Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a treatment approach that helps you recognize negative or unhelpful thought and behavior patterns. It can be highly effective and is similar to NLP.
By exploring your thoughts, emotions and feelings you can find out how they affect your behaviours.
Awareness of these patterns,enable you to change your thoughts into a more positive and supportive way forward.
Much like NLP we do not generally focus on the past, being forward looking and solution focussed.
Our unconcious thought processes result in feelings and behaviours, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is aimed at changing these processes and replacing with new ways of doing things designed with you. As an example, do you make the best decisions when angry or upset?
The good news is cognitive beahvioural therapy can help change these patterns of unconcious thoughts and resulting behaviours, usually quickly and effectively.
The circle of thoughts and the behaviours that result
- Our brains can only handle 7 +- 2 bits of information at a time, we then delete and generalise, so many of our perceptions are inaccurate or just plain wrong, resulting in unsupportive thoughts
- These thoughts and the resulting feelings can lead to unuseful, unsupportive or even harmful behaviours.
- Overtime, repeatedly using these poor thoughts and behaviors can become a pattern that repeats and builds upon itself.
- By using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) these patterns can be changed andhelp you deal with lifes challenges as they arise.
- By noticing and changing the thoughts, anables you to make changes 'on the fly' in the future
Some of the techniques used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) are:
- SMART goals. SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-limited. These can be short or longer term.
- Guided effective questioning. By caefully questioning the assumptions you have about yourself or your current situation, I will help you learn to find new more empowering solutions.
- Keeping a Diary or Journaling. A review of your thoughts, and how you can change them into more supportive and positive ones.
- Your Inner voice - Monkey Mind. How do you talk to yourself? is it pleasant? Supportive? of not you can begin to stop that 'nagging' easily.
- Cognitive Restructuring. by realising that open thinking is more effective than binary (yes/no) type thinking you will open up more options to choose from
- Positive Activities. Take time every day to get peaceful and do something just for the hell of it, such as walking, jogging, playing an instrument etc
- Situation Exposure. Create a list of situations or events that upset you, rate them on a scale of 1-10, and then you can begin to change.
Homework is another important part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Any homework will help you to practice and develop the skills you have used in the sessions, repetition is the mother of skill, and carrying out the work is an essential part of the work.
- phobias and fears
- eating disorders
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- bipolar disorder
- relationship problems
- breakup or divorce
- serious health problems, such as cancer
- grief or loss
- low self-esteem
- lack of confidence
- general life challenges
- Insomnia or other sleep problems