AREAS OF PRACTICE
DO YOU WANT TO
- Feel happier and less depressed?
- Escape the rut of negative thinking?
- Be less anxious and worried?
- Handle your anger better?
- Improve your relationships?
- Recover from substance abuse?
Cognitive-Behavioral therapy can offer hope and healing. This approach recognizes that the way we perceive and respond to problems and challenges, affects our ability to respond healthily and appropriately.
For example, Charlene believed that her co-workers disliked and were talking about her, so she stayed to herself and felt miserable daily. However, with support and at her therapist’s suggestion she talked with one co-worker and discovered that they believed she didn’t want to talk with them! She had been negative “mind-reading,” a cognitive distortion.
Brett had many failed relationships. His first break-up resulted from his partner’s infidelity. Afterward, he believed all women were the same (overgeneralization) and would let him down (fortune-telling). Inadvertently, his suspicion and emotional distance brought about what he feared most (self-fulfilling prophecy). Such thinking distortions become more frequent and exaggerated under pressure. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy can help identify and change cognitive distortions and behaviors, resulting in more inner peace and harmony with others.
When we change our behaviors, we help ourselves get better. Numerous behavioral strategies may be utilized in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy: bibliotherapy (self-help articles/books), journaling, exercise, relaxation methods, etc. It’s amazing how a few new or renewed activities can help us to improvement.
Working for positive change is often more complicated than these illustrations suggest, but improvement is often possible. After a history is taken, specific therapeutic goals are mutually agreed upon. The focus is more on the present than the past (although the past may influence present perceptions and behaviors). The way we think influences how we feel and act. It is always time to get started.