Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on helping people
take control of their own experience. It emphasizes the active involvement
of clients in their own treatment plans. Together, the client and the therapist
become allies in exploring how one’s thoughts, beliefs, and expectations
shape experiences. Towards this end, we may incorporate a structured and
goal oriented approach to help you to make concrete changes.
Treatment can take several directions. Often, we will work to discover how
one’s automatic thoughts about people, situations, and events cause
distress. Learning how to feel calm when confronted with undesirable situations
can be a huge benefit of CBT. The fact is that we have our undesirable situations
whether we are upset about them or not. Often, our distress about these situations
can distort the path to finding a solution. When we learn how to more calmly
accept a personal problem, not only do we feel better, we are also in a better
position to make use of our strengths to resolve the problem.
My approach encourages clients to become curious about familiar daily life situations. I may ask questions that will challenge assumptions and encourage a fresh perspective. We will also focus on unwanted behaviors, with the knowledge that our emotional reactions and our behaviors are learned, and therefore new ones can be learned to replace them.
Providing concrete tools and strategies to change existing patterns of thoughts
and behaviors is a central part of CBT. I support clients to practice the
skills that they are learning in sessions, in ways that fit in with the practical
demands of their lives. Relaxation based therapies, self-observation, and
learning how to make changes form a large part of the CBT tool kit.
CBT is:
Changing thoughts, emotions and behavior
Challenging existing beliefs about self and relationships
Learning how to feel calm
Using strengths to resolve problems
Encouraging curiosity about why you do the things the way you do
Providing concrete tools and strategies
Most often used for anxiety, depression and changing unwanted behaviors
If you would like to continue this conversation, I can be contacted at my Wellesley office at 781-237-4343 ext. 3, my Norfolk office at 508-553-9703 ext. 3, or you can email me at .