CBT Group Call February 2022
CBT Group call - February 1
What is CBT?
What is CBT?
CBT includes other therapy approaches
Understand your Brain
Slow it Down
Principles of CBT
The Space
The Mindset
CBT with Dr Sharyn
Start using CBT with Anxiety
What is Anxiety?
When is Anxiety a Problem?
Assessment
Breathing
Questions you asked
What is CBT?
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is about Thinking and Behaviour (and yes, emotions definitely
do come into it)
It’s a neuroscience-based therapy. All the strategies, theories and skills we use in therapy are
derived from the last 20-30 years of research into the brain.
The most important finding from this research is the idea that even adult brains are not fixed in their thinking, feeling and behaviour.
Instead, adult brains (just as childrens’ brains do) constantly adapt, change, and re-organise.
That means that you can make changes in the way you think, feel and behave.
CBT is about making those changes
Maybe you can think of how CBT works a bit like this.
Just imagine that everything in your environment is interpreted differently by each person.
As well, how you process and interpret information in your environment will affect your thinking, feeling and behaviour.
So, most of your work in CBT involves getting in touch with the thoughts and feelings you experience and MAKING CHANGES (if you want to).
Psycho-educational – in that you will learn about how your brain works. You’ll also learn skills, tools and strategies about how to make important changes.
CBT is effortful. That means the more effort you put into this therapy, the more you will get out of it. You needn’t do long hours in therapy. You can expand upon your learning with books and the internet.
Finally, CBT is problem-focused – you’ll learn how to take a problem (wherever it comes from) and learn new ways to respond to it. You’ll have this skill for life.
More reading about CBT here:
https://stillmind.net/blog/how-does-cognitive-behaviour-therapy-change-your-life/
CBT includes other therapy approaches
Many different therapies can come under the umbrella term of CBT.
You might work with:
- Mindfulness
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
- Emotion-Focused Therapy
- Metacognition and
- Value-based approaches.
Understand your brain.
First, I’ll teach you how brains work universally so that you know what to expect.
Second, we’ll explore how YOUR brain works uniquely - so that you’ll know it well, work
effectively alongside it and manage it in difficult times.
Slow it Down
You may have heard about the principles of Mindfulness and Awareness.
These are great ways to slow down what your brain is doing when it persists in operating
automatically and outside your awareness.
You’ll learn how to be mindful and aware of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. When
you have this awareness, then you can start to make changes.
2. Principles of CBT
The Space
Between stimulus and response, there is a space - Victor Frankl.
This is the space between something happening in the world (stimulus) and how you
respond to it (run away, get confrontational, worry, hide, cry, look for help).
That space is the CBT space.
In that space, we work to change your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
https://stillmind.net/blog/this-is-the-space-where-we-work/
Mindset
When you’re working with CBT, you’ll need to notice your mindset.
You can think about these mindsets as two different approaches to the world.
1. Fixed mindset
2. Growth mindset
A fixed mindset feels like your mind resisting change.
Your brain might find it hard to do new and different things, and you could become stressed
when there are too many unexpected and spontaneous changes happening around you. A
fixed mindset might have a lot of rules and regulations (in your head) about how things
should or must be done.
A growth mindset feels like your mind is more easygoing and adaptable.
Your brain might be more okay with setbacks and problems since it might see these are
opportunities for growth. This mindset might also expect things to go wrong and see failure
as a chance to work harder, learn more or change what you are doing.
This research comes from Carole Dwek.
CBT with Dr Sharyn
I have a blueprint that I use with clients to guide our work in therapy.
I work with clients using these three steps:
A. Understand (your brain)
● Assessment (because you need to have a starting point)
● Brain Behaviour (how brains behave universally)
● Thinking (how your brain behaves uniquely)
B. Change (brain behaviour)
● Feelings (how your brain behaves uniquely)
● Behaviour (how your brain drive this uniquely)
● Self-sabotage (how your brain behaves uniquely)
C. Create (new life)
● Flexible Brain (your new Growth Mindset)
● Values (your Meaningful, Purposeful life)
3. Start to use CBT (with Anxiety)
What is Anxiety?
https://www.cbtabudhabi.ae/blog/2021/6/29/what-is-anxiety
When is anxiety a problem?
