CBT and What It Can Do for You

Firstly, what does CBT even mean and when do therapists make use of this technique?

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment that has been proven to be effective for a range of problems including depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug use problems, marital problems, eating disorders, and severe mental illness. A large body of research studies suggest that CBT leads to significant improvement in functioning and quality of life. In many studies, CBT has been demonstrated to be as effective as, or more effective than, other forms of psychological therapy or psychiatric medications.

CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy, and it is a very logical, and practical tool in the hands of a skilled therapist to assist someone in dealing for example with anxiety.

It aims to change our thought patterns, our conscious and unconscious beliefs, our attitudes, and, ultimately, our behavior, to help us face difficulties and achieve our goals.

CBT is a hands-on approach that requires both the therapist and the client to be invested in the process and willing to actively participate. The therapist and client work together as a team to identify the problems the client is facing, come up with strategies for addressing them, and creating positive solutions (Martin, 2016).

What that means basically is that it will help you understand the ways in which you think about certain issues and replace those ways with healthier and anxiety reducing ways of thinking.

There are about 15 unhelpful ways of thinking that is identified in the process, and by becoming aware of them you can learn to alter your patterns of thinking, and so create a more calm and rational way of thinking, that will in turn help you to not get emotionally hijacked and stay regulated more often.

They are:

-Black and white thinking
-Filtering
-Overgeneralization
-Jumping to conclusions
-Catastrophizing
-Personalizing
-Control fallacies
-Fallacy of fairness
-Blaming
-Emotional reasoning
-Global labeling
-Fallacy of change
-Always being right
-Heavens reward fallacy

By becoming aware of these ways of thinking once creates awareness of it, and by doing to can make a choice and a practice not to use those ways of thinking and replace it with more effective styles of thinking.

The tools used to create the awareness and make the alterations are:

-Journaling
-Nightmare exposure and rescripting
-Progressive muscle relaxation
-Playing the script out till the end
-Unraveling the distortions
-Relaxed breathing exercises
-Cognitive restructuring
-Interoceptive exposure
-Exposure and response prevention

Each of these tools can be used to assist the person in literally re-thinking the way in which they are thinking, to help them get to a place of better emotional control and a calmer, more at ease way of functioning.

Like with most therapy methods, this relies strongly on the client’s willingness and dedication to practice and re- learn, new ways of thinking. The level to which the client is going to be willing to practice and work at their thinking patters is what will determine the success…it is important to note this is the case for most therapeutic and coaching methods.

The above-mentioned tools and awareness practices are not by any mean the complete CBT toolkit, it can be used in an array of very creative and client specific ways. CBT places an emphasis on helping individuals learn to be their own therapists. Through exercises in the session as well as “homework” exercises outside of sessions, patients/clients are helped to develop coping skills, whereby they can learn to change their own thinking, problematic emotions, and behavior.

Ultimately, one of the most powerful things about CBT is that it can give you hope.

It is inherently optimistic. It teaches you to believe that change is possible and that you have the power to effect change in your life.

Frida Willis is a registered Psychotherapist and coach and can be reached at hello@thinkology.co.za