Population ageing and slower economic growth have raised serious questions about the willingness and ability of governments to maintain current social policies. Within this new reality, discussions on the future of public pensions have been predominant in political debates across Europe. This book explains why certain countries have been able to radically transform their pension system while others have simply altered parameters. To answer this question an extensive comparative analysis, including more than 60 interviews, was conducted in Belgium, France, Sweden and the UK. This empirical data provides an interesting contrast between reforms. Parametric reforms have stemmed from the creation of pension administrations outside the traditional state apparatus in France and Belgium and the resulting inclusion of social partners; while the state administrations of Sweden and the UK where debates have been internalised have led to programmatic reforms.
Two controversial findings of this book include an explanation for the lack of influence on the part of the labour movement in the 1994/98 Swedish reform and a rejection of arguments claiming that policy change will be minimal with coalition governments. Finally the conclusion seeks to extend the applicability of the model to other industrialized countries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, specifically social policy, political economy, the welfare state and comparative politics.
Table of Contents:
1. Why Details Make a Difference 2. The Basics 3. A Contemporary View of Anxiety Disorders 4. The Therapeutic Attitude of Acceptance 5. Getting Started 6. Techniques Your Patients Have Probably Already Tried and Misunderstood: What They Are and How to Make Them Helpful 7. Diagnoses: An Annotated Tour of the Anxiety Disorders 8. Exposure: The Active Ingredient 9. The Curious Case of Worry 10. Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: All Bark and No Bite 11. Classic Pitfalls: Common Mistakes Non-Specialists Make 12. Another View of Resistance: Issues that Interfere with Treatment 13. Some Hard-to-Treat Problems: A New Perspective 14. Relapse Prevention Appendix 1. Additional Metaphors Appendix 2. A Summary of the Labeling Process That Can Be Given to Patients Appendix 3. How to Learn Diaphragmatic Breathing Appendix 4. Anxiety Diary
About the Author :
Martin N. Seif, PhD, ABPP, cofounded the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and was a member of its board of directors from 1977 through 1991. Dr. Seif is associate director of the Anxiety and Phobia Treatment Center at White Plains Hospital and a faculty member of New York Presbyterian Hospital/Cornell Medical School. He maintains a private practice in Manhattan and Greenwich, Connecticut, and leads Freedom to Fly, an airport-based program for fearful fliers.
Sally Winston, PsyD, cofounded the Anxiety and Stress Disorders Institute of Maryland, where she is codirector. She is the inaugural recipient of the Jerilyn Ross Award of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and has decades of experience treating patients, training therapists, and advocating for public awareness of anxiety disorders and advances in their treatment. She has given training workshops in the US, Canada, Asia, and Africa.
Review :
"Full of sage advice and enlivened by dozens of client–therapist vignettes, this book is an encyclopaedic sprint through the most common psychological problem in the world. Written in a clear and accessible style, the book is an ideal companion for the non-specialist practitioner.
—Sharon Breen, counsellor-in-training, coach and writer, for Therapy Today
"What Every Therapist Needs to Know about Anxiety Disorders is an exceptionally helpful and well-written book. Authors Seif and Winston, with their combined 70-plus years of experience in treating anxiety disorders, have gathered their enormous wealth of knowledge and experience into a highly readable and immediately applicable volume. Their theories have the solidness that only comes from long practice and research. Of central importance, they explain why many treatments (often standardly accepted) fail while freely sharing interventions they have proven to be successful. Professionals will find it informative and useful; those suffering from this cluster of disorders will be helped as well as feel understood and comforted. If you work with people with anxiety disorders, you need to read this book. If you are someone who suffers from anxiety disorders, you need to read this book. You will be glad you made the investment."
—Babette Rothschild, author of The Body Remembers and 8 Keys to Safe Trauma Recovery
"Anxiety disorders present a myriad of distracting feelings, thoughts, and interpretations. Seif and Winston pull back the curtains to reveal the simple dynamic that maintains all anxieties and worries. You will learn how to persuade clients to drop their ‘get rid of’ mentality and adopt the powerful paradoxical responses that will serve as their ticket out of suffering. Here is the chance to learn from the wisdom of two master clinicians I’ve admired my entire career."
—Reid Wilson, PhD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and author of Don’t Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks.
"As a psychodynamically oriented therapist, I find this book brimming with useful insights and techniques that I can use to help my patients suffer less as they explore and understand themselves. The authors’ profound understanding of the workings of anxiety, based on their long experience, is illuminating and helpful to therapists of any theoretical orientation. Reading this book is like having a private consultation with the experts on anxiety and OCD. Free of jargon, the lucid and user-friendly style will make this book a frequently accessed companion for every therapist who has a sense that there is perhaps more one can do to alleviate patients’ often-crippling anxiety."
—Ruthellen Josselson, PhD, author of Playing Pygmalion: How People Create One Another.
"You won't feel anxious about working with anxious patients and won't know how much you didn't know about anxiety—yours and your patients—until after you read this book. The authors generously and expertly share their accumulated wisdom in a way that's nuanced, highly informative, and easy to grasp. Though the book is not primarily aimed at psychoanalysts, it is guaranteed to be thought provoking and productive to read because of its applicability to various treatment modalities, its richness, its originality, and its leading-edge approach."
—Sigalit Levy, PhD, clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst at theWilliam Alanson White Institute
