigate their anxiety, I have had the privilege of teaching, developing, and refining, with the feedback and input of my clients, several useful anxiety management tools. Many of the techniques stand on the shoulders of my peers and mentors. In addition to providing a strategy for anxiety relief, several of the skills introduced in this book also are applicable to managing worries, panic, and dread.

Anxiety medication can sometimes be helpful as well, but medication interventions are not the focus in these pages. Indeed, anxiety medication, while effective in treating anxious feelings, serves as a support in much the way a leg brace can help hold an injured knee steady. The aim of psychotherapy, to continue this metaphor, is more akin to working on stretching and exercising leg muscles so that you can regain balance and walk normally again without external support. The strategies and exercises in Overcoming Anxiety have been very helpful when implemented by my clients, and these tools can help you to deal with anxiety if you adopt and modify some of the ideas.

Of course the support and feedback of a trusted therapist who can fine-tune these and other strategies is a good idea, and a good therapist can see your problems with a fresh set of eyes. A therapist brings the wisdom of practical experience helping people like you, and having one as an ally is nearly always better than going it alone, or relying solely on pills.

The first five chapters explore various techniques from which you can draw, and once you have understood and mastered them, I encourage you to combine, customize, or borrow from the various procedures so they become tailor-made for you, and your unique situation.

For those who want to gain a better grasp of anxiety as a disorder of the brain and body, I have followed these early chapters with some educational material in Chapter Six; if you need to know more about the biological and neurophysiological components of anxiety you might want to skip to those materials, where I discuss these aspects in a way that I hope is accessible. Each chapter can be read independently, however the information may be easier to understand when read in sequence.

The methods discussed in Overcoming Anxiety do not focus exclusively on cognitive behavioral therapies for anxiety. In that distinction, it differs from most of the modern books on anxiety, especially those in the self-help literature. Some useful cognitive techniques are discussed and relied upon throughout the book, especially in Chapter Five, which is drawn, although with some creative license, from the cognitive approaches most commonly recommended to anxious patients, whether in the self-help or mental health literature.

The earlier chapters tend to explore tools drawn from a variety of therapeutic approaches. More than anything, the methods introduced in the first five chapters were selected because I wanted to share with you the approaches that my patients and I have found most helpful in the trenches.