Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Your Route out of Perfectionism, Self-Sabotage and Other Everyday Habits with CBT

Avy Joseph

• Editore: Capstone
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9780857089434
• Edizione: 3
• Argomento: Psychology
• Categoria: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Uncover the secrets of CBT and apply them to your own life

In the newly revised Third Edition of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, veteran cognitive behaviour therapist and counsellor Avy Joseph delivers an essential and accessible discussion of how to use the time-tested and proven techniques in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) to improve your own life and the lives of others. You'll learn to challenge negative thoughts and unhealthy beliefs about yourself and begin improving your outlook on your personal and professional life.

In the book, you'll find updated scenarios and exercises for the practice of CBT techniques, discussions of how to maintain your mental health in a post-pandemic world and the difference between "Action Tendencies" and behaviours. You'll also get:

• Insightful discussions about recent advances in Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and how it fits with CBT
• Practical strategies for creating a more realistic perception of the events in your life, along with specific techniques – like understanding the difference between malicious and non-malicious envy
• Tips for developing emotional responsibility in practice

A can't-miss resource for anyone interested in using CBT to solve their most intractable personal and professional problems, as well as those looking for evidence-based personal improvement techniques, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy will also earn a place in the libraries of CBT practitioners and therapists seeking a hands-on and accessible treatment of the discipline's most essential subjects.

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1
Understanding CBT for Goal Achievement

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‘People are not disturbed by events but by the view they hold about them.’

Epictetus, Stoic philosopher c. AD 75

This chapter will introduce you to some of the basic ideas and principles of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and how you can use it to help you achieve your goals. First, though, what does Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) actually mean?

Cognitive simply means our ‘thinking processes’: how we think, how we acquire information and knowledge, how we store it in our head, how we evaluate it and how we base some of our decisions on it.

Behaviour means our action or reaction to something. It's the doing bit. Our behaviour can be conscious or unconscious (out of our conscious awareness). In CBT, the word ‘behaviour’ comes from a branch of psychology called ‘behaviourism’, which is concerned with what can be observed rather than what can be speculated or assumed. It is based on what you have learned and become accustomed to, how this affects your actions and feelings, and how you can unlearn what you have learned in order to change.

Therapy means the treatment for a health problem, after a diagnosis or an assessment has been made.

CBT is one of the counselling therapies that examines how our thinking, attitudes, beliefs, opinions and behaviour are formed, how they affect our success, our lives and feelings, and how changing them impacts on our performance. The ideas stem from both ancient and modern thinking in philosophy, science, psychology, common sense and humanity.

Here are some of basic principles central to CBT. Many may be shared by other therapeutic approaches but the combination of these principles goes some way towards understanding CBT.

THE EMOTIONAL RESPONSIBILITY PRINCIPLE

‘People are not disturbed by events but by the view they hold about them.’

This principle is at the heart of nearly all emotional and behavioural change. It can be challenging because you may believe that it's what has happened to you that ‘makes’ you feel how you feel and do what you do in the here and now.

I hope that by questioning this you will learn that what you believe may be stopping you from empowering yourself to move forward with your life. This in turn may help you in the pursuit of your desired goals.

Is it true that events, situations or people make us feel what we feel?

First, let's look at the popular notion that your feelings are ‘caused’ by events, situations or other people.

Think of a past event that you think ‘made’ you feel and do something. By this logic the only way you can change your feelings now is to wish the event had not happened in the first place.

Maybe you think there's someone else who has ‘made’ you feel and act in a certain manner. In which case, the only way you can change your feelings now is to get that person from the past to undo what they did or said. And if that person is now deceased, how can this be done?

Believing that the past, or a ...