Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT as it’s more often referred to, is considered by many to be the gold standard of mental health treatment. CBT can be used to treat a variety of mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, OCD, phobias, PTSD, Insomnia and more.
How Does Cognitive Behavior Therapy Work?
CBT utilizes a structured process to deal with negative thought patterns. This helps clients cope better with emotional challenges and respond more effectively. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is usually a short-term treatment methodology because learning the ‘formula’ for restructuring negative thought patterns is not extremely difficult.
The basic premise behind CBT is to get people to change their unhelpful ways of thinking. In so doing, this will change unhelpful behavior responses. The brain is neuroplastic, which means it’s malleable, so with time and effort we can change our thoughts, emotions and reactions to them, aka behaviors.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy requires that you learn what your triggers are so that you can intervene for yourself earlier on in the process so you are not so overwhelmed by the negative thinking and emotions that you can’t help but react negatively. When uncomfortable feelings surface, it’s okay to struggle with them. We are not meant to be happy every moment of our lives. Sometimes, a situation is uncomfortable, but, with Cognitive Behavior Therapy, you will feel a little more in control of your responses to those uncomfortable situations.
What Does CBT Generally Do?
At its core, CBT is about reducing stress related to negative thinking. It is not so much the feelings that we have that are hard to handle, it’s what we tell ourselves about our feelings. In another article, we’ll talk about the different thought ‘distortions’ or negative thought patterns that most afflict us.
How long does it take Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Work ?
Cognitive Behavior Therapy doesn’t take long to work. Of course, it depends on the client and their willingness to do the work. Some thought patterns are stickier than others and, therefore, more difficult to unravel or change. Patience is important for both provider and client. Expecting the thoughts to go away entirely is not the goal. The goal is learning how to better manage reactions to those thoughts and find healthier coping mechanisms when you are triggered.
How Do I Utilize CBT in my coaching practice?
In my work with clients, I try to get them to tap into their sticky, or negative thought patterns. I ask them to come to subsequent sessions with thoughts that get them caught in a negative thought loop. Sometimes, we use anchor thoughts based on positive, but believable statements that the client comes up with. They serve as mantras they can use when they start going down a negative thought spiral.
Over time, we begin to work on distorted thinking. The first way to challenge is by asking is the thought is valid. Questioning a thought’s validity is just one way that we can start to put it into question and if we can put it into question, then it’s easier to change.
I also recommend that clients get in the habit of trying to isolate their negative thoughts and think of what they’d say to someone they love instead. Generally speaking, we are kinder to others than ourselves and the way we talk to ourselves is not how we would talk to others.
After that point, people notice some relief and we can begin working on the actual restructuring of actual thoughts. Eventually, they’ll be able to do it in real time. It’s a very simple formula. As you can see from the example below:
Initial thought
I am stupid
Identifying Distortion(s) * (as mentioned before, we’ll discuss those in a subsequent article)
- Filtering
- Judgment
- Label
Reframed thought (more positive but also believable and true)
Sometimes, I do stupid things.
As you can see in this example, the client went from calling herself stupid to realizing that sometimes she did things that were stupid. Over time, we got rid of the word stupid entirely because it is utterly negative in connotation and. CBT, in my experience, works on a continuum. You will slowly change the thought and the goal is not to get to the opposite thought, just to one that is still believable and essentially positive so that the emotional charge surrounding it is also positive.
Hopefully you found this basic primer on CBT helpful. I have found both personally and professionally that it can be a game changer. If you’d like to work on your negative thinking and improve your emotional resilience, I’d be happy to work with you. Reach out to me at dcgoodson@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.
Deanna Goodson 