Which approach combines mindfulness and cognitive restructuring to reduce anxiety?

• A. Exposure therapy.
• B. Mindfulness and Cognitive Restructuring.
• C. Pharmacotherapy.
• D. Psychoanalytic therapy.

Answer: (B)

Combining mindfulness with cognitive restructuring means using present-mocused awareness to notice anxious thoughts and bodily sensations without automatically reacting, then actively questioning and reframing those thoughts to be more accurate and adaptive. Mindfulness helps you observe worry without getting swept up in it, reducing emotional reactivity and breaking the automatic chain of anxious responses. Cognitive restructuring targets the content of the worry—identifying distorted thinking, testing the evidence for and against those thoughts, and generating more balanced interpretations. When you put these together, you first create space to experience anxiety calmly, then work on changing the thoughts that fuel that anxiety. This integrated approach is a hallmark of mindfulness-based cognitive therapies, such as MBCT, which blend awareness practice with cognitive techniques. It’s different from exposure therapy, which centers on gradually facing feared situations; pharmacotherapy, which relies on medications; and psychoanalytic therapy, which focuses on unconscious processes and past experiences rather than structured thought challenging.