Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of my favorite types of counseling! What is CBT? Well, I’m so glad you asked! It is an evidence-based type of counseling that helps clients learn to recognize and manage their thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Here are a few of the key concepts of CBT:
- The Cognitive Triangle
- This is the idea that what we think influences what we feel which influences what we do. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all interconnected and influenced by each other.
For example, say I am walking down the hallway at school, and I see a group of kids laughing. I think: “They are laughing at me. I must have something in my teeth.” I might then feel nervous with my heart beating fast and then run to the bathroom to check my teeth.
Same situation: I am walking down the hallway at school with kids laughing, and I shift my thinking to “Johnny just told a really funny joke.” I might then feel inquisitive and ask Johnny to tell me his joke.
The situation did not change. I was still walking down the hallway, and the kids were still laughing but what changed the entire outcome of the scenarios was what I was thinking.
Our thoughts matter and have power.
- This is the idea that what we think influences what we feel which influences what we do. Our thoughts, feelings, and actions are all interconnected and influenced by each other.
- Cognitive Restructuring
- If our thoughts matter so much, what do we do with them? Well, we must learn to identify our specific thoughts and then know what to do with them.
- One strategy for this is to put thoughts on trial. This concept is treating the thought as if it were a defendant in a trial and looking for evidence to support or challenge the thought. Here is the link to a great worksheet about this.
- Three rules of thumb that I like to teach my clients during cognitive restructuring is to ask these questions of the thought: Is the thought true? Is it positive or rational? Is it helpful?
- Once we have decided that it isn’t a rational or positive thought to think, it is important to then replace it with more rational thinking. I usually then encourage my clients to rehearse and replace these more rational, balanced thoughts to increase and help them become more automatic.
- Emotional Regulation
- Another point of the Cognitive Triangle is emotions. Part of CBT includes identifying emotions and the physical feelings that come with those emotions.
- Here is a link to another blog post that goes into more depth about emotional regulation.
- Behavioral Techniques
- Healthy coping skills are also very important and are part of the behavior point of the Cognitive Triangle. There are a ton of different types of healthy coping skills available to utilize as part of CBT, and it takes trial and error to find those that work best for each client.
- Problem solving, behavioral activation, gradual exposure, and reinforcement are also other behavioral techniques that are sometimes utilized in CBT.
CBT can easily be adapted to working with kiddos. The use of play based CBT interventions, biblotherapy, and art are all strategies that I use in my CBT work with kiddos. If you feel like your child would benefit from CBT and would like to work together to help your child with this, please click here and complete the new client form.