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 yourself and various spiritual and therapeutic helpers in fine-tuning your desires, it is more likely that this approach can bring about some good results.
Responsible Self-Monitoring
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help you fine-tune your awareness of the thoughts, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors that create your life as it is today. You can more or less become your own watchdog or gatekeeper, catching yourself as you begin to go down a habitual primrose lane that has previously brought nothing but poor results. You can benefit from this approach if you want to stand a little taller, literally and figuratively, joining the ranks of full adulthood, leaving behind all the baggage that has, up until now, paralyzed your development.
Goals of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In CBT, you will learn to distinguish between thoughts and emotions.
You might think you already know how to do this, but in fact, many people are rather blurry in their understanding of the differences between the two.
Sometimes in arguments or discussions a person says, “I feel that …” when what is meant is, “I think that…”
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you will learn about your automatic thoughts, those deeply held premises that regulate your daily existence. You may not think you have any such automatic thoughts, but you do. Otherwise, every day would start from ground zero, and be composed of an impossible amount of thoughts and choices. An example of an automatic thought is
“People should obey the law.” Another is “It is important that everyone like me at all times.” One can surmise already that the first thought is beneficial and the second one is not.
You will learn which of your automatic thoughts are not useful to you, possibly even biased and harmful. Carefully you will analyze and discard thoughts that are not helpful and create new ones that positively affect your present life. You will learn how to interrupt the automatic thoughts that have, until now, orchestrated your existence, and replace them with thoughts that are more beneficial in creating a happy life.
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you will learn how you have conditioned yourself to cope with certain fears and anxieties by avoiding the situations and thereby restricting your life. CBT sessions help you face those difficulties and, with support, recondition yourself so that you no longer need to avoid what was previously perceived as being quite scary. You will learn that temporary negative emotions in connection with what was feared are not dangerous, and that eventually they fade.
You will learn which of your thoughts, beliefs, and emotions are mal-adaptive, causing difficulties in your life. You may discover some of the origins of those roots, but large amounts of time will not be spent on the past.
Instead, you will become aware and change what has not been working to your benefit.
It is a daunting task to remodel your mind, but the benefits are worth the efforts of facing surprises and resistance along the way. At times, you might feel scared and believe that it is simply too difficult, but the freedom from habitual anxieties, fears, and outdated behaviors will bring a newfound exhilaration.
Related Techniques
Many approaches are available to the cognitive-behavioral therapist. Different interventions include the use of imagery, guided relaxation, exposure to the feared stimuli, restructuring negative self-talk, and creative adaptation to constraining circumstances. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy may be focused and short-term, helping a client to overcome a certain situation, such as fear of flying in airplanes. Over a period of weeks, the therapist and client work on certain structured steps to bring about the result of feeling relaxed and safe while flying.
What Can I Expect?
The cognitive-behavioral therapist may have a variety of tools in his tool box. You might expect any of the following methods:
- Homework assignments
- Mentally rehearsing a situation
- Journaling
- Role-playing, in which the therapist models the desired behavior
- Conditioning, especially with children, when the therapist provides a
- Desensitization-gradual exposure to a feared situation until it is no longer feared
- Testing beliefs-encouragement in looking at irrational beliefs and testing them in real-life situations
Depending on the therapist’s style, the client could expect any combination of these methods to come into play, according to the behaviors and beliefs that are problematic.
Who Can Help Me?
Although anyone can use cognitive-behavioral techniques, it is generally a part of the professional training of the following types of mental health workers-psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatrists, and counselors. At times, a primary care physician may suggest certain cognitive-behavioral changes on a short-term basis. Generally, this therapeutic approach is no longer than sixteen weeks. And don’t forget, you can help yourself with this approach. You may seek out the help of professionals, and then again, you may not need it. Many of the techniques discussed in this book are quite accessible on a self-help basis.
Addressing Negativity
Negativity can prevent you from having a happy life. It is like trudging around, praying for unwanted results! It may seem like quite a challenge to think about positive things when disappointing things are happening in your life or nearby, but being able to do this is a key to a satisfying existence. It’s like being at peace in the midst of a storm.
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