Brief Therapy for Excessive Worry: Treatment Model, Feasibility, and Acceptability of a New Treatment

Excessive and uncontrolled worry is a cognitive phenomenon of repetitive thought activity regarding potentially negative future events. This phenomenon is accompanied primarily by anxiety. The current study aimed to test a new, 4-session, brief therapy model for excessive worry. This model is based on the third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and narrative approaches. The model views both dysfunctional aspects and perceived functional aspects of worrying as playing a crucial role in its development and maintenance. Accordingly, therapy attempts to integrate both aspects into one coherent therapeutic narrative. The aim of the therapy is to help the client find an adaptive way to accept and preserve worry’s positive role, as well as reduce functional impairments. Thirty-one participants with excessive worry were randomly assigned to immediate treatment or to a waitlist/control group. Results indicated a significant reduction in distress caused by worrying, in the tendency to worry, and in the general symptom level at the end of treatment and upon follow-up. In addition, there was an improvement with regard to the extent of seeing worry as having a positive role in one’s life. Potential advantages of this new brief therapy model and directions for future research also are discussed.