It is possible to gain control over one’s thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and behavioral responses by noticing automatic reactions to various types of events. From years of repetition, the responses seem justified, but they are actually arbitrary choices. It takes quite a lot of concentration to recognize that it is a mental choice….
Let It Go
Releasing negative beliefs, thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and conditions can be marvelously exhilarating! However, changing one aspect of your life (or many aspects) brings about other unexpected changes. Some might be welcome and others quite surprising. Methods of Letting Go It might take a bit of trial and error to find ways of…
Distorted Parental Patterns
Dr. Daniel Siegel describes several patterns of functional and dysfunctional parenting that establish later responses akin to PTSD. The first group is children who are fortunate enough to have secure relationships with responsive parents (about two-thirds). In these cases, the little child cries when the parent leaves, but settles down to explore…
Where Do Our Children Get Those Behaviors?
One realizes intuitively the moment the question is asked that behaviors, even difficult or challenging ones, are learned. Johnny doesn’t come out of the womb prepared to have a tantrum in the toy store. Little by little, the responses are layered on, and sometimes it takes a few years before families realize…
Mental Health Stresses of Adolescence
The adolescent years are challenging even in relatively problem-free famiies. All bets are off, and what had been true for ten or eleven years is suddenly not true. The well-behaved child now questions every directive, forgets chores, and loses homework. The good-natured, sweet girl now tortures her younger sister and screams at…
How CBT Was Born
Mary Cover Jones used behavior therapy with fearful children in the 1920s, and in the late 1930s, an American psychiatrist, Abraham Low, used cognitive training for psychiatric aftercare of patients following their release from hospitals. One can see that the threads of what later became CBT were separate during the early years…
Is your mental health damaging your life?
Can you imagine a life in which you turn away from negative news in the environment and avoid monopolizing the conversation with long litanies concerning your life’s dark pitfalls? If you can imagine such an existence, you may be on the cusp of moving away from negativity. The decision is yours and…
Goals and Outcomes of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In order for you to get the most out of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you will need specific goals instead of vague hopes. For example, if you’re unhappy and want to be happy, it will be difficult to know what you need to work on specifically. If you have spent considerable time with…