Attention Training Technique (ATT), Made Practical

Rebuilding voluntary attention control to break the anxiety maintenance cycle

What is the Attention Training Technique and how does it reduce anxiety?

The Attention Training Technique (ATT), developed by Adrian Wells, is a structured auditory exercise that rebuilds voluntary control over where attention goes — directly countering the self-focused, threat-locked attention that sustains anxiety and health anxiety. Randomised trials support its effectiveness as a standalone and as part of Metacognitive Therapy.

Anxiety locks attention — on threat cues, on bodily sensations, on what could go wrong. ATT was designed not to change the content of anxious thinking but to restore the attentional flexibility that anxiety erodes. The twelve-minute protocol trains three distinct attentional skills — selective focus, rapid shifting, and divided attention — using environmental sounds as anchors rather than the breath, which avoids the self-focused absorption that can inadvertently feed health anxiety. It is practised as a skill rather than a relaxation exercise.