ABOUT CBT
About CBT
WHAT IS CBT?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the therapy of choice for many common conditions such as depression, addictions, low self-esteem, phobias and other anxiety disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder and generalised anxiety. Different things work for different people but the reasons why I like CBT are as follows:
It is focused on the
“here and now”. We can’t change our past and we have no idea what the future holds so what’s the point in living in either. The here and now is all we have. Focusing on this moment right now brings a lot of calm to the mind as it tends to be our worries about the future or regrets about the past that cause much of our anxiety. Focusing on this moment in time is much more manageable than trying to deal with every possible outcome in the future and regretful situation in the past all at once!
It is
goal oriented – If you don’t have a specific goal to work on, how can you focus your efforts? People who attend therapy do so because they want to change something in their life. Goals help us identify what we want to change and work towards it. This might sound contradictory to the last point but let me explain. Although a goal is focused at some point in the future, the most important aspect of setting a goal is deciding what steps you can take today to move closer to it.
It is
measurable, therefore you will know how far along the road you have travelled and if it is working for you or not. There is nothing more motivating than recognising how far you have already come and that you are capable of change even when you didn’t think you were.
It is
educational. It gives you a toolbox of techniques that you will always have, whenever you meet another blip in the road.
With all this in mind, we can start to change the negative patterns in our life by looking at the relationship between 5 important factors:
• the situation or environment we find ourselves in
• thoughts
• behaviour
• emotions
• physical sensations
If we can change one of these factors, it will have an impact on the others. Sometimes we cannot control the situation but we can change our own thoughts or behaviours. Some people are more in tune with one aspect than another so we need to build our awareness of each factor. For example, someone very in tune with physical sensations in their body may find it easier to practice relaxation and get their body under control which will automatically slow things down to deal with negative thoughts or impact on our emotions by making us feel calmer rather than anxious or scared. Some people are very tuned into their internal chatter or thoughts that pop into their head so find it easiest to start by challenging them which has a knock on effect on how we then behave and feel.
CBT is often criticised for being overly optimistic but, in fact, it teaches us to be
realistic.Our brains are set up to find the negatives and look out for the threat in every situation but being overly negative is no more beneficial than being overly positive. Realism is the ideal mind-set because negativity only serves to keep you stuck in a rut and feeling bad about yourself. CBT will help you challenge your current way of thinking to help you move towards a more fulfilling life.
