Contents of It's not All in Your Head by Asmundson and Taylor

identification and reattribution of dysfunctional assumptions, and relapse prevention
(Warwick & Salkovskis, 2001).
CBT treatments for health anxiety include behavioural therapies that help clients
to identify maladaptive behaviours and replace them with healthy and adaptive ones
(Furer & Walker, 2005). The behavioural components of CBT involve techniques such as
in vivo exposure, systematic desensitization, and ERP that are effective for changing
maladaptive behaviours (Bouman & Visser, 1998). There is ample evidence that exposure
to feared stimuli can reduce anxiety (Furer & Walker, 2005). In the treatment of health
anxiety, individuals are exposed to various disease- and death-related stimuli and various
somatic sensations. Behavioural experiments are used to establish that some feared
catastrophe will not happen and to understand the importance of maintaining factors and
negative thinking identified during assessment (Warwick & Salkovskis, 2001). They are
also used to test alternative strategies and distorted beliefs about health and disease
(Warwick & Salkovskis, 2001).
Psychoeducation is an integral part of CBT in that it provides information to
people that challenge their irrational beliefs and faulty knowledge. Psychoeducation is
―the provision of information about the client‘s disorder and its treatment, presented
clearly in verbal, written, or video formats‖ (Asmundson & Taylor, 2004, p. 69).
Psychoeducation may include lectures, demonstrations, focused group discussions, brief
exercises, and optional homework assignments (Taylor et al., 2005). This method of
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