CBT is
science-based.
More than 1,000 research studies have shown that CBT is effective in treating many different disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression, panic, fears).
CBT provides the tools to deal with life’s problems more effectively and to enjoy better relationships.
CBT is
collaborative.
It is important for you and your cognitive therapist to work together to establish achievable goals.
CBT involves homework. You and your therapist together will decide which homework assignments are best for you and will help you achieve your goals you set in therapy.
CBT is
rational.
One of the biggest obstacles to feeling cool, calm, and collected is our own faulty thinking.
In CBT language, we call this faulty thinking cognitive distortion.
One of the biggest obstacles to feeling cool, calm, and collected is our own faulty thinking. In CBT language, we call this faulty thinking cognitive distortion. Do you recognize any of them in your own thinking?
Mindreading
You assume that you know what people think without having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. For example: “He thinks I’m a loser.”
Fortune telling or negative predicting
You predict the future- that things will get worse or that there is danger ahead. For example: “I’ll fail that exam” or “I won’t get the job.”
Catastrophizing
You believe that what has happened or will happen will be so awful and unbearable that you won’t be able to stand it. For example: “It would be terrible if I failed.”
Labeling
You assign global negative traits to yourself and others. For example: “I’m undesirable” or “He’s a rotten person.”
Discounting positives
You claim that the positive accomplishments you or others attain are trivial. For example: “That’s what wives are supposed to do-so it doesn’t count when she’s nice to me” or “Those successes were easy, so they don’t matter.”
Negative filter
You focus almost exclusively on the negatives and seldom notice the positives. For example: “Look at all of the people who don’t like me.”
Dichotomous thinking (All or Nothing)
You view events, or people, in all-or-nothing terms. For example: “I get rejected by everyone” or “it was a waste of time.”
Overgeneralizing
You perceive a global pattern of negatives on the basis of a single incident. For example: “This generally happens to me. I seem to fail at a lot of things.”
Personalizing
You attribute a disproportionate amount of the blame for negative events to yourself and fail to see that certain events are also caused by others. For example: “My marriage ended because I failed.”
“Shoulds”
You interpret events in terms of how things should be rather than simply focusing on what is. For example: “I should do well. If I don’t, then I’m a failure.”
Unfair comparisons
You interpret events in terms of standards that are unrealistic by focusing primarily on others who do better than you and then judging yourself inferior in the comparison. For example: “She’s more successful than I am” or “Others did better than I did on the test.”
Blaming
You focus on the other person as the source of your negative feelings and you refuse to take responsibility for changing yourself. For example: “She’s to blame for the way I feel now” or “My parents caused all my problems.”
What if?
You ask a series of questions about “what if” something happens, and you are never satisfied with any of the answers. For example: “Yeah, but what if I get anxious?” Or “What if I can’t catch my breath?”
Regret orientation
You focus on the idea that you could have done better in the past, rather than on what you could do better now. For example: “I could have had a better job if I had tried” or “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Inability to disconfirm
You reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict your negative thoughts. For example, when you have the thought “I’m unlovable,” you reject as irrelevant any evidence that people like you. Consequently, your thought cannot be refuted. Another example: “That’s not the real issue. There are deeper problems. There are other factors.”
Emotional reasoning
You let your feelings guide your interpretation of reality. For example: “I feel depressed; therefore, my marriage is not working out.”
Judgment focus
You view yourself, others, and events in terms of black/white evaluations (good-bad or superior-inferior) rather than simply describing, accepting, or understanding. You are continually measuring yourself and others according to arbitrary standards and finding that you and others fall short. You are focused on the judgments of others as well as your own judgments of yourself. For example: “I didn’t perform well in college” or “If I take up tennis, I won’t do well” or “Look how successful she is. I’m not successful.”
From Leahy (1996). Copyright Jason Aaronson Publishing