How CBT Works
One of the therapies that I could use in our sessions is CBT.
Ever notice that two people can think of exactly the same situation in very different ways? Someone afraid of dogs is going to respond very differently to seeing one run towards them than to someone who loves them. Similarly, starting a new job may lead to feelings of excitement and anticipation in one person and fear and dread in the next. Here we can already start to see the importance of our thoughts, how they influence our feelings and consequently our behaviour.
These are the principles that underlie CBT. Want to change your thoughts, feelings, behaviour or even feelings in your body? Then we need to understand the other elements of the quadrant.
Although we may acknowledge what factors have led you to this point, CBT focuses largely on how these four elements are keeping your problems going, rather than events of the past.
CBT is a really well researched therapy. It has been shown to be an effective way of treating a number of different mental health conditions including depression, many types of anxiety, PTSD and low self-esteem.
What Does It Involve?
CBT is a very collaborative approach. In this way ultimately you become your own therapist.
Therapy also varies depending on the difficulty you want help with. The sessions may include:
- breaking down your problems into their separate parts, such as your thoughts, physical feelings and actions so that you really understand what is keeping your problems going.
- designing the subsequent therapy together
- testing out for example your beliefs or behaviours and their impact.
- practising your new skills
- exploring any challenges together
- if the focus we trauma we may use a technique called ‘reliving’ to help your brain process past events.
John’s Story
John was bullied at school and had a hard time from his dad at home. Later in life he noticed that although he was progressing well professionally, socially he felt anxious and uncomfortable.
In therapy John worked on understanding his difficulties and particularly the factors that were maintaining his anxiety. Once he was clearer on this he understood what he needed to do to break the pattern. In therapy he designed experiments to test out new ways of doing things.
John was able to drop his ‘safety behaviours’ of not accepting invites to bigger social events and drinking a lot if he did go out. This gave him evidence to challenge his beliefs that he would be laughed at if he was his true self. John left therapy feeling much more confident in social situations.