Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on your cognition or your thought processes.  Often we have cognitive distortions or thought process that are irrational.  Have you ever heard someone say “don’t make a mountain out of a mole hole?”  This expression is an example of a cognitive distortion, which is perceiving something that may not always be true. 

CBT may be extremely effective for you.  Through our therapy sessions, I work with you to alter your thought process.  It is not always easy, but there are methods that can help.  Below are a couple of examples of more cognitive distortions.  Do you find that some of these examples relate to you?

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• Overgeneralization— We come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once, we expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. For example, one bad experience with a rude sales clerk may have you start believing that all sales clerks are rude.  As a result, shopping may become stressful. 

• Jumping to Conclusions— Without a person saying so, you believe that you know what they are feeling and why they act the way they do. For example, you may anticipate that your new budding relationship will turn out badly, and thus feel convinced that your prediction already is an established fact. This conclusion is called “mind-reading” and “fortune telling”. 

Reference:

Burns, D.D. (1989). The feeling good handbook: Using the new mood therapy in everyday life. New York: William Morrow.