You can answer this question by asking yourself:
Is the way I’m feeling (and thinking) getting in the way of who I really am, and/or is it
messing up my life?
Or variations of this question, such as is my anxiety stopping me from doing the things I want
to do?
Am I so anxious that I can’t enjoy the things I used to love?
Do I feel that I’m getting more anxious as the days go by?
Are things getting worse for me?
Do I feel trapped or stuck?
Assessment - where to start?
Whenever you want to solve a problem, your first step is always to gather the data.
It’s no different in psychology - although we call it assessment.
Choose just one area of your life for today’s exercise and limit your assessment to that area.
That will keep you from being overwhelmed (the enemy of getting things done).
Pick one area from these four: Health, Career/Work, Relationships or Leisure.● Your Unique Blueprint (to guide your future)
https://stillmind.net/blog/anxiety-blueprint-fix-my-fear-with-dr-sharyn
You may want to define your area even further; for example, you may choose Health because
you worry specifically about your high blood pressure and how it interferes with your ability
to play basketball.
Grab a piece of paper and, without overthinking, write down all the issues and problems you
experience in your chosen area.
Try not to judge what you’re writing (i.e., whether your writing is good or bad, whether your
statements are right or wrong, true or untrue).
In assessment, the goal is to listen - really listen - to what your brain is telling you.
Simply write as you think.
If you come up with some positive thoughts in your assessment time, please write them in.
However, given that brains are incredibly negative do not feel despondent if your writing
makes you feel frustrated and worried.
Ask yourself - which of these items are outside my control?
https://stillmind.net/blog/understand-your-anxiety-what-can-you-control/
Breathing - how and why?
Breathing is the number one treatment for Anxiety.
If you don’t use this easy fix - you’re avoiding one of the best things ever!
https://www.cbtabudhabi.ae/blog/2017/8/9/your-breath
https://stillmind.net/blog/how-can-you-manage-the-awful-anxiety/
These are links to my breathing script and video.
Questions you sent to me (more to come next month)
● Can depression be cured or improved without medication and with CBT?
Many people choose to use therapy (often CBT) rather than medication to manage their
depression, anxiety and/or stress. And yes, you can improve depression by learning what is
happening inside your head and proactively changing your thoughts, feelings and behaviour.
Medication is also a valid choice - some people prefer to have both medication and therapy
together, while others just choose one of these.
● What if I can’t escape the thoughts and no one understands or listens to me, and I
want to talk to someone, and I can’t afford therapy?
One way to manage heads that think and talk all the time is to write about what you are
thinking. Getting these thoughts onto paper can help clear your mind. You can also look
around for people to talk to - friends, co-workers, family and neighbours. We all feel better
when we keep in touch with others and share a bit about ourselves. COVID has made this
especially difficult. You could also look for group therapy or forums (make sure they are
emotionally safe) where people talk about similar stuff.
● How do I deal with stuff that is completely outside my control?
I talked about this earlier in this document. This is an important question because the reality
of life is that there is a lot of stuff happening around us that will remain outside our control.
Save your energy, thinking and problem-solving for what you can control - and get to know
how to manage your thoughts, feelings and behaviours - so that you can adapt and cope
effectively with difficulties.
● Where does anxiety come from? Why are some people calm and not worried?
I talked about where anxiety comes from earlier in this document. It’s part of our old brain
that is focused on survival and thinks and responds to danger (or perceived danger) in an
unhelpful way. Some of us are less anxious than others (just like we’re taller or shorter than
others), some of us appear to be ‘not anxious’, but we really are, and some of us are really
anxious (we’ve practised it a lot). The bad news is that you will intuitively do the things that
make anxiety worse (e.g., overthinking negatively and avoiding situations, places and
people). The good news is that you can change these old unhelpful responses by building your
awareness and making changes in your brain.
I’ll answer more questions next time :)