The Cognitive Model of Anxiety 57
for automatic threat processing and decrease the activation threshold for threat- related
schemas.
The therapeutic strategy described in this book is theory- driven. In subsequent
chapters we discuss various cognitive restructuring and exposure-based interventions
derived from the cognitive model that can be used to modify the faulty cognitive and
behavioral processes that maintain anxiety. The basic premise is that anxiety reduction
depends on a change in the faulty cognitive processes and structures of anxiety. In the
last part of the book, a disorder- specific cognitive model and treatment protocol is pro-
posed for each of the major anxiety disorders, which draws on the basic propositions
of the generic or “transdiagnostic” model described in this chapter. However before
considering these therapeutic applications, the next two chapters discuss the empirical
support and unresolved issues associated with our cognitive formulation for vulnerabil-
ity and persistence of clinical anxiety.