After recently attending Anxiety and ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention ) training, which looked at using ERP to help clients who struggle with general anxiety, panic, OCD, social anxiety and phobias, I delved into the origins of this type of therapy.
ERP looks at our thoughts and behaviours when experiencing anxiety, and takes a lot of it's elements from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). These therapies say that we can question our thoughts, challenge them and look for the evidence of negative thoughts, but we can also choose to face and accept that our thoughts and feelings are there - giving them less power.
This mindful-like behaviour is something that was spoken about back in 1991 when Dr Claire Weekes, an Australian GP and mental health writer, published her book Hope and Help for your Nerves.
Although by today's standards the book is a little brash and clinical in it's presentation and placement of the 'sufferer', so much of it holds true for many of today's therapies. Mindfulness, a seemingly new idea, speaks of not hiding away or fighting our feelings and thoughts, but in fact, accepting that they are there. This is a large part of Weekes' method. We all experience difficult thoughts and feelings, but we can let these pass and know that they will always pass.
Weekes talks of four simple steps, which seems to be the basis for her model:
Face Accept Float Let Time Pass
Face: Can we face our thoughts and feelings during times of distress? However uncomfortable it might be, can we not run away from them?
Accept: Can we accept our anxiety - can we stop resisting and fighting it?
Float: Fear of our own anxiety is often larger than the actual thing that made us anxious in the first place. Can we see this fear and face it, accept it, and float past it anyway? There is peace in not fighting it.
Time: Time is important - there are no shortcuts when dealing with anxiety - learning to accept this is a part of the process.
Here is one quote that stuck with me from this book, which I think defines Weekes' view quite well:
"When the mind rests with relief from fear, decisions will be more easily made"
Our mind can rest when we accept ourselves, truly as we are. This is a part of all counselling and therapy, and for some clients, may be a pivotal moment in lessening their suffering.
When we give fear less power, it is powerless.
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