The Role of Motivation in Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapy for Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders are considered a chronic condition, associated to worse and impaired quality of life. Despite the efficacy of Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders, some patients do not have enough motivation for treatment. Patient’s motivation is evaluated as a state of readiness for change prior to the treatment that is subject to high fluctuations influenced by interactions between patient characteristics and psychotherapeutic process. Then, motivation could be considered a way of directing attention to elicit the patients’ desire for their behavior changes in the best interest of their health and well-being. Strategies like Motivational Interviewing (MI), Thought Mapping (TM) and psychoeducation were developed to make the individuals understand their own motivations and to reduce ambivalence about changing a particular behavior.