APPROACH.
THOUGHTS. ACTION. THERAPY. - PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER.
THOUGHTS.
One of the premises of CBT is that the way people feel is connected to the way they think about a situation and not simply to the nature of the situation itself.
Therefore, problems are broken down into 5 main areas:
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situations
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thoughts
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emotions
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physical feelings
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actions
ACTION.
For cognitive behavioral therapy to be effective, you must be open and willing to discuss your thoughts, beliefs and behaviors. CBT therefore uses a wide range of strategies to help people deal with causes of distress.
An integral part of the process is participating in exercises during sessions, such as identifying negative thought patterns and goal setting, among others.
For best results, you need to be willing to do homework between sessions.
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THERAPY.
CBT focuses on what is going on in your current life, rather than what has led up to the difficulties at hand.
While a certain amount of information about your history is needed, the focus is primarily on moving forward in time to develop more effective ways of coping with life.
The characteristics of CBT can be summarized in four points. The therapy is:
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pragmatic – it helps identify specific problems and tries to solve them
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highly structured – rather than talking freely about your life, you and your therapist discuss specific problems and set goals for you to achieve
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focused on current problems – it is mainly concerned with how you think and act now rather than attempting to resolve past issues
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collaborative – your therapist will not tell you what to do; but rather work with you to find solutions to your current difficulties