Anxiety, fear, panic attacks and phobias are undoubtedly one of the topics with which brief strategic therapy is mostly associated due to the long experience in treating these disorders and to the refined and effective level of the intervention.

Those who suffer from high levels of anxiety, from intense fears and panic attacks all share similar coping reaction.

People affected from these disorders usually tend to avoid situations where they know their levels of anxiety will increase. It's a natural tendency we all possess that drives us toward being safe. By escaping these perceived dangerous situations the individual learns to continuously use a strategy that slowly leads him/her to sink into a vicious circle of avoidance, the strategy thus becomes a dysfunctional solution.

In addition to this, those who tend "to avoid" often accompany this behaviour with constant requests for help and protection from relatives and friends. It becomes a dreadful modality of indirectly confirming one's inability to cope with situations alone, it confirms and nourishes the problem.

Another common solution people use to manage these difficulties is the attempt to control ones spontaneous physical reactions.

This is considered by brief strategic therapy as one of the most common behaviours that triggers a paradoxical reaction.

Trying to slow down a fast heartbeat, to calm anxious breathing, to control blushing cheeks or to avoid thinking about personal fears often has the contrary effect of increasing the unwanted physical reaction or of thinking even more about the "fearful situation", with a consequent inevitable feeling of helplessness.

By focusing on these attempted solutions we are capable of devising tailored strategies for provoking that first change that will trigger off a greater chain reaction. Like an avalanche effect, by simply well directing a small snowball we are capable of creating a downpour of change that would otherwise seem impossible.

At present, the efficacy of the advanced treatment model for anxiety, phobia and panic attacks is equal to 95 percent (Nardone, Watzlawick, 2004), over an average of seven sessions, during which the majority of cases (81 percent) overcame their difficulty within the fifth session, half of which showing no traces of the relevant symptoms after the first session.

These disorders include:

• Anxiety and Block of performance

• Panic attacks

• Panic attacks with agoraphobia

• Agoraphobia

• Social Phobia

• Other monophobias

• Hypochondria