Terence Watts new book “Anxiety Gone with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy” presents anxiety as an essential survival mechanism rooted in the brains ancient reptilian complex rather than a personal flaw. This perspective shifts mental health approaches away from traditional coping strategies towards direct interventions that update outdated threat patterns enabling faster relief for conditions such as panic attacks phobias and post traumatic stress. The findings suggest healthcare practitioners and individuals could benefit from neuroscience informed methods that enhance wellbeing by working with the brains biology instead of abstract concepts.
Anxiety levels in the UK remain high despite decades of advice on coping strategies. Figures show the proportion of 16 to 64 year olds identified with common mental health conditions rose from 18.9% in 2014 to 22.6% in 2023–2024. Mental health charity Mind reports that one in five people in England experience a common mental health problem such as anxiety or depression in any given week.
Psychotherapist Terence Watts argues that most approaches to treating anxiety are working in the wrong place. His newly published book, Anxiety Gone!: with BrainWorking Recursive Therapy, proposes that anxiety is not a flaw in human psychology but an essential survival mechanism. In evolutionary terms, it exists to keep us alive.
A different starting point
The book builds on BrainWorking Recursive Therapy (BWRT), the psychological model Watts developed in 2011 and introduced professionally in 2013. Published by The International BWRT Institute, BWRT is now used by trained practitioners around the world, including psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists and psychiatrists, as well as within several police forces and military units, particularly for the rapid resolution of PTSD.
Central to the book is the concept of the reptilian complex, a term coined by neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean in the 1960s to describe an ancient part of the brain that reacts to threat before conscious thought gets a look in. Watts uses this as the neurological foundation of BWRT, arguing that many forms of anxiety are survival responses based on patterns the brain learned long ago rather than what is actually happening now.
“The reptilian complex does not do time,” Watts writes. “If something felt dangerous at five years old, it may still be treated as dangerous decades later, unless something intervenes to update that pattern. That is not weakness or irrationality. It is just how the brain works.”
Rethinking the subconscious
Watts also challenges a concept central to most modern therapy models. He points out that the term “subconscious” was coined by psychologist Pierre Janet in the 1890s, a time, as Watts puts it, “before planes flew or women were allowed to vote,” and argues that it has shaped almost every therapy model developed since without being seriously questioned. He proposes that what Janet called the subconscious is actually the physical brain itself, and that working with something real and biological is more effective than working with an abstract concept. BWRT does not try to talk the brain out of anxiety. It goes straight to the source.
Structured self-help alongside explanation
What sets Anxiety Gone! apart from much of the anxiety literature currently available is that it is not simply a collection of coping strategies. The book combines explanations of BWRT concepts with structured self-help exercises, guiding readers through techniques adapted from professional practice. Watts draws on his experience working with anxiety in a wide range of presentations:
- Panic attacks and phobias
- Health anxiety and obsessive-compulsive presentations
- Posttraumatic stress and agoraphobia
- Social anxiety and generalised anxiety disorder
The tone remains accessible throughout. While the book is positioned as a self-help adaptation rather than a substitute for professional therapy, Watts makes clear it can still provide meaningful change for many readers.
Public interest in brain-based explanations of mental health has grown steadily, particularly among those looking for alternatives to purely cognitive approaches. Anxiety Gone! offers a perspective on why anxiety can feel so automatic and why changing it may require working with the brain differently.
