Author and psychotherapist Ilene S. Cohen, Ph.D., does not disappoint in her book, ANXIOUS FOR ANSWERS: The surprising truth about anxiety, and how you can master it for good!, framing anxiety as natural and present in everyone, with evolutionary origins necessary for our survival as a species. Dr. Cohen then introduces the Bowen Family Systems Theory, a framework for understanding anxiety in the context of reader’s immediate and ancestral family. She goes on to explain how relationships, especially in one’s family of origin, are the root cause of anxiety, but also the place where one can best learn to manage the issue.
In the chapter “Changing Your Family Legacy of Trauma,” Dr. Coden describes fascinating research in epigenetics, a “modification of gene expression…that shows we can carry the burden of anxiety from early life adversity, as well as from our family history.” In another chapter, she explores natural remedies, such as exercise, yoga, meditation, herbs, foods and aromatherapy, that may serve to lessen one’s anxiety. Dr. Cohen concludes with a chapter on why growing the mature self is crucial to managing the problem. Also included in ANXIOUS FOR ANSWERS is an extensive bibliography and index, and each chapter has a summary and one or more exercises that allow the reader to apply the chapter’s theme to their own lives.
Dr. Cohen states she herself has suffered from chronic anxiety most of her life and finding Bowen Family Systems Theory was a watershed moment in her management of it. She writes with compassion as someone who understands the condition, as she gently encourages the reader on their own path to health. The book is extremely easy to read and understand, notwithstanding a few missteps in editing, i.e., not using numbered footnotes to associate the points she makes with the research sources in the bibliography.
Approaching the treatment of chronic anxiety through the lens of Bowen Family Systems Theory in her book ANXIOUS FOR ANSWERS, psychotherapist Ilene S. Cohen, Ph.D., writes with compassion and confidence in the reader’s ability to manage the problem successfully.
~Susan Scheck for IndieReader