Acceptance-based behavioral therapies for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)

This chapter present an acceptance-based behavioral therapy (ABBT) that the author's have developed for treating generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and comorbid conditions. It describes the model informing this approach to treatment, drawing from existing research, theory, and clinical experience. The chapter also describes specific clinical strategies to target the mechanisms from the model that are presumed to maintain problem behaviors, providing examples and transcripts from composite cases to help readers think about how they can apply these strategies in their own work. It reviews research supporting and guiding the use of ABBT and related approach for GAD, as well as a brief discussion of directions for future research. Extensive research provides evidence that GAD and other clinical problems are characterized by problematic ways of relating to internal experiences, rather than by the mere occurrence of thoughts, sensations, and/or emotions.