Do you ever find yourself stuck in vicious cycles of unhealthy thoughts, emotions or behaviours?

CBT for negative thoughts

Maybe Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, often referred to as CBT, focuses on working collaboratively with a therapist to discover negative patterns of thinking in response to situations. These negative thoughts in turn create emotions. The end result of these maladaptive or irrational thoughts and triggered emotions are behaviours.

Here is an example:

Situation: A good friend suddenly cancels a pre-arranged dinner date.

Automatic Thoughts: She must be mad at me. What did I do wrong?

Emotions: Sadness, anger, worry, disappointment

Behaviour: Doesn’t return future phone calls from friend.

While the above example appears to be quite simplistic, how we interpret situations can ultimately establish a person’s core values and develop the context in which we view ourselves and others.

The goal of CBT is to discover the link between how we interpret and process situations, how we feel and how we behave. Developing an awareness of our automatic thoughts as well as the impact our thinking has on our mood and behaviour can lead to important behavioural changes. It is very possible to develop new, more productive ways of thinking and processing situations.

CBT is a time limited and structured part of individual therapy. There is work involved so it requires motivation and action on the client’s part. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy focuses on the “Here and Now”.

CBT can be extremely beneficial in treating mood disorders, depression, low-self- esteem, as well as anxiety disorders.

Would you like to try CBT? Book an appointment today.