What is CBT and Why is Everyone Talking About it?
- Alexandra Fisher
- May 13, 2022
- 3 min read
When you think of “therapy," what comes to mind?
Are you imagining laying on a couch, talking about your early childhood? You would be imagining a particular modality, or form of intervention.
In my last blog post, I wrote about how to choose a therapist. When interviewing a potential therapist, it is so important to talk about different modalities that therapist uses. Knowledge is power, and it is my hope that you be an informed consumer and make decisions about what is best for you.
Therapy should not be prescriptive - mental health cannot be “one size fits all”; there are too many variables.
There are several popular forms of therapy and intervention, but a very common one is called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT.
Unlike traditional psychotherapy, which focuses on exploring a person’s history, CBT is focused on the here and now. CBT techniques can be used in a wide variety of settings and for a great number of clinical issues, including anxiety, PTSD, and depression. CBT is thought to work because it is focused on challenging existing thinking patterns and making significant changes to them, allowing a person to alter their neural pathways and make long term changes to their thoughts and responses.
Traditional CBT is a short-term intervention with a lot of structure. Some providers facilitate as few as 6 sessions! This is different from other, more “traditional” forms of intervention, which are relationship-based and develop over long periods of time (cue the couch image from earlier).
What to expect during CBT:
CBT utilizes a lot of hand outs and is very structured. It requires a lot of commitment on the part of the client outside of the session, which almost always includes homework assignments. The focus is primarily on identifying the difference between thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
You will be asked to explore your cognitive distortions, which are the distorted lenses through which we all view the world. All people, no matter what, are always subject to cognitive distortions (a succinct list of those can be found here) but folks do tend to have their favorites! By examining how your cognitive distortions currently work, and then how they are making you feel, and then how your thoughts and feelings affect your behaviors, you are able to make necessary changes to the status quo.
It is important to know that there are practitioners who share modalities and are not strict subscribers of any one modality. I am such a therapist; I primarily focus on relationship building and long-term intervention, but I utilize CBT techniques often. They work!
Regardless of which modality you and your therapist choose, the important thing is that you are moving in a way that feels good to you!
Remember that just because you are ready for therapy doesn’t mean you connect to the first therapist you meet, etc. You may also like a certain type of intervention or questioning better than other types. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right combination of person and intervention, and that’s all okay!
Getting started or making changes can be daunting, but in the end, advocating for yourself is always the right choice.
You got this. I believe in you.
Curious about CBT? Reach out to your therapist and get more information! Don’t have a therapist? Find out how to find one here! Or, schedule a free consultation to learn more about how we can begin your journey together.
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