Goals

Goals (Anxiety)

What is a goal?

A goal is the overall outcome the patient wants to achieve in treatment. It reflects what the patient is working toward and can be written in clinical language or using the patient’s own words when appropriate.

Goals describe what the patient wants to change or improve. Objectives describe how that goal will be achieved and measured over time.

Using the patient’s own language can help improve clarity and engagement, especially when documenting person centered care or working with children and adolescents.

Goal 1: Increase Anxiety Awareness and Symptom Understanding

Client Goal:

I want to better understand my anxiety and what causes it to become worse.

Clinical Focus:

Support the client in identifying anxiety triggers, symptoms, and patterns while increasing understanding of how anxiety affects thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, behaviors, and daily functioning.

Goal 2: Improve Emotional Regulation and Anxiety Management

Client Goal:

I want to learn how to manage my anxiety when I start feeling overwhelmed.

Clinical Focus:

Support the client in developing adaptive coping and regulation strategies to manage anxious thoughts, emotional distress, and physiological symptoms associated with anxiety.

Goal 3: Reduce Avoidance and Increase Tolerance of Anxiety

Client Goal:

I want to stop letting anxiety keep me from doing the things I want to do.

Clinical Focus:

Support the client in identifying avoidance and safety behaviors, increasing tolerance for anxiety and uncertainty, and gradually engaging with situations that have been limited by fear or distress.

Goal 4: Improve Cognitive Flexibility and Reduce Anxiety-Driven Thinking

Client Goal:

I want to stop overthinking and learn how to respond differently to my anxious thoughts.

Clinical Focus:

Support the client in identifying worry, catastrophic thinking, and other anxiety-driven thought patterns while developing more balanced, flexible, and adaptive ways of responding to anxious thoughts.

Goal 5: Increase Confidence and Healthy Engagement in Daily Life

Client Goal:

I want to feel more confident and stop letting anxiety control my life.

Clinical Focus:

Support the client in increasing self-efficacy, engaging in meaningful activities and relationships, and strengthening their ability to function effectively despite experiencing anxiety.

Goals (Anxiety)

• Patient will reduce symptoms of anxiety in order to improve emotional regulation and overall daily functioning.
• Patient will increase ability to tolerate uncertainty and manage worry without significant impairment in daily activities.
• Patient will develop healthy coping strategies to manage anxiety while increasing participation in work, school, social, and family responsibilities.